Where did this come from?

Hmm.. I always just assumed because guitars kinda look like axes. Especially the electrics with their smaller bodies. I never use the term myself though. (sounds weird to me)

Now I'm curious too. Maybe there's one single documented use that preceeds all and an interesting story behind it?

oktay

Axe is a general term for one's instrument -- doesn't just apply to guitars.

So far the only thing I can find on the web about it is that it is old jazz slang, referring to any instrument, be it a sax or guitar or whatever, as gnease said.

Maybe it was like bringing your tools to work, and "axe" sounds cooler than all the others.

"Hey, man, did you bring your router so we can jam?" just doesn't quite make it! :lol:

When in doubt, go to http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=axe&searchmode=none :) (Look up the word 'OK' for an exercise. It's pretty interesting how new that word (including in the form 'okay' is)

ax/axe Look up ax/axe at Dictionary.com
O.E. æces, later æx, from P.Gmc. *akusjo (cf. O.S. accus, O.N. ex, O.Fris. axe, Ger. Axt, Goth. aqizi), from PIE *agw(e)si- (cf. Gk. axine, L. ascia). Meaning "musical instrument" is 1955, originally jazz slang for the saxophone; rock slang for "guitar" dates to 1967. Figurative verbal sense of "discharge (someone) from office," especially as a cost-saving measure, is from 1922, probably from the notion of the headman's axe. To have an axe to grind is from an 1815 essay by U.S. newspaper editor Charles Miner, in which a man flatters a boy and gets him to do the chore of axe-grinding for him, then leaves without offering thanks or recompense.

"The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which became prevalent during the 19th century; but it is now disused in Britain." [OED]

To me it sounds like it went from Saxophone to Sax, then Ax to Axe which are phonetically same. Then some guitar guy (one that thinks like me) thought his instrument looks more like an axe than that of a sax player so he adapted it. Yes yes. It had to happen that way. :)

oktay

it's called an ax because I play my chops with it. :D

... chops learned in the woodshed :)

Pete Townsend may have contributed to its popularity.

Remember the old guitar smashing antics in the 60s? When he would hold his guitar literally like an axe and chop away until it was destroyed. :shock:

That may have given the earlier term something of a boost when it came to crossing it over to guitars. :?:

Cheers, Chris

In blues, competitions between two guitarists were called "head cutting" contests. I always assumed the term axe came from that, as in a headsmans axe

In blues, competitions between two guitarists were called "head cutting" contests. I always assumed the term axe came from that, as in a headsmans axe

Cutting contests go back to the early days of jazz and ragtime in New Orleans, and included piano players, horn players, drummers, and even entire bands pitted against each other. It was never limited to guitarists.

THe most famous cutting contest ever was probably when Count Basie and his orchestra faced off with Chick Webb's orchastra at the Savoy. With Ella Fitzgerald singing for Chick Webb and Billy Holiday singing for Count Basie, and Benny Goodman's orchastra in the audience there are people who still argue about who "really" won.

THe most famous cutting contest ever was probably when Count Basie and his orchestra faced off with Chick Webb's orchastra at the Savoy. With Ella Fitzgerald singing for Chick Webb and Billy Holiday singing for Count Basie, and Benny Goodman's orchastra in the audience there are people who still argue about who "really" won.

Or the Lester Young/Coleman Hawkins saxophone cutting contest:

http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/linernotes/young_hawkins.html

THe most famous cutting contest ever was probably when Count Basie and his orchestra faced off with Chick Webb's orchastra at the Savoy. With Ella Fitzgerald singing for Chick Webb and Billy Holiday singing for Count Basie, and Benny Goodman's orchastra in the audience there are people who still argue about who "really" won.

Or the Lester Young/Coleman Hawkins saxophone cutting contest:

http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/linernotes/young_hawkins.html

While probably musically among the most exciting events ever (if it happened, as the story notes there's some debate about them even happening), I don't think those are talked about with the same passion 60 years later as Basie/Webb is. And they certainly didn't get the national press coverage that Basie/Webb did.

What I want to know is how in the heck Lester Young held that horn the way he did?!