History Of Electric Guitar

Curious about the history of electric guitar?

The history of electric guitar is indeed fascinating. As early as the 1800's engineers experimented with musical instruments powered by electricity. Music boxes and player pianos were all the rage then - but making an amplified instrument was not possible yet. In the 1920's electrical amplification was perfected by the radio industry and this made it possible to combine the technology with musical instrumentation.

Most important in the history of electric guitar is Lloyd Loar. Loar worked as an engineer at the Gibson Guitar Company. He developed an electric pickup for the viola and the string bass in 1924. The first guitar was advertised for sale by the Stromberg-Voisinet company in 1928. The guitar used a similar pickup to Loar's and vibrations were read from the soundboard.

What these inventors really wanted to do was amplify the guitar's sound. Unfortunately the signal was too weak to make this possible. Eventually engineers began to use a direct pickup system. Here the electromagnet picked up vibrations from the strings themselves. It was at this point in the history of electric guitar that the instrument began to resemble what we know today.

According to the history of electric guitar, the first guitar model that was a commercial success was the "Frying Pan". It was made by George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker in 1932. The guitar was an electric Hawaiian model and was strummed flat in the lap. People who played Hawaiian guitar liked it immediately. The standard or "Spanish" style electric guitar did not catch on quite as quickly.

Les Paul is an important figure in the history of electric guitar. He built a guitar by mounting the pickup on a solid block of wood. It was built on a 4-by-4 piece of pine and nicknamed "The Log." Then in 1950, Leo Fender, a former radio repairman built a mass-produced solid-body electric guitar. Gibson joined these early innovators in 1952 with their version of the solid-body guitar.

Of all the many years in the history of electric guitar it was the 1950s and 1960s that really saw the rock stars of the decade place Gibson and Paul's designs and the Fender Stratocaster design squarely into popular American culture.

Also, be sure to check out our pages about Custom Electric Guitars, Electric Guitar Kits, Electric Guitar Tabs, and Free Electric Guitar Lessons elsewhere on this site.