50 Fun Facts About The Electric Guitar

In which year was the electric guitar invented?

Jazz players adopted it to cut through big bands with single-note solos.

What does a pickup on an electric guitar do?

Coils wrapped around a magnet create a field that turns the vibration into a signal for a loudspeaker.

What was the 1931 'Frying Pan' lap steel, the first electric instrument sold, made of?

George Beauchamp designed it with Paul Barth; production began in Los Angeles in 1932.

Which two men are credited with inventing the electromagnetic pickup?

Their Ro-Pat-In Corporation was renamed the Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company in 1934.

What did the name of Gibson's first production model, the 1936 ES-150, refer to?

The price included a matching amplifier.

The ES-150's bar pickup became known by which jazz guitarist's name?

Walt Fuller designed it; the guitar suffered from unequal loudness across the six strings.

The pickup's namesake jazz guitarist gained national fame in whose sextet from 1939?

The swing guitarist died of tuberculosis in 1942, aged 25.

Which instrument first offered a hand-operated vibrato, the 'Vibrola', as standard?

Doc Kauffman invented the device; fewer than 50 of the guitars were built between 1933 and 1937.

Which Gibson executive is credited with the design of the 1952 Les Paul?

As president he had brought Les Paul in as a consultant to meet market demand.

Why does a solid body avoid the wolf tones and feedback of an amplified acoustic?

The amplified sound reproduces the string vibration alone.

The Fender Stratocaster has been in continuous production since which year?

It was designed between 1952 and 1954 with a contoured back for comfort.

Which guitarist is credited with the Stratocaster's resurgence in the late 1960s?

The Strat is the model most associated with him in the studio and on stage.

How is Fender's Precision Bass, made since 1951, configured?

The solid-body 'P-Bass' has a single pickup and a maple neck.

What kind of body does the Gibson ES-335, introduced in 1958, have?

Chuck Berry was a notable user of the ES series.

What do the letters SG stand for on the Gibson model introduced in 1961?

Its double-cutaway body is thinner than a Les Paul's and the neck joint was moved out by three frets.

The Flying V and Explorer of 1958 were first built from which distinctive wood?

It was Gibson's trade name for limba; the futuristic shapes flopped at first and were revived by later players.

Which bluesman helped popularise the Flying V years after it first left production?

Rock guitarists Lonnie Mack and Dave Davies were also drawn to the shape.

Who designed Gibson's humbucking pickup in 1955?

He worked under Gibson's president; the early units are prized as PAFs.

What problem was the humbucker designed to overcome?

Two coils wired in opposition cancel the interference a single coil picks up.

Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstein guitar put which pickup into a Stratocaster-style body?

He wanted Gibson tone with the Strat's shape and tremolo bar; the ash body cost him $50 because of a knot in the wood.

From whom did Van Halen buy the Frankenstein's northern ash body around January 1977?

Charvel distributed Boogie Bodies and Schecter parts; the guitar now wears a Floyd Rose tremolo.

Where was the Frankenstein guitar shown in the 2019 'Play It Loud' exhibition?

A copy is kept in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Brian May built his Red Special with his father using wood from what?

The neck came from a mantelpiece around a century old, which is why the guitar is nicknamed the Fireplace.

What does Brian May use as a plectrum, wearing grooves into the Red Special's pickups?

The guitar was begun in 1963 and finished in October 1964.

Why did B.B. King give all his guitars the same woman's name?

He ran back into the burning Arkansas dance hall for his $30 Gibson and named it as a reminder never to be so foolish again.

In which town's dance hall did the 1949 fire that led to the naming of Lucille break out?

The hall was heated by a barrel of burning kerosene that got knocked over during a brawl.

Which double-neck Gibson, introduced in 1958, was made iconic by Jimmy Page?

John McLaughlin and Don Felder also played it.

Where did Bob Dylan play his first electric concert in 1965?

He played one song from Bringing It All Back Home and two from Highway 61 Revisited.

In which city did an audience member famously shout 'Judas!' at the electric Dylan?

The 1966 British tour drew the most acrimonious crowds; the moment is preserved on film.

Who invented the first commercially successful guitar vibrato tailpiece?

His patent was filed in 1952 and issued in 1953; Gibson later sold licensed units under its Vibrola name.

In what year did Floyd Rose invent the locking vibrato?

It was the first of its kind and is now made by a company bearing his name.

What is the defining feature of the guitars designed by Ned Steinberger?

The minimalist instruments tune from the body end.

What was Jim Marshall's trade before he founded his amp company in London in 1962?

Complaints about volume from visiting players pushed him towards 100-watt amps.

Which guitarist's demands for volume prompted Marshall to develop 100-watt amplifiers?

The company is now based in Bletchley, Milton Keynes.

The Vox AC30's 'jangly' tone made it a favourite of which wave of bands?

The Beatles used it; its predecessor, the AC15, was Jennings Musical Industries' first amp in 1958.

In which year did Gibson introduce the Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone, an early mass-produced pedal?

Two engineers sold Gibson the circuit for one of the first commercially successful pedals.

Keith Richards used a Maestro Fuzz-Tone to record which 1965 hit?

The fuzz riff was recorded in May 1965.

The modern wah-wah pedal was created by accident while redesigning what?

The prototype used a mid-range-boost potentiometer circuit in a Vox housing and appeared in November 1966.

What was the prototype shown at the 1957 NAMM convention that became the Gibson Explorer dubbed?

It shared its limba wood and space-age styling with the Flying V.

How is a twelve-string electric guitar laid out?

The layout is similar to a mandolin's; seven- and eight-string guitars instead add low B, E or F-sharp strings.

Which extra low note does a seven-string electric guitar typically add?

Eight-string models usually add a low E or F-sharp below that.

Which company offered the first solid-body Spanish standard guitar, no later than 1934?

Its body was a single sheet of plywood on a wood frame; Rickenbacker's Electro Spanish followed in 1935.

Rickenbacker's 1935 Electro Spanish solid-body was made of what?

Slingerland brought out a wooden solid-body, the Songster 401, in 1936.

Les Paul's 1940 experimental solid-body was built from what and nicknamed what?

A wood post with a neck attached and two hollow halves stuck on for looks; Gibson initially turned it down.

How long is wood typically dried in a kiln at large guitar factories before shaping?

Premium custom builds use much older, fully cured wood that is less prone to warping.

In rock, the player who handles chord progressions and riffs fills which role?

In a power trio one player often switches between rhythm and lead roles.

Which pioneering woman is listed among the early electric guitarists on record?

She appears alongside Les Paul, T-Bone Walker and Lonnie Johnson.

Which effect is considered a key element of electric blues, rock and heavy metal playing?

Amplifier settings and pedals such as distortion shape the timbre.

Which company did Gibson's president of the day and vice-president John Huis buy in 1966?

The former president, a Cincinnati engineering graduate, had overseen Gibson's innovations from 1950 to 1966.

Which early makers were producing electric guitars by 1935 alongside Rickenbacker?

Dobro started in 1933; National, AudioVox and Volu-tone in 1934.