Classical guitar may vary, but the typical shape is either "modern classical guitar" or that "historic classical guitar" similar to the early romantic guitars of France and Italy. Classical guitar strings once made of gut are now made of such polymers as nylon, with fine wire wound about the acoustically lower (bass side) strings. A guitar family tree may be identified. The flamenco guitar derives from the modern classical, but has differences in material, construction and sound. Today's "modern classical guitar" was established by the late designs of the 19th-century Spanish luthier, Antonio Torres Jurado. The classical guitar has a long history
Classical guitar strings the main alternative to nylon strings. The three treble guitar strings are made from sheep or cow intestine, referred to as plain gut, while the three bass strings are made of a silk thread core wound with gut. Since the development of nylon guitar strings by Albert Augustine Ltd., the three treble strings are a single nylon filament, while the three bass strings are made of a core of fine nylon threadlike filaments wound with silver-plated bronze or copper wire. Up until the Second World War animal gut and silk were the materials from which guitar strings were manufactured. Albert