Impact Of Guitar On Music

The Impact of the Electric Guitar on Music

Everyone has moments when they feel as if they have found the wrong place. Now, it was time for one young gentleman to partake in one of these moments. A salesman had an appointment for a meeting with a wealthy man, yet he found himself wondering if he had arrived at the correct office. This was supposed to be a millionaire’s office, yet as he looked around the room, he saw no leather couches or expensive desks. In fact, the room was sparsely furnished, and had no carpeting. There was a desk, a rather common one that was too cluttered with blueprints and assorted papers to recognize, anyway. Also cluttered, a metal bookcase was in the corner, covered with speaker parts and catalogues. This enormously wealthy man even saved a disposable Styrofoam cup, which was sitting on his desk with his name labeled on it. Still hoping to find the owner, the salesman peeked in a back room, where he found nothing but dust, drills and punch presses. The man exclaimed, “Maybe it was the room down the hall” as he turned around. With this turn he bumped into the father of the solid-body electric guitar and the man he had been looking for. Mr. Fender then responded with a whole-hearted, “Can I help you?” (Wheeler, 1982, pp. 42-43).

The sought after executive was a man named Clarence Leo Fender, who was responsible for the first successful mass marketing of the solid-body electric guitar. However, it was an innovation that came after people were already using the electric guitar. For years before Fender’s success began in 1948, hollow-body electric guitars had been produced and used by top names in the guitar business, such as Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, and Blind Lemon Jefferson (p. 44). With these hollow-bodies came extensive research on ways to improve their sound. With this, the single most pivotal point in electric guitar research came in 1931, when Rickenbacker developed the “Frying Pan”. It resembled a banjo with a longer neck,...