The first recognizably modern guitars appeared in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In America, innovators such as C.F.Martin,Orville Gibson, Les Paul, and Leo Fender redefined guitar design and construct, giving the instrument vital and versatile new capabilities. Continuing experiments and refinements by leading guitar manufacturers and countless brilliant individual luthiers and inventors---have ensured the guitar's ongoing evolution. Having both shaped and been shaped by the twentieth century music explosion, the guitar is now heard around the world, a common denominator among diverse cultures and musical genres. This calendar presents twelve extraordinary guitars...acoustic and electric, antique and avant-garde--selected by historian and musician Robert Shaw, who provides informed commentary about their histories, manufacture, and characteristics.