• From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Topic: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

- Are we talking about the first solid body electric guitar?.
-.Or just a guitar with a pickup mounted?

NO PICK-UP'S NO ELECTRIC.
To be heard better they "plucked" their strings, until one day are magnets wrapped with coils of very fine wire.
"hum", is particularly strong with single-coil pickups, using a frequency who had to match with a power system.
first application of a pickup to a guitar is uncertain but Loyd Loar who worked for Gibson from 1920 to 1924 (and is famous for his mandolins and arch tops) developed a pickup as far as I could find.
Who created the very first solid body? Gretsch Gibson Fender.
NOT WHO MANUFACTURED THE FIRST SOLID BODY?

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  • From: Pico Rivera, Calif. U.S.A.
  • Registered: 2006-10-26
  • Posts: 785

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

gitaardocphil wrote:

- Are we talking about the first solid body electric guitar?.
-.Or just a guitar with a pickup mounted?

NO PICK-UP'S NO ELECTRIC.
To be heard better they "plucked" their strings, until one day are magnets wrapped with coils of very fine wire.
"hum", is particularly strong with single-coil pickups, using a frequency who had to match with a power system.
first application of a pickup to a guitar is uncertain but Loyd Loar who worked for Gibson from 1920 to 1924 (and is famous for his mandolins and arch tops) developed a pickup as far as I could find.
Who created the very first solid body? Gretsch Gibson Fender.
NOT WHO MANUFACTURED THE FIRST SOLID BODY?

The opinion is Paul Bigsby and around the same time of Mr. Bigsby's design Leo Fender was releasing he now famous Fenders.

Bootlegger.

  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,862

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

loyd was credited with the first patent but a guitar player with a big band modified his and came up with an amp i will keep checking because i remember seeing a history channel story on a black jazz player who beat loyed to the punch anyway heres a link on loyd                                                          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Loar

"Growing old is not for sissies"

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  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

Pedal steel guitars probably achieved solid body status first. They emerged in the 1930s with the Hawaiian music boom and Rickenbacher was probably the first.

The first true electric guitar was Fender's 'Broadcaster' in 1948, which beat Gibson's Les Paul by at least three years. The Broadcaster is basicly the Telecaster design, Fender changed the name so as not to clash with Gretsch Broadcaster drums. The inbetween period had Teles with no model name on the headstock, which are known as No-Casters. Hence a true Nocaster is a rare quitar indeed but the term has been abused to mean self-assembled Telecasters and factory oddities.

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'
  • From: Sweden
  • Registered: 2008-02-11
  • Posts: 75

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

Well i think the first electic-guitar is an telecaster. Then an great man named Paul Les made the legendary Les Paul model. Then the stratocaster came, thats my favorite exept for the Gibson SG that also is an very good model.

  • From: UK
  • Registered: 2007-09-16
  • Posts: 369

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

slaya wrote:

Well i think the first electic-guitar is an telecaster. Then an great man named Paul Les made the legendary Les Paul model. Then the stratocaster came, thats my favorite exept for the Gibson SG that also is an very good model.

The Broadcaster (now known as a Telecaster) was the first commercially available electric guitar, it's unknown who made the first electric guitar. I know you could get Electric hawaiian guitars in the 1930s.

7 Reply by cytania (edited by cytania 2008-02-14 12:27:40)

  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

The Broadcaster is the full deal here. It certainly was a full commerical production run. It certainly was meant to be played standing up (which no one's really sure about 'the frying pan'). It has so many radical touches, maple neck not rosewood, paint not stain and varnish, controls on a plate not set around f-holes, scratchplate to cover wiring routes, very untraditional one-sided head stock, through the body stringing, barrel and ashtray bridge. Gibson's Les Paul is positively old school in comparison. Broadcaster broke the mould and is still amazingly popular as the Telecaster to this day.

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'

8 Reply by alexpress (edited by alexpress 2008-04-03 17:22:04)

  • From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK
  • Registered: 2008-03-07
  • Posts: 18

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

According to Michael Heatley in his book The illustrated History of the electric Guitar the true beginning of all electric guitars was the Gibson ES-150 played by Charlie Christian in 1935 although attempts at electrification were attempted by Lloyd Loar in the early twenties with the advent of the valve amplifier.

The first production solid body was the Rickenbacker frying pan in 1931.

  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,862

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

seems i was on the right track i just didn't know his name was charlie christian but i recall seeing several pictures of him and his electric hollow body gibson

alexpress wrote:

According to Michael Heatley in his book The illustrated History of the electric Guitar the true beginning of all electric guitars was the Gibson ES-150 played by Charlie Christian in 1935 although attempts at electrification were attempted by Lloyd Loar in the early twenties with the advent of the valve amplifier.

The first production solid body was the Rickenbacker frying pan in 1931.

"Growing old is not for sissies"

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  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

I'm not sure one inventor of the electric guitar will ever be pinned down. What it does confirm is that the 30s and 40s were the golden age of American invention. I'm not sure Gibson qualify just for sticking a pickup on a hollowbody archtop. Les Paul certainly deserves mention as a populariser but his namesake guitar is very traditional in many ways (just solid-bodied). For me Leo Fender is _the man_ because he created so many landmark instruments. Not just the esquire but the telecaster, the stratocaster, the precision bass, the jazz bass, the Music Man Stingray active bass... any one of those five would put him on Les Paul's level but together they make him Mr.Guitar Innovator.

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'
  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,862

Re: WHO INVENTED THE FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

I cant argue with leo fender being on the same level as les paul both were inovative giants and there genius has set the standard which is still emulated today

cytania wrote:

I'm not sure one inventor of the electric guitar will ever be pinned down. What it does confirm is that the 30s and 40s were the golden age of American invention. I'm not sure Gibson qualify just for sticking a pickup on a hollowbody archtop. Les Paul certainly deserves mention as a populariser but his namesake guitar is very traditional in many ways (just solid-bodied). For me Leo Fender is _the man_ because he created so many landmark instruments. Not just the esquire but the telecaster, the stratocaster, the precision bass, the jazz bass, the Music Man Stingray active bass... any one of those five would put him on Les Paul's level but together they make him Mr.Guitar Innovator.

"Growing old is not for sissies"

Russell_Harding's Website