History of Electric Guitar by Zager Reviews

1. History of the Electric
Guitar
BY
Zager Guitars
Zager Reviews

2. Invention of the electric pickup
 Invented in late 1920’s by Lloyd Loar
 Faraday’s Law of Induction
 Didn’t catch on at all.
 Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp
 Perfected Loar’s design
 Rickenbacker began selling the “Frying Pan”
 Hawaiian lap steel players love it…
…other players didn’t
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3. Mass Production
 Leo Fender invents the Telecaster
 First mass produced solid body electric guitar
 Cheap to produce, affordable
 Gibson introduces the Les Paul
 Higher end model endorsed by Les Paul
 Both models are still sold today
 “Solid Body” guitars are designed for amplification
 Sound much better than old style modified hollow
bodies, less feedback.
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4. Continued …..
 Guitars shapes have become increasingly
modern (ex. Flying V)
 Preamplifiers inside guitar
 Basic construction and operation has stayed the
same
 Much cheaper now
 Ex. Gibson and Epiphone, Fender and Squire
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5. Amplifiers
 Can’t have the electric guitar without the amplifier
Guitar ---> Pre-Amp--->Power-Amp--->Speaker
 First amplifiers were modified stereo equipment
 Manufacturers started building guitar specific amp in the 1930’s
 Until 1970’s most amps were tube powered
 Refinement of silicon transistors led to “solid state”
 Tube sound is sought after, solid state amps emulate tube amps,
distortion.
 Computer technology has lead to modeling amps
 Can often emulate many (20+) different models
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6. Thank You !!!!!
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7. Thank You !!!!!
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