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

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.

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

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

Questions?