History of The Electric Guitar
The First Electric Guitar
Contrary to general opinion, the electric guitar was not born in the Rock n roll era but has its origins in the big band music of the 30s and 40s. The history of the electric guitar started when big bands were the norm and the humble acoustic guitar got easily lost amongst the large horn sections. The first electric guitar was made by the Electro String Company around 1931.
It consisted of pickups, an earlier version of what’s around today , to convert steel string vibrations into an electrical current for amplification. Steel strings are common to all electric guitar's but the body shape varies enormously such as solid, semi-solid, hollow, wood and metal. Six strings are the norm but 12 are quite common too.
Classic Guitars
The solid body guitar strings vibrate and only an amplifier can pick and colour the sounds whereas with the hollow body the pickups convert both string and body vibrations into an electrical signal giving an altogether different sound when amplified. A semi-solid body guitar is a combination of the solid and the hollow types, and is a combination of both attributes.
The history of the electric guitar remained pretty dormant and it was a pretty low key instrument used in non-main stream music such as US country right up to mid 50s when the Rock n Roll explosion took off. Even the blues used acoustic guitars until T Bone Walker introduced the electric guitar to the genre in his own unique style.
1954 Fender Stratocaster
Electric guitar manufacturers started to spring up as the popularity of the electric guitar took off in earnest spearheaded by the two giants, Fender and Gibson. Although these two are mass manufacturers they are both renowned for producing two of the most popular and classic guitars ever, the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul. Vintage versions of both these guitars go for big bucks and are much sought after, the more battered about the better.
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The role of the electric guitar has been equally important throughout the history of the guitar in other genres of music such as jazz and blues and the Gibson Les Paul has found favour with many jazz guitarists over the Fender models. The Strats and Teles have their own distinctive sound and also their own legions of adoring fans but the Les Paul is a brilliantly versatile guitar that can wail with the rockers, groove with the bluesers and swing with the jazzers.
1954 Gibson Les Paul
However these two companies do not have a monopoly on the guitar market and there are many fine instruments out there made by major players such as Rickenbacker and Yamaha and smaller makers such as Washburn and Epiphone.
Guitar amps
Throughout the history of the electric guitar amplification has been a key factor and Fender in particular have produced some of the most popular amplifiers. The sound of a vintage guitar amp is highly desirable by today’s guitarists as they have a much “warmer” tone than their modern day counterparts. This is due to the fact that vintage amps use valve technology which does not allow for the harsh distortion effect that many heavy metallers prefer.
Not to be outdone UK companies Vox and Marshall also produced great amps with Marshall introducing the combo/cabinet combination which became very popular with the 70s rock brigade. The Beatles put Vox, particularly the world famous AC30 on the map. Today the Mesa Boogie amp , which also has a vintage pedigree, is hugely popular due to its relative portability and superb sound derived from combining modern day semi-conductor technology with old valve technology.
The guitar has and always will be the worlds most popular instrument and the electric version may well evolve over time but it will always be the sought after vintage models that are king.
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1957 Fender Tweed
Vox AC30
Mesa Boogie