Transcript Slide 1

The Electric Guitar
Why electricity and guitar had to meet.
Already in the 1800's people began experimenting with
electrically powered instruments. (e.g. music boxes and player
pianos) Amplified instruments however do not appear before the
1920's when electrical amplification was invented by the radio
industry.
By the 1930's the need for an amplified guitar became apparent.
This period is referred to as 'the big band era'. The acoustic guitar
was no match for the brass sections in the jazz orchestras. This
shortcoming was the major basis for the electric guitar to evolve.
They simply needed a guitar with a volume knob.
The first steps.
You can imagine the first electric guitars didn't really resemble
the ones we're familiar with. In fact they were more like acoustic
guitars with rudimentary magnetic pickups attached to them.
With these pickups the vibrations of the strings were converted
into electrical signals. Those impulses were then amplified
through a set of speakers. This was already happening in the early
1920's and the theory still applies to our modern electric guitars.
The Frying Pans.
The first electric guitar for the general public was build in 1931.
They were called "Frying Pans". The picture below shows clearly
why.
This Hawaiian guitar was mostly
made out of aluminum and was the
first commercially successful
electric guitar.
The very first Frying Pan, also
known as the Mona Lisa of musical
instruments, still exists and is
considered to be priceless.
Despite the success a major
problem occurred with the electric
guitars made so far. They all had a
hollow body and vibrated a lot
which was of course disastrous for
the sound it produced and for the
guitar itself. This effect is known as the feedback.
Although Lloyd Loar experimented with an electrostatic
pickup designed to amplify the sound produced by an acoustic
guitar in 1923, credit for the first significant electromagnetic
guitar pickup is usually given to George Beauchamp who
created and patented the 1931 "Frying Pan" lap-steel
instrument (the wood prototype - the production models were
made of cast aluminum).
From hollow to solid body.
The electrical guitar was a great success from day one. But the
problem with the feedback caused guitar bodies to crack. A solution was
necessary but also evident in the way it appeared. When a hollow body
causes problems you simply build a solid body. It's early 1940's.
Mass producing 'Fenders and casters'.
The first mass produced electric guitar was build in 1950 in Leo
Fender's workshop. It was first called the Broadcaster but quickly
renamed to the Telecaster due to patent related issues.
4 Years later, in 1954, Fender's next guitar, called the Stratocaster,
was presented to the public. By now the electric guitar was so successful
that other companies started to manufacture their own guitar brands.
The Gibson Les Paul guitar has been made in those days.
Famous means expensive!
Through the 1960's and the 1970's Fender and Gibson were not only
the leading electric guitar brands, they were also very expensive. They
stood for quality and durability but were to high-priced for the 'common
people'. Cheaper imitations filled up the market but it was known they
produced an inferior sound and were less playable.
In the 1980's out of Japan came guitars of similar quality as the
famous American models. As a result Fender and Gibson were forced to
make less expensive guitars.
From history to future.
Even today Fender and Gibson represent the standard for quality
electric guitars. But they're no longer alone out there. And as
technologies and materials evolve so does the guitar. With computer
chips and matching software possibilities are endless.
Electric guitars have become true synthesizers with strings.
http://www.easy-guitar-site.com/electric-guitar-history.html
Electric guitar
pioneer Charlie
Christian
helped redefine the role
of the guitar
player in the
swing band
ensemble.
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/electricguitar/
In this 1972
photo, Adolph
Rickenbacker
holds the
original
prototype of the
"frying pan"
electric guitar.
The wood neck and body of the "Frying Pan" are the work of
Harry Watson, who had been the superintendant of the National
Company. To take the idea to market, Beauchamp enlisted the aid
of Alfred Rickenbacker (Alfred was the cousin of famous flying
ace, Eddie Rickenbacker) with whom he formed the Electro String
Company. Rickenbacker instruments were born.
http://www.stratcollector.com/newsdesk/archives/000103.html
History of the Guitar
A Brief History of the Guitar
by Paul Guy
The guitar is an ancient and noble instrument, whose history can be
traced back over 4000 years. Many theories have been advanced
about the instrument's ancestry. It has often been claimed that the
guitar is a development of the lute, or even of the ancient Greek
kithara. Research done by Dr. Michael Kasha in the 1960's showed
these claims to be without merit. He showed that the lute is a result
of a separate line of development, sharing common ancestors with
the guitar, but having had no influence on its evolution. The
influence in the opposite direction is undeniable, however - the
guitar's immediate forefathers were a major influence on the
development of the fretted lute from the fretless oud which the
Moors brought with them to to Spain.
"Queen Shub-Ad's
harp" (from the
Royal Cemetery in
Ur)
A tanbur is defined as
"a long-necked stringed
instrument with a small
egg- or pear-shaped body,
with an arched or round
back, usually with a
soundboard of wood or
hide, and a long, straight
neck". The tanbur probably developed from the bowl harp as the
neck was straightened out to allow the string/s to be pressed
down to create more notes. Tomb paintings and stone carvings in
Egypt testify to the fact that harps and tanburs (together with
flutes and percussion instruments) were being played in
ensemble 3500 - 4000 years ago.
http://www.guyguitars.com/eng/handbook/BriefHistory.html
The earliest stringed
instruments known to
archaeologists are bowl
harps and tanburs. Since
prehistory people have made
bowl harps using tortoise
shells and calabashes as resonators, with a bent stick for a neck
and one or more gut or silk strings. The world's museums contain
many such "harps" from the ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, and
Egyptian civilizations. Around 2500 - 2000 CE more advanced
harps, such as the opulently carved 11-stringed instrument with
gold decoration found in Queen Shub-Ad's tomb, started to
appear.
The oldest preserved guitar-like instrument
At 3500 years old, this is the ultimate
vintage guitar! It belonged to the Egyptian
singer Har-Mose. He was buried with his
tanbur close to the tomb of his employer, SenMut, architect to Queen Hatshepsut, who was
crowned in 1503 BCE. Sen-Mut (who, it is
suspected, was far more than just chief
minister and architect to the queen) built
Hatshepsuts beautiful mortuary temple, which
stands on the banks of the Nile to this day.
Har-Moses instrument had three strings and a plectrum
suspended from the neck by a cord. The soundbox was made of
beautifully polished cedarwood and had a rawhide
"soundboard". It can be seen today at the Archaeological
Museum in Cairo.
Two electric 12
strings, a Shergold
Modulator 12 (top)
and a Maton
TB36/12 (bottom);
the latter is a copy of
the Rickenbacker
360/12
From four-, to five-, to six-string guitar
As we have seen, the guitar's ancestors came to
Europe from Egypt and Mesopotamia. These
early instruments had, most often, four strings as we have seen above, the word "guitar" is
derived from the Old Persian "chartar", which,
in direct translation, means "four strings".
Many such instruments, and variations with
from three to five strings, can be seen in
mediaeval illustrated manuscripts, and carved
in stone in churches and cathedrals, from
Roman times through till the Middle Ages.
Right: Roman "guitar", c:a 200 CE.
The modern "classical" guitar took its present form
when the Spanish maker Antonio Torres increased
the size of the body, altered its proportions, and
introduced the revolutionary "fan" top bracing
pattern, in around 1850. His design radically
improved the volume, tone and projection of the
instrument, and very soon became the accepted
construction standard. It has remained essentially
unchanged, and unchallenged, to this day.
Guitar by Antonio Torres Jurado, 1859
An acoustic guitar is
a guitar that uses only
acoustic methods to
project the sound
produced by its strings.
A modern acoustic guitar.
The term is a
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_guitar
retronym, coined after
the advent of electric
guitars, which on
electronic
amplification to make
their sound audible.
The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, from which other types developed.
There are three main types of lap steel guitar:
Lap slide guitars, the first developed, which use a similar sound box to a Spanish guitar. These were originally called Hawaiian guitars and
included versions that had a factory raised nut, but also included Spanish guitars with a nut extender.
Resonator guitars, particularly those with square necks, but would include round neck versions with a raised nut.
Electric lap steel guitars, which include the first commercially successful solid body instruments. These were originally marketed as
Electric Hawaiian guitars. There are two types: one that sits on the musician's lap and a second version that has legs and was called a
console version, but did not include pedals or knee levers. Electric lap steels are typically made with six to ten strings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lap_steel_guitar
In this image, all the different parts of the guitar are indicated.
Some can only be found on electric guitars, some only on acoustic
guitars. I will now give a brief description of every part indicated,
from top to bottom. http://www.ultimateguitar.com/columns/the_guide_to/the_ultimate_guide_to_guitar_ch
apter_i__1_introduction_-_the_guitar.html
Guitar picks have been around for
centuries. Early picks were cut from
bone, wood, shell, metal, amber, or a
host of other materials by guitarists.
Those picks were made for each
guitar players’ personal needs and
styles. Modern mass produced picks
were introduced in 1922.
http://www.answers.com/topic/guitar
This site has an abundance of additional information on guitars.