Electric guitar history begins in the 1920's and 1930's when two Los Angeles
musicians George Beauchamp and John Dopyera began trying to find ways of
creating louder guitars. They first created a resonator guitar using aluminum
disks with a metal body that was three times louder than an acoustic guitar. The
resonator guitar evolved into what me commonly refer to now as the dobro.
It wasn't until 1930 that Beauchamp and another man Paul Barth developed the
first working pickup. They then contacted Harry Wilson who carved the neck and
body of what would be the first electric guitar. They nick-named it the frying
pan due to it's round body.
The first man to build and market an electric "Spanish" style guitar was Lloyd
Loar. Loar created Vivi-Tone, a company dedicated to the production of spanish
style electric guitars. However the design was poor and within a year Vivi-Tone
failed.
In 1935 Gibson began work on developing a new guitar pickup. This pickup would
become incorporated onto the standard f-hole arch-top guitar known as the
ES-150. The Gibson ES-150 is considered the first modern electric guitar in
history.
A milestone in electric guitar history, the ES-150 became an instant success.
However their were still some undesirable characteristics. Because of the hollow
body design there were often problems with feedback and distortion.
The answer to this problem was the solid body electric guitar. The solid body
electric guitar can be accredited to two men. Les Paul and Leo Fender. Les
Paul's idea was to take a 4x4 piece of pine and attach two magnetic pickups. He
then glued two cutaway halves of the original hollow body design to the 4x4.
Leo Fender's model was slightly different. His solid body was made of oak and
instead of gluing two halves of a hollow body to a solid middle Leo Fender had
carved the entire body solid. In 1949 Fender released the first successful
solid-body electric guitar called the "Esquire."
It wasn't until 1952 that Gibson decided to release Les Paul's version of the
solid body electric guitar. Although Fender had been on the market for a short
while Gibson's Les Paul quickly become the industry standard and to this day is
considered the most sought after guitar in electric guitar history.
By the 1960's electric guitar history had hit its maturity. Gibson introduced
the humbucking pickup which helped to reduce unwanted noise from the magnetic
coils in pickups. Fender and Gibson came out with more futuristic designs like
the SG and Stratocaster.
Since the 1960's There have been numerous electric guitar manufacturers to come
on to the scene. Manufacturers like Ibanez, Jackson, Paul Reed Smith, Dean and
B.C.Rich are just a few of the modern companies who are still continuing to make
electric guitar history.
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