Often depicted in carvings c. 800 AD, the Norse hero Gunther (also known as Gunnar), played a lute with his toes as he lay dying in a snake-pit, in the legend of Siegfried. By 1200 AD, the four string "guitar" had evolved into two types: the site guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar) which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard and several soundholes, and the guitarra latina (Latin guitar) which resembled the modernistic guitar with one soundhole and a narrower neck.
Some electric guitar and electric bass guitar models feature Piezoelectric pickups, which function as transducers to provide a stable closer to that of an antipersonnel mine guitar with the flip of a switch or knob, rather than switching guitars.