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 Home > Learning Center > Electric guitars

Electric guitars

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Electric guitars were largely developed by Les Paul whose “log” now sits in the Smithsonian.

“We had a knob, and all we had to do was turn it.” –Les Paul

This was the time when an amplifier was unknown, bands were large and the guitar was not the popular instrument it is today. Acoustic guitars are great for intimate settings, but put them on stage with and they quickly get drowned out. Les Paul was playing a backyard BBQ back in the late 20 when a critic wrote a note telling him that the singing and harmonica sounded great but the guitar needed to be louder. He was 16 at the time and that note sparked his interest in amplifying the guitar’s sound.

Paul tried out a few different methods for increasing the sound the strings produce. There were electric guitars around at the time based off of hollow body acoustic guitars and lap guitars but the sound quality was poor and the guitars never caught on. At first Paul rigged a phonograph needle into the body of an acoustic guitar with a regular telephone microphone attached inside the body. This attempt successfully amplified the sound but the feedback was intense. He stuffed the inside of the hollow body with shirts and eventually plaster of Paris but could not eliminate the feedback. One fateful night he and a friend stole a piece of rail road, attached a string to it with the phonograph pick-up and telephone microphone and a radio as the amplifier and claimed to his mother “I have it! An electric guitar!” who was not impressed.

This didn’t deter Paul. He had realized that the hollow body was responsible for the feedback and began proposing his idea to Gibson guitars while closely developing the idea with none other than Leo Fender. His first working model with six strings was built from a 4x4inch post which he dubbed “the log”. People were confused, it didn’t sound or look like a guitar. Paul cut an acoustic in half and attached it to the sides. The next night it became an instant obsession which has changed our culture greatly.

Paul continually hassled Gibson guitars to produce a model of guitar based on his designs but they considered his “broomstick with pick-ups” a fad that would shortly pass. It wasn’t until Leo Fender began producing his legendary electric guitars that Gibson began listening to Paul a little closer. Two years after Fender released the Telecaster Gibson began producing the now famous Les Paul model which has been used by some of the greatest guitar players ever.

Les Paul is now in the Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio which has honored inventors from Thomas Edison to the inventor of Valium. It is one of the most widely used and recognized inventions since the wheel. Well, maybe not that much but it surely has changed the face of music and culture. The guitar went from being a quiet rhythm instrument played for small groups to a band destroying behemoth that could intimidate saxophonists and walk all over rhythm sections.

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