| Originally guitars were all acoustic, and the volume | | | | guitar was not made of wood however, and was in |
| achievable by such guitars was quite enough for the | | | | fact made of cast aluminium, with steel strings. This |
| environments in which they were played. However, as | | | | was officially named the Rickenbacker, but was more |
| music developed and the locations in which it | | | | commonly referred to as the Frying Pan or Pancake |
| performed grew larger, and with the introduction of | | | | Guitar for obvious reasons. The sound of this guitar |
| accompanying instruments, it became necessary to | | | | was quite aggressive, with a very modern feel to its |
| increase the volume and sound of the guitar. Especially | | | | voice. |
| with jazz gaining in popularity, the brass instruments | | | | In the 1940s Les Paul was still developing ideas for the |
| would simply drown out the guitar, and so solutions had | | | | electric guitar, and in his own time he created the log |
| to be found. | | | | guitar, which derived its name from the fact that it was |
| It was Les Paul, a major innovator in the world of | | | | constructed from a simple 4x4 wooden post, with a |
| guitars, experimented with attaching microphones to | | | | neck attached to one end. The pickups were home |
| guitars, and this led to some of the earliest electric | | | | made, and there were two halves of the body |
| guitars, although these were generally simply hollow | | | | attached purely for appearance sake. This guitar was |
| acoustic guitars with tungsten pickups. In 1931 these | | | | patented, and was the first of its kind, although the |
| were being manufactured by the Electro String | | | | Gibson Electric Guitar designed later by Les Paul |
| Instrument Corporation, and the design of an acoustic | | | | shares no characteristics at all, and it seems to have |
| guitar with a hollow body and a tungsten pickup was | | | | been a one off. |
| devised by Harry Watson, and this model was called | | | | The next major development in the world of the |
| the Rickenbacker. This was officially the very first | | | | electric guitar was in the mid 1940s when Richard D |
| electric guitar, although still a very long way off the | | | | Bourgerie, who was employed making electrical |
| ones we see today. Although they were used, and | | | | equipment during the second World War for the US |
| popular, straight away, the first documented record of | | | | military at the Howard Radio Company, created an |
| an early electric guitar being used in a public | | | | electric guitar pickup and amplifier combination for |
| performance was in Kansas in 1932, when Gage | | | | George Barnes. Barnes in turn showed this new |
| Brewer helped to publicise this new type of guitar in a | | | | design to Les Paul who requested another be |
| special Halloween performance. | | | | constructed for himself. |
| The first recording of an electric guitar is often | | | | Today there seem to be as many different makes |
| attributed to Eddie Durham, but in fact this is incorrect, | | | | and models of electric guitar as there are players, and |
| and fifteen days earlier George Barnes, a jazz guitarist, | | | | if you are entering the world of the electric guitar |
| recorded Sweetheart Land and It's a Low-Down Dirty | | | | yourself for the first time, you may be slightly taken |
| Shame in Chicago in 1938. It was Durham, however, | | | | aback by the sheer range of options, features and |
| who introduced the early electric guitar to Charlie | | | | designs available. Essentially, however, they all share |
| Christian, who became one of the most significant | | | | more or less the same basic features, with a body |
| influences for many decades on electric guitars in jazz | | | | that is either solid or hollow, usually six steel strings, and |
| music. | | | | perhaps the biggest and most significant choice, the |
| The electric guitar we know and recognise today | | | | pickup. Depending upon the type of pickup, the guitar |
| usually has a solid body, although not always. The solid | | | | may well sound quite different, and this is perhaps the |
| body electric guitar is made of wood - often a single | | | | one place to look most carefully. |
| piece where possible. The earliest solid body electric | | | | |