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Lyre-guitar

A six-course double-strung 12 string lyre-guitar at the Museu de la Música de Barcelona.
Girl with a lyre-guitar
A postcard showing a girl playing a lyre-guitar, c. 1870. The classical theme is typical of the period.

A musical instrument of the chordophone family, the lyre-guitar was a type of guitar shaped to look like a lyre, popular as a fad-instrument in the late 1800s. It had six single courses, with a fretboard located between two curved arms recalling the shape of the ancient Greek kithara. It was tuned and played like the conventional guitar.

The lyre-guitar nearly always had a built-in pedestal allowing it to stand upright when not in use.