vihuela, stringed musical instrument that in Spanish Renaissance art music held the popularity accorded the lute elsewhere in Europe. Built like a large guitar, it had six, sometimes seven, double courses of strings tuned like the lute: G–c–f–a–d′–g′. (The guitar then had four double courses.)
The vihuela was played by the aristocracy, the guitar by commoners. By the 18th century both instruments had given rise to the six-stringed guitar. The vihuela de arco was a viola da gamba, or viol. The term vihuela is also used to refer to a five-stringed instrument that became popular in Mexico as a feature of mariachi ensembles.