Who invented the electric guitar?
Given the popularity of the electric guitar, it is surprising that there is not a single person who is closely associated with its creation. Alexander Graham Bell has the telephone, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, but who discovered the guitar? For one thing, it wasn’t like guitars didn’t exist one day and the next day they did. The history of the guitar is one of gradual development, and several people made important contributions along the way.
Before guitars were electrified, the instrument itself was used very differently. In the context of larger bands, it was in the background, as the instrument was not loud enough to project enough individual notes. Players had to strum loudly to be heard, so its use was rhythmic in nature. Before individual notes could be infused with gain, distortion, reverb, and all the other exciting effects, it took a lot of development from people who weren’t even working together.
In 1924, Loyd Loar, a Gibson employee, invented the first magnetic pickup. The pickup is what separates the acoustic from the guitars. Still, it wasn’t fully assembled yet, and more work was needed on development. In 1931, a version of the guitar emerged, but not exactly what we imagine today. Created by, among others, the legendary luthier Adolph Rickenbacker, the aluminum “pan” type guitars were placed on the players’ knees and used a slide. The first electro-acoustic guitar most similar to the current ones is the Gibson EL150. This one debuted in 1936. It was not a solid body, but this was a crucial stage of development in the medium.
In 1941, Australian inventor Harland Bernard Bodkin was credited with the patent for the ‘electric guitar’. Of all the people who contributed to the creation of the guitar, none have as much evidence as Bodkin. The prototype still exists and is on display in a museum in Australia. It didn’t take off, but any discussion of the invention of the guitar cannot exclude Bodkin.
In the 1940s, after Les Paul designed ‘the trunk’, Gibson employees Merle Travis and Paul Bigsby created the solid body guitars we envision today in our collective imagination. It was heavy and would develop further, but it was really the beginning of guitars.
In the 1950s, Fender released the famous Telecaster and thus produced the image of a curvy solid body guitar. This was quickly followed by the Gibson Les Paul. From that moment on, the world had guitars! Improvements, styles, and fads came and went, but these two were the first real guitars. In fact, I’m sure most contemporary musicians would love to have any of these today. They are worth a small fortune, but not only for their historical value. It’s crucial to understand that the guitars being made back then were excellent by today’s standards. The owner of 1950s Fenders and Gibsons may choose to keep them protected, and it is indeed necessary to keep your instruments in good shape. But it would be a tremendous shame if they were not played!
To understand the history of guitars is to understand that it was not the work of a single person. Let’s thank all those who have given us such a beautiful instrument!