[MrSandMan]

The electric guitar was invented by a very talented man who went by the name of Adolph Rickenbacker. The first complete setup was back in the 1930's, which was only a mere 70 years ago. On the other hand, the Classical guitar and the Acoustic Guitar have been around for many centuries. There is evidence that dates back to 1800 B.C., that shows the presents of guitars, or similar instruments. There is really no comparison between todays electric guitars and the past. The evolution of electric guitars has been nothing short of amazing. This article will give you a brief history of the electric guitar.

Adolph Rickenbacker manufactured his fist electric guitar in the early 1930's, and equipped it with tungsten pickups. These pickups would sense the vibrations from the strings and convert them into electrical currents. The currents are relayed into the amp and produces sound.


Semi-hollow body are what the older guitars were know as. They were called this because they had sound holes in the body of the guitar. This style of guitar is still very popular today.
As the Big Band era approached in the 30's and 40's, the use of electric guitars became more popular. Plugging the guitar into an amplifier would give the much needed sound levels to be heard over the loud surroundings of the bands.

A guy by the name of Les Paul is an excellent musician, but if for some reason you don't know this name, he is the inventor of the solid body electric guitar. Les Paul invented the fist solid body in 1941.

This type of guitar is made of one piece of wood and has no sound holes. You are able to simply plug into an amplifier and start thrashing. Paul's first original guitar he made was nothing to brag about. It consisted of nothing more than a rectangular body attached to the neck and six steel strings. However, a modern day Les Paul is simply a thing of beauty.

It was in the 50's that Gibson hooked up with Les Paul and presented the Gibson Les Paul to the world. From that day there was no turning back. The Gibson Les Paul has been a major success for over 50 years, and is considered the most popular selling electric guitar on the market. One guy very partial to the Gibson is Slash from Guns n' Roses.

Leo Fender soon became the next big thing in solid-body guitars. Leo invented the Fender Broadcaster in the late 40's. The Broadcaster was introduced to the public in 1954, but instead of Broadcaster, it was named the Fender Stratocaster or Fender “Strat”. The Fender Strat guitar was very different from the Gibson in the fact the the Strat had a different body shape, used different hardware, and was much lighter. Despite these differences, the Fender has become the second favorite guitar among musicians. Musicians such as Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and many others play the Fender Stratocaster.

Today, there are many other guitar manufactures that produce solid-body guitars. Here are a few:


Washburn
Ibanez
ESP
Jackson
Paul Reed Smith
Kramer
Dean
Epiphone
Peavy
Schecter

Author: Josh Scalf
http://www.guitaradvice4u.com