
Who Really Built the First Electric Rock ‘n’ Roll Guitar? - ohjeez
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/who-really-built-the-first-electric-rock-n-roll-guitar/
======
beat
What's interesting to me (as a guitarist) isn't who was "first", because there
was obviously a zeitgeist technical need for solid body guitars. Rather, it's
what designs and innovations have stood the test of time, and why.

The real winner here, I think, is the Telecaster. They're still made in
droves, still immensely popular, and have been the backbone of millions of
recorded tracks. And it's easy to see why. They're dead simple, making them
both inexpensive to manufacture and straightforward to play. And the biting,
aggressive bridge pickup tone cuts through walls of other loud instruments in
a way that is much harder for the round, warm tone of a Les Paul.

Bigsby guitars are a historical curiosity. Rickenbackers are still made, but
are a rare exotic most guitarists will never play. Les Pauls are a pricey
luxury item.

But Telecasters! Telecasters are the sound of rock'n'roll flipping a middle
finger to everything that's supposed to be "good". I love them.

~~~
bena
Really?

I'd give the Les Paul the nod to rock. Either that or the Stratocaster.

Off hand I can name some pretty iconic rock names attached to both the Les
Paul and the Strat. Hell, Angus Young even uses an SG. But I can't think of
anyone who I associate with a Telecaster.

Not that they're bad guitars, just that I don't think of them when I think
"rock'n'roll flipping a middle finger to everything".

~~~
muerdeme
[https://images.gibson.com/Lifestyle/English/aaFeaturesImages...](https://images.gibson.com/Lifestyle/English/aaFeaturesImages2009/Springsteen_born-
to-run.jpg)

~~~
bena
Ok. Springsteen. Congratulations?

I'd still put Telecasters behind Strats and Les Pauls in terms of popularity
and fame.

~~~
bsder
Telecasters are _extremely_ common among the country artists.

~~~
bena
Which isn't exactly "rock'n'roll".

------
jdietrich
Although the Fender Esquire was the first _popular_ solid-body electric
guitar, it was far from the first. That accolade almost certainly belongs to
George Beauchamp while working for Rickenbacker - he has a patent for a solid-
body instrument dated 1932. Lloyd Loar released a number of popular semi-
hollow instruments through the Vivi-Tone company in the mid-1930s.

[https://reverb.com/uk/news/who-really-invented-the-
electric-...](https://reverb.com/uk/news/who-really-invented-the-electric-
guitar)

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US2089171](https://patents.google.com/patent/US2089171)

~~~
jccalhoun
Yes, I thought this article was going to be some real investigation of who was
first instead of just talking about Fender and Paul.

------
falcolas
For those interested in the electric guitar, and who will be in the Phoenix,
AZ area, might I suggest a visit to the MIM?

[https://mim.org/galleries/special-exhibitions/the-
electric-g...](https://mim.org/galleries/special-exhibitions/the-electric-
guitar-inventing-an-american-icon/)

The electric guitar first entered the music scene in the '20's. At that time,
it started to appear in the Jazz, Country, and Big Band scenes. Even spanish-
style electric guitars (that is, solid body Telecaster/Les Paul style guitars)
pre-date the R'n'R phenomenon.

Oh, and the Hawaiian music scene (that haunting 4 note tune everyone
associates with Hawaiian music is often done on a steel guitar).

------
speakeron
> The original color of the >1954 Fender Stratocaster was a three-toned
> sunburst.

Two-tone, surely.

 _The two-color sunburst finish became a three-color sunburst finish in the
first half of 1958 with the addition of an “in between” red hue._ [1]

[1] [https://www.fender.com/articles/gear/the-history-of-the-
fend...](https://www.fender.com/articles/gear/the-history-of-the-fender-
stratocaster-the-1950s)

~~~
vstuart
Beautiful playing by Buddy Merrill ("Buddy's Boogie" on his Fender
Stratocaster) in that link (direct link to YouTube:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJXjV6UY9lc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJXjV6UY9lc))!
:-D

------
vibrolax
What's interesting to me is how quickly the solid body electric guitar reached
its technological optimum. The Telecaster, Stratocaster, and Les Paul
represent the iconic forms to this day (No offense towards metalheads, who
tend to prefer pointier models). There have been many refinements and anti-
refinements among the icons along the way, but in my opinion, no new form has
become mainstream since 1960.

~~~
fhood
More offended that you think that metalheads don't still use those styles of
guitar

gojira: [http://www.charvel.com/guitars/artist/joe-duplantier-
signatu...](http://www.charvel.com/guitars/artist/joe-duplantier-signature-
pro-mod-san-dimas-style-2-hh-ebony-fingerboard-satin-white/)

Mastodon: Rythm guy plays a les paul.

SOAD: Daron favors a les paul as well.

Les Paul, stratocaster, and telecaster style guitars are very very common in
metal as well.

~~~
bena
I think he's just saying that things like the Flying V or Explorer are seen
more in metal.

If you see someone playing a Les Paul, it could be anything. If you see
someone playing an Explorer, good bet it's metal.

~~~
vibrolax
That is what I meant, without any intention to disparage. Both Flying V and
Explorer arrived in 1958 and promptly flopped until the age of metal. They are
definitely icons of metal as the prototypical "pointy guitars". The classic
Les Paul was discontinued around 1960 as tele-strat twang ruled that era,
until revived around 1968 as heavier guitar sounds emerged.

Disclaimer: I'm an LP person, but I've an equal number of Strats and Teles. I
love them each for their unique qualities.

------
11thEarlOfMar
I am not a writer, so forgive the prose, but I put this together after losing
yet another aged rocker last year. Players will have fun looking through the
guitars:

[https://festivalpeak.com/https-medium-com-davisjames-
guitar-...](https://festivalpeak.com/https-medium-com-davisjames-
guitar-1a2b67c0f869)

------
creeble
I still credit the Rickenbacker "frying pan" as it predated Fender's black log
by over 10 years.

But the Esquire was the first mass-produced electric solid-body guitar
designed to be played like a regular acoustic, standing up with a strap.

edit: mass-produced. Paul Bigsby's solid-body predated Fender's but were
custom made.

------
keithpeter
Just curious as to what difference the amplifier makes?

[1] has a collection of circuit diagrams /schematics for Fender amplifiers.
The Champ circuits look very simple with basically a volume control.

[1] [https://www.thetubestore.com/early-fender-guitar-amp-
schemat...](https://www.thetubestore.com/early-fender-guitar-amp-schematics)

~~~
bsder
A lot.

Many of the early amp designs were either cribbed from radio amp or ham amp
power stages--these are "clean".

"Distortion" wasn't a thing until much later. For instance, the whole reason
why "fuzz" pedals came into existence is that a volume control on the preamp
wasn't a common thing at that point--and were talking the mid 60's at that
point.

~~~
tabtab
Some of the earlier users of distortion concocted various home-grown tricks,
before dedicated distortion equipment was manufactured. The Kinks would feed
one fully-cranked amplifier into a second or third layer to _pile on_ the
distortion caused by over-cranking them all, giving them the "you really got
me" sound in '64, arguably the first heavy metal hit.

Another musician said he'd poke holes in the speaker with a pencil. And
another said the "drunk band" dropped the amplifier while loading it, damaging
it, but they liked the damaged sound and kept it.

------
delinka
Answer: Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender and a friend named Clayton “Doc”
Kaufman had taken a solid plank of oak, painted it glossy black, attached a
pickup at one end, and strung its length with steel strings.

------
CWuestefeld
I've sometimes wondered how the "trem bar" acquired that incorrect name [1],
since it's really vibrato [2]. Reading this piece makes makes me wonder if
it's intentional on Fender's part, an attempt to obscure that the idea is
lifted from Bigsby.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremolo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremolo)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrato](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrato)

------
olivermarks
'Rock 'n' Roll' was arguably a white commercialization of Rhythm and Blues,
for which there was a lot of amplification of resonator guitars and harmonicas
for live performance and recordings. There's a natural progression here of who
started mass manufacturing instruments as opposed to who built the first
ones....

~~~
52-6F-62
It goes further than that—

The banjo, probably one of the instruments most closely associated with
country and southern American music was derived from instruments brought over
by slaves from Africa.

It's pretty damned hard to escape African/African-American influence on any
folk music traditions in the Americas, if that's even possible at all.

~~~
beat
Drummer Steve Smith did a great dvd called "History of the American Beat",
where he argues that _all_ American music is derived from African rhythms.
Swing, shuffle, and backbeat grooves are all expressions of a three-against-
two polyrhythm, the simplest possible polyrhythm, and the essential character
of west African music is polyrhythmic, while polyrhythms are rare in European
music. If it rocks, swings, or shuffles, it's African in nature.

It shows up in melody, too. Anything blues-derived, as opposed to diatonic,
has African roots. Diatonic harmony was Europe's contribution to American
music. Blue thirds and sliding sevenths were Africa's contribution.

~~~
52-6F-62
Thanks, I'll have to check that one out. That all sounds about right to me.

