sound hole, which lacked a decorative rose to allow more volume. Frets were no longer of tied gut but fixed strips of some harder material, first ebony or ivory then metal. Wooden pegs were later replaced by metal tuning machines. Technique The many instructional books of the time show no standard playing technique but rather a reliance upon earlier traditions. For example, they often recommend that the right hand be supported on the guitar's table although the Spanish guitarist Nicario Juaralde took the modern view, warning against a loss of right-hand freedom. The thumb and first two fingers were mainly used for plucking with, in the 19th century, a free stroke (tirando) more commonly than the rest stroke (apoyando) that was favoured in the 20th century. Unlike most classical guitarists today, players were divided as to whether or not use fingernails. Fernando Sor, for example, did not use them while his compatriot Dionisio Aguado did. The narrower fretboard of the romantic guitar allowed the left-hand thumb to be used by some guitarists to fret the sixth string although Fernando Sor deprecates this in his method, recommending that the left-hand thumb remain at the rear centre of the neck and noting that the "high" thumb position aids neither bass-string fingering nor support of the guitar. Romantic guitars often had a neck-strap around the player's neck while Dionisio Aguado invented a "tripodion" for holding the instrument. Aguado also advocated a relaxed posture, leaning back in a chair with both feet solidly on the ground rather than using a footstool to achieve the later conventional posture, the edge of the chair being used to keep the guitar from sliding down to the right, bringing the neck upward, closer to the player's torso, rather than projecting to the left. Composers Antoine de Lhoyer (1768–1852) Francesco Molino (1768–1847) Ferdinando Carulli (1770–1841) François de Fossa (1775–1849) Joseph Küffner (1776–1856) Fernando Sor (1778–1839) Anton Diabelli (1781–1858) Mauro Giuliani (1781–1829) Dionisio Aguado (1784–1849) Carl Blum (1786–1844) Charles Michael Alexis Sola (1786–1857) Matteo Carcassi (1792–1853) Josiah Andrew Hudleston (1799–1865) Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806–1856) Napoléon Coste (1805–1883) Adam Darr (1811–1866) Eduard Bayer (1822–1908) Giulio Regondi (1822–1872) Jacques Bosch (1825–1895) Julian Arcas (1832–1882) Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909) Luthiers Johann Georg Stauffer René François Lacôte Jean Nicolas Grobert Christian Frederick Martin Antonio de Torres Jurado Louis Panormo Joseph Pons Etienne Laprevotte Gennaro Fabricatore Further reading Heck, Thomas Fitzsimons: Mauro Giuliani: Virtuoso Guitarist and