Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar with a solid or semi-solid body that utilizes electromagnetic "pickups" to convert the vibration of the steel-cored strings into electrical current. The current may be electrically altered to achieve various tonal effects prior to being fed into an amplifier, which produces the resultant sound.

History

Electric guitars were originally designed by an assortment of luthiers, electronics buffs, and instrument manufacturers, in varying combinations. Some of the earliest electric guitars used tungsten pickups and were manufactured in the 1930s by Rickenbacker. The popularity of the electric guitar began with the big band era, the amplified instruments being necessary to compete with the loud volumes of the large brass sections common to jazz orchestras of the thirties and forties. Initially, electric guitars consisted primarily of hollow "archtop" acoustic guitar bodies to which electromagnetic transducers had been attached.

Related Topics:
Luthiers - Tungsten - 1930s - Rickenbacker - Big band - Acoustic guitar - Transducer

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The version of the instrument that is most well known today is the "solid body" electric guitar: a guitar made of solid wood, without resonating airspaces within it. One of the first solid body electric guitars was built by musician and inventor Les Paul in the early 1940s, working after hours in the Epiphone Guitar factory. His "log" guitar, so called because it consisted of a simple rectangular block of wood with a neck attached to it, was generally considered to be the first of its kind until recently, when research through old trade publications and with surviving luthiers and their families revealed many other prototypes, and even limited production models, that fit our modern conception of an 'electric guitar.' At least one company, Audiovox, built and may have offered an electric solid-body as early as the mid-1930s. Rickenbacher (later spelled 'Rickenbacker') offered a solid Bakelite electric guitar beginning in 1935 that, when tested by vintage guitar researcher John Teagle, reportedly sounded quite modern and aggressive.

Related Topics:
Les Paul - Epiphone - Audiovox - Rickenbacher - Bakelite

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Gibson, like many luthiers, had long offered semi-acoustic guitars with pickups, but it was in 1954 that the Gibson Les Paul, the instrument that would become their trademark, was introduced to the market. In the late 1940s, electrician and amplifier maker Leo Fender, through his eponymous company, designed the Broadcaster. However, due to trademark infringement, Fender was forced to change the name of the Broadcaster (Grestch had a drumset by the same name). Throughout the 40's to early 50's, Telecasters were produced but the headstock was left blank, simply bearing the Fender logo. These were called "no-casters", and became very valueable when Fender decided to change the name to Telecaster. In 1954 Fender introduced the Stratocaster, or Strat, which had become by the late sixties the most widely played guitar on the market. Fender is also credited with inventing the electric bass, although solidbody electric basses had appeared elsewhere as prototypes and limited production models.

Related Topics:
Gibson - 1954 - Gibson Les Paul - 1940s - Leo Fender - Telecaster - Fender - Stratocaster - Strat - Electric bass

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Unlike the more traditionally styled and crafted Gibson instruments, Fender's guitars and basses pioneered the modular, and hence much less expensive, method of guitar making in which the body and neck of the guitar were crafted separately, using commonly available woodworking tools, and then bolted together to form a complete guitar. Today, the design of electric guitars by most companies echoes one of the two classic designs: the Les Paul or the Stratocaster.

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Guitars are often theatrically destroyed during live performances, see The Who. Guitarist-bowhunter-activist Ted Nugent has ended many of his concerts by setting up a guitar on stage and shooting a flaming arrow into it.

Related Topics:
The Who - Ted Nugent

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