• The Vihuela (16th century Spain) - quite large, with 12 strings in 6 courses.
• The Renaissance guitar (16th century France and Italy) - generally plain looking, about the size of the modern ukelele, with 7 strings in 4 courses (the highest string was a single).
• The Baroque guitar (17th and 18th centuries) - still much smaller than the modern classical instrument, usually very ornate, with 9 strings in five courses (the highest string being a single).

All were easily recognisable as guitars, with the typical waisted body; some were flat-backed, others had vaulted backs. Their repertoire was written in various forms of tablature, and was quite different from the contemporary guitar repertoire, being much closer to lute music. "Lutes which looked like guitars, or guitars which played lute music?"