The Electric Guitar

The patent for the first electric guitar had an extraordinary start in 1931. No one had seen a device like it, and the US Patent Office couldn’t decide if it was a musical instrument or an electrical device, and there was no category for both. Not until 1937 did George Beauchamp and Adolf Rickenbacker succeed in patenting their device.

The electric guitar grew and grew, sometimes growing so fast that it grew an extra head, allowing musicians to play guitar and bass simultaneously and tearing a hole in reality into new dimensions of cool.

What has this done for mankind? The electric guitar is now commonplace across many genres of music, from rock to contemporary classic, but more importantly has tremolo bridged the gap between science and art, uniting electro-magnetic theory with beer and concerts. The electric guitar has also become synonymous with rebellion and freedom, and it has allowed the man on the street to dream of fame and fortune. Even Tony Blair has been seen grinding his axe, perhaps beginning the fulfilment of the prophecy whereby the electric guitar brings peace to the world, wielded in the deft hands of the Wyld Stallyns.

Whatever your taste in music, it’s hard to deny the powerful imagery and sounds generated by man and his axe, though we must never forget it’s humble beginnings as Beauchamp and Rickenbacker’s “Frying Pan” laying the bass-is for Ria Paschelle’s Statiophonic Oxygenetic Amplifiagraphaphonadelaverberator.

Submitted by: Dillon Hayes