The document provides a history of the guitar and its evolution alongside the development of rock music. It begins by discussing acoustic guitars and how they were commonly the first instrument for many students. It then outlines some of the pioneering artists in rock music like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly and their contributions. The document also discusses the development of the electric guitar and influential players like Jimi Hendrix. It traces the rise of rock bands through the 1960s and 70s and genres like punk rock and how the guitar continued shaping new sounds.

1. GUITARUNIVERSITY BLOG
Guitars come in different shapes and sizes, from acoustic to electronic and each requires
different skills.
Most students begin with a soft string acoustic because it is easy to play and use the
cords. If you can't play an acoustic you waste your time with something more fancy like
a strata castor. If a student ever he lacks the skills or patience it a small investment
against something that could cost him thousands and many people prefer this instrument
for its simplicity and purity of sound. It also has the advantage of being portable and
light. Many famous performers never graduated from this instrument because it
represented the raw sound of earlier performers. One such artist was Bob Dillon.
Instruments in from the fifties and sixties such as Wash-burn and Gibson are now highly
sort after collector’s items and any performer lucky enough to have such a classic knows
full well how it will enhance his performance and would never part with it. In America
artists of this period had their instruments hand made to their style and body
specifications, these are more sort after.
For all the beauty of the modern electronic guitar, nothing really can match the sound of
old wood, electronics for all its volume and versatility has not the sound of nature that
only the brain through the median of the human ear can relate to emotions, the
soundboard of the soul.
One the most fascinating aspects of music are the musicians themselves. The evolution
of the guitar coincided with the evolution of modern music. To do its history justice, one
must go back to the pioneers of rock music which I will now present:
Elvis Presley it was said could not strum a note. He was a vocalist who wore the
instrument like a soldier would his rifle. In time he would learn but he never developed a
distinctive style not if it really hurt his reputation.
Charles (Buddy) Holly was another case entirely. Holly could never claim to match the
king in vocal range or animal power but like Presley, he was a pioneer and had his own
distinctive style. Holly was the first to use to guitar back up, a lead and a base, with a
drummer behind him. This became standard back up, but Holly was the first. His death
has taken on legendary status in the history of rock. While on a ill defined tour with his
group and two other musicians, Richie Valens, a 17 year old Hispanic who had made a
rock hit out of a Mexican wedding song, La Bumba and a big man J.K Richardson who
performed under the nom be plume The Big Bopper, he decided to hire a single engine
Beachcraft Bonanza to his next show. It was winter, the group was covered in snow, the
drummer had earlier been taken to hospital with frost bite of the toes and the Bopper had
the flue. Valence had never flown before and talked Holly’s remaining drummer Tommy
Allsup out of his seat. Another performer Dion could not afford the $35 and thus slipped
out history. Shortly after take off it crashed in a snow laden farmer’s field. My theory is

2. its carburete probably froze, cutting off fuel. The pilot tried to bank to seek a suitable
landing position, but in doing so, lost valuable height and one wing clipped the group at
around 160 knots and so on February the third, 1959, the music died.
Holly was gone forever but his legacy would live on. Groups such as The Beatles and
The Rolling Stones were greatly influenced by him and his showman ship. The sixties
music was a dream Holly never saw realised, though even he never saw the evolution of
the guitar. Percussion though necessary generally drowned out guitars so the electric
guitar was invented which was little more than a hard string guitar with a microphone
pick up. It was an American Les Paul who developed the Gibson Les Paul SG a truly
revolutionary leap, an instrument that gained popularity when played by Eric Clapton.
The honour for the first Stratocaster goes to Fender. It was designed in 1954 by Leo
Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares, Fender employees. The Stratocaster
became standard issue for all rock groups from The Beatles to Oasis. Sixties artists such
as Frank Zappa would raise the Stratocaster to the status of a classical orchestra
instrument, a man who combined rock/jazz into a new music genre and wrote classical
music for a hobby. His reputation led to conducting The London Philomonic orchestra
In early 1990, Zappa visited Czechoslovakia at the request of President Václav Havel,
and was asked to serve as consultant for the government on trade, cultural matters and
tourism and in 1995, a bust of Zappa by sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas was installed in
the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. (wikipedia 2010) He died of cancer in 1993.
Jimmy Hendrix was a contempory of Zappa and the only man who could rightfully lay a
counter claim to the title of the best guitarist ever born. Unlike Zappa, like most
musicians of his day, he was not a composer of music rather a true troubadour, following
a tradition wandering mistral that goes back to ancient Greece. Many professional
guitarist claim Hendrix could make sounds on that instrument no one else could. He
signature style was heavily laced wa wa with strong influencewith high gain and treble
and helped develop the previously unexplored technique of guitar amplifier feedback.
An unhappy man, a manic depressive, he choked on his own vomit while unconscious on
a hashish induced haze. Like Jim Morrison of The Doors, Hendrix joined the famous 27
club; musicians who died at that age.
No history of rock music would be complete without mentioning the group that put the
UK on the world map: The Beatles. Initially just another pub group, they got luck when
after being taken up by a promoter, they met a producer George Martin who turned from
a Saturday night act to world class. In their wake they dragged a progression of British
groups such as The Rolling Stones, Yard Birds, Cream, Kinks and Lead Zeppelin to
name only a few. The sixties came and went, but by the seventies their music had come
self indulgent and lost its true direction. In 1976 the big acts assembled at London’s
Crystal Palace but no one came. The kids left in droves to see the new kids on the block:
The Sex Pistols! It took a boy from the housing commission flats and his cheap guitar to
show the greats where rock was really heading, not in some ill defined future but back to

3. where it started from with the raw animal energy: Elvis Presley. Johnny Rotten (John
Lydian) and Sid Vicious had the kids in their pockets with their wild lyrics and
unashamed anti establishment. Punk was born. And the sixties, with all their dreams and
aspirations, were dead.
Punk, that started from London would held sway for ten years, even the groups labeled
collectively: the new romantics. Even they did not distract from punk popularity but in
the late eighties a new force would emerge. As the suits watched their plaid established
acts in a London television studio, behind the stage a group of roughly dressed musicians
were challenged, they from the working class city of Manchester and would be the fill in
group between professional acts. When asked to change into their proper cloths they just
smiled and said they already had. The coordinator thought such amateurs would raise a
laugh and be a fitting comedy relief. They were shown the stage. At first the suits could
only stare. When the lead began to gyrate and sing, few doubted that they were witness
to a new force: the Manchester sound. That night The Smiths made Britain stop and
listen. The powerful vocals of Morrissey and playing of a sixteen year old Johnny Mar
sent the established musician back to limbo where belonged: the past. The Smiths put
Manchester on the map and Johnny Mar was declared the greatest guitarist in Britain.
The Manchester sound has held sway up to today with groups like Oasis achieving the
greatest fame and financial success. On breaking into the commercial music market Noel
Gallagher proposed a larger venue his home city could not offer and chose a farmer’s
field large enough to accommodate 250,000 people, but when he let the fans order tickets
the number swelled to 2.7 million, something even the Beatles would have drawn a
breathe at. Groups like The Artic Monkeys would follow and these are only a few who
had made fortune and fame from a single instrument.
To do justice to the story of rock and roll and the instrument that made it possible would
take one if not several full volumes. What I have attempted to do is give only an
overview and hope it gives light to a cultural phenomenon of the last half century.