Electric Guitar

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The electric guitar was developed for popular music in the United States in the 1930's. The electric guitar usually has a solid, nonresonant body. The sound of its strings is both amplified and manipulated electronically by the performer. American musician and inventor Les Paul developed prototypes for the solid-bodied electric guitar and popularized the instrument beginning in the 1940's.

In the early 1940's, a California inventer, Leo Fender, made some custom guitars and amplifiers in his radio shop and already was working on an amplifier and a matching lap steel guitar. This was typical of the way the electric guitar was viewed at this time, as a total package, and not as an individual instrument.

With his knowledge of existing technologies, Leo knew he could improve on the amplified hollow-body instruments - and he did. In 1948 he developed the legendary Telecaster. The Tele, as it was called, was the first solid body electric Spanish-style guitar ever to go into commercial production.

Just as the acoustic guitar, the electric guitar has become a part of cultural expression. Holding my electric guitar, playing "All along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix, I scoff at those who lived during the 40's and 50's and said that the guitar music was just a fling that would be short lived. "HA!". Musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and bands like Metallica, and Aerosmith have made the electric guitar an instrument heard, played, and loved by many.