After reading some comments on the discussion of "samey" Scottish trad bands, I thought I'd start a new thread as this doesn't seem to have been covered before.

I have heard some very diverse views on the matter ranging from the claim that guitars were almost unknown until 1950s-60s and were then imported from the US to talk of "barbershop Citterns" and visions of Jacobean and Georgian common folk and street performers strumming accompaniments to songs on guitars (or guitar-like instruments).

My feeling is that like banjos, guitars in pretty much their current form must have been around in this country from at least the mid 19thc- making them at least as "trad" as free reed instruments. Jamie Knowles' tune-book "A Northern Lass" contains a photograph of a band of sailors at Spithead(?) assembled for the Victorian jubilee and a couple of them have guitars (there are also banjos, squeezeboxes and a hammered dulcimer).

I would be interested to hear your views, but especially to know the sources for any claims.

Reynard