• Roosebeck 4-Course Renaissance Guitar with Maple & Ebony
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Renaissance & Baroque Guitar

Roosebeck Renaissance Guitar 4-Course, Maple and Ebony with Padded Gig Bag

$1,111
$1,111
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4 Courses / 8 Strings Maple & Ebony Body Spruce Top Ornate Goatskin Rosette 21.75" Scale

Ideal for: Guitarists and early-music players exploring 16th-century Renaissance repertoire

The 4-course Renaissance guitar, in matte maple and ebony.

The Renaissance guitar is the ancestor of the modern instrument, a compact 4-course guitar that carried the popular music of the 16th century before the Baroque 5-course guitar existed. This one has a staved back of alternating maple and ebony in a matte finish, topped with spruce and finished with an ornate central rose worked in goatskin and ebony. Its bright, direct voice suits both strummed accompaniment and the plucked tablature repertoire of the period.

Bright, Direct Renaissance Voice

Four courses of two nylon strings each produce the bright, articulate tone the 16th-century repertoire was written for. The spruce soundboard responds cleanly to both strummed accompaniment and delicate plucked fingerwork, and the shallow staved body keeps the voice focused and immediate rather than broad and sustaining.

About the goatskin rosette: The central sound hole is covered by an ornate rose worked in goatskin and ebony, set off by black ebony purfling around the soundboard. It is a period-correct decorative detail that also shapes how the top breathes.

Staved Maple-and-Ebony Body, Period Detailing

The back is built from alternating staves of maple and ebony in a matte finish, a bright wood set against a dark, dense one. The neck is maple with ebony inlay along the sides and satinwood tapered tuning pegs. A camel-bone nut sits at the top of the neck.

The bridge has a lacewood base with an ebony top in the traditional mustache shape, its ornate outline standing out against the light spruce soundboard.

Why maple and ebony: Maple gives a bright, clear timbre, close to the lacewood and sycamore woods used across the early-music family. Ebony is dense and dark, adding contrast in both look and tone, and the matte finish keeps the whole instrument period-correct rather than glossy.

Tuned for 16th-Century Repertoire

Suggested tuning is A4, E4, C4, and a G course pairing G3 with G4 an octave apart, the standard re-entrant tuning of the Renaissance 4-course guitar. It opens up the mid-16th-century French and Spanish tablatures, including the published books of Adrian Le Roy, Guillaume Morlaye, and Alonso Mudarra. Ten tied nylon frets run the length of the neck, and the 21.77-inch scale keeps the instrument compact and quick under the hand.

For modern guitarists: The tied frets can be nudged along the neck to fine-tune temperament, and the doubled courses are strummed and plucked much like a guitar. The main adjustment is to the wooden tapered pegs, which hold by friction and take a different touch than geared tuners.

Technical Specifications

Courses 4 (8 strings, all nylon)
Body Alternating maple and ebony staves, matte finish
Soundboard Spruce with ebony purfling and goatskin-and-ebony rosette
Neck Maple with ebony side inlay
Tuning Pegs Satinwood, tapered
Frets 10 tied nylon frets
Bridge Lacewood base with ebony top, mustache shape
Nut Camel bone, 1.45 inches wide
Neck Width 1.43 inches at nut, 1.67 inches at body joint
Scale Length 21.77 inches
Recommended Tuning A4 E4 C4 G3/G4 (octave 4th course)
Body Dimensions 14 inches L × 8 inches W × 2.5 inches H
Overall Length 30 inches
Weight 2 lbs

What's in the Box

Every Renaissance Guitar ships set up, tune before your first play.

Padded Gig Bag

Have questions about this instrument? Contact us or browse all Baroque & Renaissance Guitars.

Questions about this instrument?
Talk to our team or browse all renaissance & baroque guitar.
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Roosebeck Renaissance Guitar 4-Course, Maple and Ebony with Padded Gig Bag

$1,111
$1,111
Tradition you can feel, craftsmanship you can hear.
Solid tonewoods
Cured, cut, and chosen for sound.
Voiced by hand
Fretboards dressed, action set, bridges fit by our luthiers.
Made to be played
Built for working musicians, designed to sound better the more you play it.
Since 1973
Five decades of building instruments that last generations.