The electric guitar is undoubtedly one of the most well-known, popular, and widely used instruments in the world. A true symbol of blues, rock, and metal, the electric guitar does not, as is often believed, originate from the lute but rather from the baroque guitar, a much lighter instrument that was widely used in Southern and Central Europe during the 15th century.

Before delving into the long and fascinating history of the electric guitar, it is necessary to spend a few lines covering the basics—namely, defining exactly what an electric guitar is and how it works.

From a scientific and meticulous perspective, a textbook definition of the electric guitar is: a six-string musical instrument in which the vibration of the strings is captured by one or more pickups. The resulting sound signal is then sent to an amplifier so it can be heard.
Contrary to what its name might suggest, the electric guitar is not considered an electrophone instrument because the sound is not produced electrically or electronically via a circuit. The electronic component of the guitar is found solely in the amplification of the sound produced by the strings and detected, as mentioned, by the pickups.

From acoustic to electric guitar

This purely technical characteristic provides a great starting point for outlining the historical journey of this extraordinary instrument. The birth of electric guitars stems from the fact that, in the early 1900s, with the increasing formation of jazz and blues orchestras, it quickly became evident that acoustic guitars struggled against the superior acoustics of other instruments, by which they were easily overshadowed. In 1931, the ingenious Swiss luthier Adolph Rickenbacker introduced what became known as the frying pan guitar, the first electric guitar in history.
It was so named because of its peculiar physical shape, featuring a long neck and a circular body, which strongly resembled a frying pan. Created for Hawaiian music, which was very popular in the United States at the time, the frying pan guitar enjoyed moderate success. However, the real boom of the electric guitar came a few years later, in 1935, when Gibson began producing the ES-150, with the number indicating the total cost of the instrument, including amplifier and cables. This model quickly gained popularity, particularly in jazz and blues orchestras, thanks to the influence of great performers such as Eddie Durham and Charlie Christian.

These early models, of course, were not without their issues. In fact, these electric guitars, with their combination of soundboxes and pickups, often suffered from the annoying feedback effect, that characteristic whistling sound that occurs when a microphone is too close to a speaker.
In 1941, guitarist Les Paul addressed this issue by creating a prototype that could reduce feedback. However, when he presented it to Gibson, the company rejected the offer and did not produce it.

Leo Fender and the Broadcaster model

The definitive breakthrough for the electric guitar, and consequently for global music, came in 1948 with Leo Fender. If you’re a guitar enthusiast, his name should sound familiar. In 1948, the renowned American luthier introduced the famous Broadcaster, a guitar featuring two single-coil pickups and a wooden body. Initially designed simply to showcase Fender’s amplifiers, this guitar ended up perfecting the innovations of previous years (from the aforementioned Les Paul to Bigsby and Travis, the latter considered the father of the vibrato effect). The Broadcaster’s major advantages are twofold: its refined, iconic design—almost legendary—and its simplified assembly, which enabled an unprecedented automation of the production process. This resulted in lower costs and, consequently, more affordable prices, bringing the electric guitar to the forefront of global commerce. The success of Leo Fender’s Broadcaster was so overwhelming that this guitar, more than seven decades later, is still produced by Fender. Not bad, Leo.

Gibson and the Les Paul Model

Under pressure from Fender’s success, Gibson decided to revisit its decision and accepted Les Paul’s proposal to produce the Gibson Les Paul, a model that incorporated innovations from Bigsby and Travis, but with more “appealing” and less angular designs. By the 1950s, the battle in the world of guitars was no longer fought solely on acoustics, sound effects, and practicality but also, and especially, on aesthetics. After all, it’s no surprise—a beautiful product will always sell better than an equally efficient but less attractive counterpart. However, this did not stifle innovation: the Gibson Les Paul is credited with introducing the ability to individually adjust the intonation of each string.

In 1954, Leo Fender pulled off another masterstroke, arguably the most famous in the history of electric guitars: the Stratocaster. This guitar is widely considered THE electric guitar par excellence, both for its technical features (a greater number of pickups and the vibrato arm) and for its incredible impact on popular culture and collective imagination.
If you asked a child to draw an electric guitar, they would most likely draw a Stratocaster. To understand what the Stratocaster has represented and still represents for rock music, consider a partial list of musicians who have used it: Jimi Hendrix (and when it comes to guitars, one could arguably stop there to declare the Stratocaster the definitive winner over any other guitar), Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Frank Zappa, John Frusciante, Jeff Healey—the list goes on.

Since the 1950s, there have been no major revolutions, and the electric guitar has remained largely unchanged, following the brilliant models developed in the post-war period by Les Paul and Leo Fender. As the saying goes in sports, “Don’t change a winning team,” and it probably applies here as well.
Current innovations and research focus primarily on simple technical improvements, functionality enhancements, and production cost reductions rather than fundamental changes to the instrument’s operation. The only real difference between the guitars that set Woodstock ablaze and modern ones is the presence of hexaphonic pickups and analog-digital converters, driven by the need to interface with digital systems.

For the rest, the Stratocaster you use to annoy your entire building every afternoon is almost identical to the one Jimi Hendrix used to make rock music history.