The Story of the Electric Guitar

For decades, the electric guitar has been a staple of almost every musical genre. From soulful, melancholy blues ballads to energetic hard rock anthems and avant-garde jazz compositions, the versatility and expressive potential of the electric guitar has made it the instrument of choice for many a talented artist.

Since its invention, the true potential of the electric guitar has yet to be fully realized. Between the staggering variety available when it comes to guitar hardware like pickups, amps and strings to in-line effect pedals, the guitar has the unique ability among instruments to assume virtually any sound and sonic texture.

Now, the electric guitar hasn't always been around, and it hasn't always had this amount of versatility. When it was first invented, the electric guitar was received with a surprising degree of apathy due to its unfamiliar form and sound, leading to a great deal of resistance from the general public. The electric guitar's journey to ubiquity was a long one, and not free of hardship; so how exactly did the instrument become what it is today? Let's find out!

Seen but not heard

In the 1920s, the U.S. witnessed an explosion of cultural and artistic expression. With a general public that had just experienced a grueling four years of wartime cutbacks, rationing, mandatory conscription and lost family members, art was a way to help society forget the horrors it had just experienced. Music was a palette cleanser for the masses, a way to take one's mind off of death and destruction and occupy it with more pleasant things.

Seemingly overnight, bars, clubs and theatres became hotspots for musical performances, leading to a rapid diversification of musical styles and genres. For genres such as jazz and big band, the acoustic instrumentation used was perfectly viable to play for larger audiences; however, the instruments used to play genres such as folk and blues simply didn't have the volume to play shows for larger crowds.

While there were several common instruments that lacked the acoustic amplification to play for larger audiences, the main culprit was guitar. Without the resonant capabilities of instruments such as the upright bass or the drums, acoustic guitars simply couldn't produce the volumes necessary to perform for large crowds.

A revolutionary idea

With this problem in mind, a number of different ambitious engineers got to work trying to resolve the guitar's volume problem. The earliest prototype consisted of an aluminum or brass resonation chamber inside a metal or wood guitar body. This had the effect of allowing the sound produced by the guitar to resonate more loudly and for a longer period of time than would be possible with a traditional acoustic guitar.

While the resonator guitar remained relevant in certain genres until the present day, it wasn't the ideal solution to the volume problem. The sound produced with these guitars still wasn't loud enough to fill large spaces, and even in situations where the volume was loud enough, the tone was metallic and unpleasant to many.

No, if guitars were going to make it into the rapidly changing world of music in the 20th century, they'd need to take a more radical form. With this idea in mind, engineers George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker got to work on the first functional version of an electric guitar. Using magnets and electric vacuum tubes, Rickenbacker and Beauchamp created the "frying pan", an odd looking but functional electric guitar.

Les Paul and the log

While Rickenbacker guitars and those that followed provided a solid foundation for future guitar manufacturers, there were still a number of critical problems with the design. Feedback from the hollow body of the guitar generated harsh, unpleasant buzzing sounds, while turning the volume of the pickups too high would distort the signal that was amplified.

In an effort to resolve these problems, a brilliant young guitarist named Les Paul used a menagerie of guitar parts and electrical components to create the first solid body electric guitar. Replacing the hollow body of the guitar with a pine four-by-four plank resolved the problem of feedback, and cleverly placing two pickup coils side by side made the sound clearer than it had ever been before.

Although Les Paul's initial design (dubbed "the log", courtesy of its strange appearance) was not accepted by Gibson, they did bring him on as a consultant to aid in the development of the first production solid-body guitar. After a few years in development, the Gibson Les Paul was officially released to the public and quickly became the gold standard of electric guitars.

The electric guitar today

Nearly eighty years since the first widely used electric guitar prototypes, the electric guitar has carved out an unmistakable indentation in pop culture and the world of music alike. Few genres would be what they are today were it not for the presence of the electric guitar, and fewer still sound the same when it's absent. It's the jack of all trades and arguably the most ubiquitous and widely used instrument of all time.

Frankly, we'd go so far as to say that western media would be dramatically and noticeably different had the electric guitar never been invented. Musicians use them in songs heard around the world, and amateurs use them in their decor. Whether they're gracing a music room or being finessed by world class virtuosos, they're one of the recognizable symbols of western music that exist today.

Although they were initially quite costly, modern manufacturing and distribution networks have made electric guitars inexpensive and widely available. For $150-200, you can purchase an electric guitar and amp of your own and start learning to play it. The joy of playing or gifting one of these instruments cannot be understated, and we think if you try it you'll enjoy it immensely!

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. While this certainly hasn't been the most comprehensive history of the electric guitar ever written, we hope we've given you a better idea of how the instrument came to be, and how you might be able to find a passion for music all your own. We do hope you've enjoyed it!