History of the Electric Guitar

By Justin Hayes

Invention of the electric pickup

• Invented in late 1920’s by Lloyd Loar– Faraday’s Law of Induction– Didn’t catch on at all.

• Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp– Perfected Loar’s design– Rickenbacker began selling the “Frying Pan”

• Hawaiian lap steel players love it……other players didn’t

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Mass Production• Leo Fender invents the Telecaster

– First mass produced solid body electric guitar– Cheap to produce, affordable

• Gibson introduces the Les Paul– Higher end model endorsed by Les Paul

• Both models are still sold today• “Solid Body” guitars are designed for amplification

– Sound much better than old style modified hollow bodies, less feedback.

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Continued• Guitars shapes have become increasingly modern

(ex. Flying V)• Preamplifiers inside guitar• Basic construction and operation has stayed the

same– Much cheaper now– Ex. Gibson and Epiphone, Fender and Squire

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Amplifiers• Can’t have the electric guitar without the amplifier

Guitar ---> Pre-Amp--->Power-Amp--->Speaker• First amplifiers were modified stereo equipment

– Manufacturers started building guitar specific amp in the 1930’s

• Until 1970’s most amps were tube powered– Refinement of silicon transistors led to “solid state”

• Tube sound is sought after, solid state amps emulate tube amps, distortion.

• Computer technology has lead to modeling amps– Can often emulate many (20+) different models

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