Five Course Guitar The earliest guitars carried seven strings set in four courses, the highes pitched being a single string and the lower three being pairs. Five course guitars like these examples added another, deeper pair of bass strings to the instrument's configurations; the strings of the fifth course were always tuned an octave apart. The highest pitched course was also doubled, so that the instruments carried a full complement of ten strings. The Sellas and Voboam families were reknowned giutar-makers o their time, and many of their incredible work survive today, and can be found at museums. Earlt guitars were built for rich patrons and royalty, and were often incredibly decorated. The Sellas guitar shown here has back and sides made of fluted snakewood, decorated with ivory, ebony, and mother of pearl among other things. The Voboam is less decorated, but still quite a thing to behold. Typical of Baroque-era guitars, both the instruments featured here have a carved parchment rose sunk into the soundhole. Because guitars like these are more valuable, they survived, whereas the plain ones vanished. Domenico Sellas(left) and Alexandre Voboam(right) Click on the image for a complete view of the guitar.