describe the components of an electric guitar and how the electric guitar has developed and matured since the 1950s

Question 1

why was the electric guitar invented?

Answer 1

to make guitars audible when playing in big bands

Question 2

what are some of the first examples of electric guitars?

Answer 2

hollow-bodied

arch top George Beauchamp has been credited with inventing the electric guitar

Question 3

what were solid-body guitars developed for?

Answer 3

developed to combat feedback problems when hollowed bodies were played at higher volumes

Question 4

whats an advantage of a solid-body guitar?

Answer 4

cheaper to produce featuring either a glue-in or bolt-on neck

Question 5

who invented the first commercially successful solid body electric guitar?

Answer 5

Leo Fender

Question 6

what is the whammy bar?

Answer 6

a lever attached to the bridge which is sprung and used to slacken or tighten the strings to bend notes or add vibrato

Question 7

what are the frets?

Answer 7

thin metal strips which stop the string at the correct pitch when a string is pressed down against the fretboard

Question 8

what does an amplifier do?

Answer 8

converts the electrical signal back into sound

Question 9

what are pickups and how do they work?

Answer 9

The pickups are magnets wrapped in coils of wire. They are transducers which convert the sound energy into electrical energy. When the metal string vibrates, an electrical current is induced in the pickups

Question 10

how do electro-acoustic guitars work?

Answer 10

they have additional microphones or piezoelectric pickups which pick up vibrations from the body

Question 11

how do humbucker pickups work?

Answer 11

these are double coil as opposed to the original single coil design, they have two coils of opposite magnetic and electrical polarity so hum or noise hitting both coils should be cancelled out
(bucks the hum!)

Question 12

when were the first attempts at an amplified instrument?

Answer 12

1920s, development of electrical amplification by the radio industry

Question 13

what did Lloyd Loar develop in 1924?

Answer 13

an electric pickup for the viola and the string bass

Question 14

what happened in 1928?

Answer 14

first commercially advertised electric guitar, made by the Stromberg-Voisinet company which utilised a similar pickup to Loar

Question 15

when was the first electromagnet pickup?

Answer 15

1932

Question 16

who developed the ‘frying pan’?

Answer 16

George Beachamp and Adolph Rickenbacker, first commercially successful electromagnet pick up

Question 17

in 1939 what was Charlie Christian the first to do?

Answer 17

first artist to develop a playing style unique to the electric guitar

Question 18

when was ‘the log’ and who invented it?

Answer 18

1950, Les Paul, it was a guitar on a four-by-four piece of pine

Question 19

what happened in 1952?

Answer 19

Gibson introduced a model endorsed by Les Paul himself. The solid-body guitars didn’t have the feedback problems that characterized hollow-body electric guitars, and they had greater sustain

Question 20

name some key artists who used electric guitars

Answer 20

Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Paige, The Edge, Slash, Brian May

Question 21

when were effects and more powerful amplifications introduced?

Answer 21

1960’s and 1970’s