Abstract
In the 21st century, the guitar, as both a material object and tool for artistic expression, continues to be reimagined and reinvented. From simple adaptations or modifications made by performers themselves, to custom-made instruments commissioned to fulfil very specific creative needs, to the mass production of new lines of commercially available instruments, the extant and emergent forms of this much-loved musical instrument vary perhaps more than ever before. Such diversity in physicality reignites the longstanding ontological question: What is a guitar? On the surface this may seem like a relatively simple, perhaps even facetious question, however, it is one that has consistently prompted further consideration by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, organologists and anthropologists alike. Indeed, while the guitar remains a staple instrument amidst a range of music traditions from around the world – and as such traditions progress from one generation to the next – this question takes on increasingly complex and nuanced meanings. As guitars sporting multiple necks, a greater number of strings and/or additional frets become increasingly common, so too do those with reduced registers, fewer strings and fretless fingerboards. Furthermore, as we approach the mark of the first quarter-century, the role of technology in relation to the guitar’s ever-changing identity is proving key. On-board processing units, external synergies with computers and the use of ultra-modern peripheral musical devices – ranging from EBow and effects processing, to engagement with laptops, robots and AR headsets – are allowing players to augment their performance setup and, in doing so, exponentially expand the guitar’s corporeal and timbral functionality. Such wide-ranging ‘transmutations’ of the guitar reflect the advancing performative and expressive needs of the modern guitarist and simultaneously afford them new creative potentialities; ultimately creating a feedback loop between artist and object, which further propels the guitar in fresh directions. Instruments and technological devices might be seen as more than inanimate objects, however, acting instead as agents themselves, with creative inputs of their own.