George Gruhn, renowned expert on vintage guitars, will make a stop at MTSU Tuesday, April 8, to kick off a special series of discussions on “The American Guitar” in a free public event at the university’s Center for Popular Music.

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Gruhn, who owns Nashville’s Gruhn Guitars, a mecca for musicians and collectors worldwide, will speak on “American Fretted Instruments: History and Development” beginning at 4 p.m. in the center’s reading room, located in Room 140 of the Bragg Mass Communication Building on campus.

Gruhn has been a featured columnist for Vintage Guitar, Guitar Player, Pickin’, Frets and Bluegrass Unlimited, and is the co-author of “Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars,” a comprehensive field guide to vintage fretted instruments and the companion volumes “Acoustic Guitars and Other Fretted Instruments” and “Electric Guitars and Basses.”

His presentation will cover the history and development of fretted instruments in America. Gruhn also plans to point out the distinctions that make a truly great instrument different from those that are merely good utilitarian tools.

This inaugural event by the Center for Popular Music at MTSU will be followed by a multi-year series of lectures, presentations, concerts, workshops and demonstrations, all concerned with the guitar.

The Center for Popular Music is a research center devoted to the study and scholarship of popular music in America. Established in 1985 by the Tennessee Board of Regents as one of 16 Centers of Excellence across the TBR system, MTSU’s CPM maintains an archive of research materials stretching from the early 18th century to the present and develops and sponsors programs in American vernacular music.

For more information on the Center for Popular Music and its projects, visit http://popmusic.mtsu.edu.