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Electric Guitar Overview

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More so than any instrument the electric guitar defines our rock-n-roll culture. Turn the dial to any station and invariably you will find the tones of the electric guitar. The electric guitar has more of a recent history than the acoustic guitar. It was in 1936 the “first Electric Spanish guitar” was announced. This specific guitar was a hollow body guitar. Gibson manufactured the guitar; the model was the ES-150. “Another miracle by Gibson—a true, undistorted tone amplified by electricity.” The ES-150 had a cutaway body (which means the body looked like part of it was missing; this enabled guitar players to play further up the neck), and a single bar pick-up. Electric guitars have pick-ups on them. Some guitars have one, others have up to three pick-ups. The pick-up was used to transfer or ‘pick-up’ the tone of the neck and body of the guitar and amplifies it. The more pick-ups a guitar has the better the tone quality.

The solid body electric guitar was founded in Hawaii. These solid body guitars were the first guitars totally depended upon electric amplification. It was in 1931 that Adolph Rickenbacker got together with Paul Barth and George Beauchamp to form the Electric String Company. It was this same year that the men made their first Hawaiian guitar.

This Hawaiian guitar was not played in the typical style that guitars are played in today. It was played in the lap. The difference in playing style and the sound made the Hawaiian guitar a bit different and thus, was not real popular at first. It was not until a few years later when Les Paul began to experiment with a solid wood body that that the electric guitar would be more widely accepted. Known as the ‘log’ the heavy wooden body built by Les Paul allowed for better tone and greater sustain.

These pioneers of innovation and music forever forged rock-n-roll into the fabric of American society. About ten years after Les Paul gave the Gibson line solidarity, Fender introduced its version of the solid body guitar in the Stratocaster. Both the Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster remain today as two of the premier rock-n-roll guitars.

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