My wife and I vacationed in Vienna recently and at the top of my to-do list was a visit to the Neue Berg wing at the Hofburg to see the historical instrument collection. I particularly wanted to lay eyes on the famous “vestigial” guitar (my name for it) or doppelgitarre from 1690 crafted by Nicolas Alexandre Voboam c. 1643—c. 1704). It is believed that the smaller guitar was tuned a fifth higher than the larger. (The picture below it is an AI-generated fantasy rendition of me stealing the instrument for my collection.) The highlight of the visit, however, was the surprising discovery of an early six-string guitar from 1787 by Michael Ignaz Stadlmann—made just two years after the Giovanni Battista Fabricatore in this collection.
