Amplified: A Design History of the Electric Guitar PDF
Preview Amplified: A Design History of the Electric Guitar
amplified l i p f m i e A d l i p f m i e A d ù A ü Design History of the Electric Guitar Paul Atkinson REAKTION BOOKS For Sandra Published by Reaktion Books Ltd Unit 32, Waterside 44–48 Wharf Road London n1 7ux, uk www.reaktionbooks.co.uk First published 2021 Copyright © Paul Atkinson 2021 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers Printed and bound in China by 1010 Printing International Ltd A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library isbn 978 1 78914 274 7 Published with support from Sheffield Hallam University Art & Design Research Centre, John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. Vintage® and Fret-King® guitars – Worldwide Distribution, Design History Society contents guitar glossary 6 introduction 9 one emergence 21 two the holy trinity 63 three expansion 103 four diversity 143 five technology 191 epilogue 239 references 244 select bibliography 259 acknowledgements 261 photo acknowledgements 263 index 265 guitar glossary solid-body guitar Tuners/ Six-on-one-side Headstock Tuning Pegs/ Machine Heads Bottom String Top String (heavier gauge wound strings) (lighter gauge plain strings) Fretboard Frets Neck Upper Cutaway Fret Markers Upper ‘Horn’ Lower Cutaway Lower ‘Horn’ Solid Body Waist Scratchplate/Fingerguard/Pickguard Neck Pickup ‘Tremolo’ Arm Middle Pickup Bridge Pickup Pickup Selector Switch Volume and Tone Control Knobs Jack Socket Lower Bout semi-hollow-body guitar Three-per-side Headstock Nut Scale Length = Bridge to Nut Pickup Selector Switch Neck Pickup Scratchplate/Fingerplate/Pickguard Bridge Pickup Vibrato/‘Tremolo’ Arm f Holes/Sound Holes Volume/Tone Control Knobs Semi-hollow Body Bridge Vibrato Tailpiece introduction The story of design is often one of the history of inventions. Frequent questions are ‘Who made the very first one?’ and ‘Who invented it?’ Answers to both these questions might seem straightforward in relation to the electric guitar, given that it’s a relatively recent invention. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The emergence of the electric guitar was, like many other inventions, the result of a series of parallel developments – a wide variety of interested stakeholders, all experimenting and filing patents at roughly the same time in order to find a solution to the same wide- ly acknowledged problem of needing to produce more volume, but approaching it from a number of different directions. This is what I want to explore in this book. And yet, in the history of rock ’n’ roll, ‘mythology often stands in for history.’1 The real story of this instrument is clouded by a cacophony of competing claims. There is, obviously, prestige to be gained from claiming to have been the first to have produced an electric guitar, prestige that drives some of this mythology. The electric guitar industry is one that is peculiarly bound up in its own history: the heritage of a particular guitar company is of real importance to its customers, 9
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