How electric guitars began

In the 1920s, guitars weren't loud enough: brass and drums drowned them out in an ensemble. Instrument makers looked for ways to amplify the sound, including fitting metal resonator cones inside the body. Musician George Beauchamp took part in these experiments, then pursued another solution: a pickup that converted string vibrations into an electrical signal.

Working with Adolph Rickenbacker, Beauchamp developed the idea into a production instrument. The Frying Pan appeared in 1932, becoming the first commercially successful electric guitar. Its aluminium body resembled a frying pan, and players rested it on their laps to play the Hawaiian music popular at the time. An amplifier and speaker provided the volume, so it no longer needed a large hollow body.

Electric amplification could also work with a familiar guitar design. In 1936, Gibson released the ES-150: a hollow body, a built-in pickup and the usual playing technique. Charlie Christian showed that a guitarist could use it to play solos alongside the horns. The guitar had gained a new role in the ensemble.

But turning up the volume revealed a problem. The hollow body and strings picked up sound from the speaker, and the pickup sent the signal back through the amplifier, making the guitar howl or squeal. This was feedback. A solid body could help reduce it. In 1941, guitarist and inventor Les Paul built an experimental guitar called The Log, based on a wooden beam fitted with strings and pickups.

Leo Fender, a radio repairman and self-taught inventor, was also developing a solid-body guitar. He didn't play guitar himself, but he worked with musicians and understood their problems. His team approached the instrument as an engineering challenge: make something sturdy and comfortable that was easy to manufacture and repair.

In 1950, they introduced the model that would soon be called the Telecaster. Its solid wooden body helped control feedback. The neck was screwed to the body, so it could be removed and replaced. Moving away from complex acoustic construction gave Fender the freedom to simplify both the guitar and the way it was made.

Fender's success pushed Gibson to respond. In 1952, Ted McCarty's team released the Les Paul, working with the same musician who had experimented with The Log. Gibson kept features of its expensive jazz instruments: a carved top, a glued-in neck and careful finishing. The same problem had led to two different solutions. Fender focused on simple construction, while Gibson carried traditional guitar-building methods into its solid-body design.

But the traditional approach came with compromises. The Les Paul was heavy, many 1950s models had thick necks, and the single cutaway limited access to the highest frets. Fender's designs weren't perfect from the start either, but the 1954 Stratocaster improved comfort with contours for the player's arm and stomach and two cutaways for reaching high notes.

Competition encouraged both companies to refine their instruments. Fender listened to musicians' feedback: the 1954 Stratocaster had contours for the player's arm and body, three pickups and a lever for changing pitch. Gibson tackled electrical hum from pickups. In 1957, the Les Paul gained humbuckers, whose two coils cancelled interference and produced a different tonal character.

Meanwhile, musicians kept playing hollow-body guitars. Gibson offered them a compromise: the ES-335, introduced in 1958, had a solid wooden block running through its centre, with hollow sections on either side. It retained some of a hollow-body guitar's character while being less prone to feedback at high volume. Guitar design was now developing in several directions, each balancing sound, comfort and behaviour on stage in a different way.

Rickenbacker followed a different path. Its compact 325, with a very short scale length, became famous through John Lennon. Closely spaced frets weren't comfortable for everyone, especially players with larger hands. Narrow necks on some other Rickenbacker models also took getting used to. Yet the brand's distinctive jangle became part of the sound of the Beatles and other bands. Comfort wasn't the only reason to choose a guitar.

The music played on these instruments increasingly shaped their fortunes. In 1961, Gibson tried to improve the Les Paul's ergonomics too, replacing its classic body with a thinner, lighter design and two deep cutaways for better upper-fret access. We know that guitar as the SG. But before long, Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mike Bloomfield found a sound in old Les Pauls that suited the new blues rock.

On the 1966 album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, a Les Paul through a loud Marshall produced a thick, overdriven tone. Musicians wanted an instrument its manufacturer had already replaced with a newer model. Interest in old Les Pauls grew enough for Gibson to bring them back into production in 1968. The SG stayed in production too: there was demand for both designs.

That's how we ended up with the variety of electric guitars we see today. Manufacturers experimented with construction, sound and comfort, while musicians discovered possibilities in these instruments that their creators hadn't always imagined.

Which raises an interesting question: who really changed music — the guitar makers or the musicians? :)