The Effect of the Emergence of the Electric Guitar on Music

You need to make a search for Leo Fender and Les Paul, both of whom were pioneers in the field of electric guitars. Also look up Willi Stich - he was a pioneer of pickup building (became famous under the name "Bill Lawrence" together with then partner, Jzchak Wajcman).
Neither Fender nor Paul invented the electric guitar, although Paul is credited with inventing the solid-bodied guitar (his prototype was called "the log"). Many guitars hollow bodied had been kitted out with pickups of one sort or another for years before the "log" saw light of day.

Hi John!

Greybeard's advice about Leo Fender and Les Paul and "Bill Lawrence" is excellent. There's a good Wikipedia article here, with lots of links. You might also like to try looking up Seymour Duncan, whose pickups have had an effect on guitar development you just can't underestimate. His website is here.

Electric guitars are all but silent without amps. Don't forget to check out the development of amplification, how increasing power, the advent of electronic effects, and the birth of high-gain (multi gain-stage) amps has influenced the development of modern music. Look up Fender amps, Marshall, Vox, and crucially Mesa Boogie, not forgetting Roland (the JC120 has had a tremendous impact on modern jazz guitar). Use Google as a first port-of-call - lots of good articles and reminiscences out there - and don't forget Wikipedia is a fine source of links as well as generally authoritative articles.

I'm biassed, just being one musician, but I've been playing electric since 1966 (!) so I've a few ideas. Here are (IMHO) some of the real big milestones: Fender Telecaster; Gibson Les Paul; Fender Stratocaster; Gibson Flying V; Rickenbacker 300 series; Ibanez RG as far as guitars are concerned. Plenty of others but these are the biggies for me. Amps: Fender Champ, Bassman 4x10, Twin, and Tweed DeLuxe; Vox AC15 and AC30; Marshall JTM-45 and JCM-800; Mesa Boogie MkI thru Mk IV; Matchless Chieftan; Soldano SLO100; Roland JC120. Effects: Dunlop Cry-Baby wah and Vox V847 wah; Arbiter Fuzz-Face; Boss Stereo Chorus, Watkins Copicat echo; Fender and Accutronics spring reverbs.

No doubt you'll have your own Hall of Fame for guitarists: but any overview has to include (in no particular order) Les Paul (THE daddy!); Hendrix; Clapton, Hank Marvin; Eddie Van Halen; Steve Vai; Terje Rypdal; Joyce Cooling; Ed Bickert; Mike Stern; Eric Johnson; Danny Gatton; Bonnie Rait; Mary-Chapin Carpenter; Pete Townsend; Jimmy Page; Buddy Guy; David Gilmour; Brian Thiessen. I've tried to keep to people who play solid electric, and leave out the (often wonderful) semi-players like BB King and John Scofield.

No doubt others will have more ideas - but this will do for a start...

And even though you're writing about the electric guitar, you'll also find plenty of material in books about acoustic guitars. There's a book out called (I think) The Guitar - An American Story, which is about a guy getting an acoustic guitar built for him. He covers a lot of the history of the guitar in general and there's a recurring theme about how the electric guitar very much changed the intimacy of guitar music, bringing it to auditorums and outdoor arenas when it was very much a small audience thing for so long.

Peace

I did a google search this morning because i was curious about something and i typed in electric guitar invention. you can get a lot of information there. basically rickenbacher is credited with inventing hollow body electric in the 1930s but les paul is credited with the first solid body electric in the 1940s. it came about because guitarists had a need to amplify in order to be able to be heard in the big band era.

Beauchamp and Rickenbacker did more to start commercial electric guitar than anybody, with the National "Frying Pan" electric lap steel of the early '30s. Look up Epiphone and the Electar lap steels and amps, too.

You need to start with the roots of electric guitar playing in American Music -- Charlie Christian.

Prior to Charlie, all guitars where were rhythm instruments along with the drum and bass. Charlie provided the first significant use of the guitar as a lead instrument that reached a wide audience. THis had been done before in bluegrass circles, but the audience wasn't nearly the size or future impact that Benny Goodman had.

Steel guitars, OTOH, were very popular lead instruments, which is why amplified guitar started off with the steel.

You might also mention the advent of the "power chord" consisting of the root and fifth - I don't know when distortion became big, but I do know that thirds don't sound too good without a clean channel. Power chords have had a profound influence on music, and they emerged because of electric guitars. (Not to say they didn't exist, or were never used prior, but now they're a staple of every electric guitarist's technique.)

John -
You said you were still trying to define your topic. I'm not sure if you paper is supposed to be more of a research paper, or opinion paper or just an analysis, but when I read your post here is what I got to thinking...just thought I'd throw this out there for you to mull over in your mind and see what anyone else might have to say: 'The Electric Guitar: an Electric Instrument for an Electric Age'. What do you think the electric guitar says about those who love to play/listen to it? From the 60's through today, it has grown ever more popular, so it must have some meaning to those of us who continue to support its trek to the forefront of popular (and nowadays even beyond popular) music. I mean, if you think about it, if you consider the electric guitar as it's own instrument, apart from the acoustic (not that I'm saying that's the right way to do it...but humor me) it seems to be the first instrument that really needed electric power. Today our lives are permeated by things needed 'power', including, it would seem, a lot of our music (as regards the electric guitar, keyboards, mixing/recording equipment), and the electric guitar has been at the forefront of this movement. Maybe I'm just feeling a bit too analytical/philosophical today, but I think there are some really fun ideas to explore there, and a great paper to be written!

Of course, the development of the electronic audio amplifier has heavily influenced, and been heavily influenced by, the electric guitar.

Beauchamp and Rickenbacker did more to start commercial electric guitar than anybody, with the National "Frying Pan" electric lap steel of the early '30s. Look up Epiphone and the Electar lap steels and amps, too.

Yup, the frying pan: saw one of those upclose the other weekend. Heavy little bugger too.

In my estimation, the 20s and 30s guys didn't really seem to want to invent a sound. The lap steel sound was a thing by itself, but still, they tended to sound a little clarinet-ish or violin-ish, going for the sound of the day. Some of the guys like Sol Hoopii were doing all these swing/dixieland horn and reed lines when they did solos, so I'm thinking they might've been going for that long sustainy sound (at times) with blazing staccato stuff in between. The solid body lap steels and those tiny little (overdriven) amps fit the bill pretty well.

And then the rhythm guitar/banjo guys in those bands probably went "Hmmm...sounds good..." and wanted a piece of that action too. And then you had your Charlie Christians and Les Pauls and all those other guys.

Hey Ricochet: see that Harmony 'Aeolian' on eBay last week or so? All shiny metal and solid from the 30s. Another example of laps being the first ;)

Hey Ricochet: see that Harmony 'Aeolian' on eBay last week or so? All shiny metal and solid from the 30s. Another example of laps being the first ;)I'm trying not to look at eBay right now. I've gotten myself into just a bit of marital tension with too many recent online purchases. :P