Evolution of the Electric Guitar

 The electric guitar is one of the more prevalent instruments in today's music, possibly even more so than the older acoustic guitar. This would not be true, however, if electric guitars did not evolve. Electric guitars have changed greatly since their inception in 1931. In the time between the production of the first electric guitar in 1931 and the production of the Stratocaster in 1954, electric guitars changed greatly. Everything from sound pickup design to wood choice was changed, and all of these things came together to result in a much different listening experience between the two.

The first successful mass produced electric guitar is widely considered to be the Rickenbacker Frying Pan. This guitar was a pioneer, but is no longer widely produced, and has become somewhat of a collectors item. It was originally created to take advantage of the popularity of Hawaiian electro music, and had a electromagnetic pickup on the solid wood body. The guitar was designed to be played on the lap as shown below, which is fairly unique. While more modern guitars have many more features that make for a different sound and experience, the basic tenants of an electric guitar began with this one: A solid body, pickups, and sound output.

The Fender Stratocaster, first built in 1954, is one of the most innovative and revolutionary guitars ever built. It had a number of unique and useful features, such as the comfortable design, three pickup setup, and floating bridge. This allowed guitar players to achieve many more different sounds. The body is made out of ash, which is used for it's acoustic properties. the curves of the guitar fit nicely in a lap, and hold the guitar in place well. the floating bridge allows for players to preform a tremolo effect, and the three pickups can be used in isolation or combined for unique sounds. The Stratocaster is still in production and being sold today, which just goes to show how good the design was.

Tone

These two guitars are much different in the types of music that they were meant to play. The Frying Pan was meant to be layed down on the lap, and played as shown in the clip above. The Stratocaster, on the other hand, was meant to be played as a typical guitar. Given this, the tone of the music is much different. The Frying Pan has a much more muddy tone, with individual notes not being as clear. The Stratocaster, on the other hand, sounds clean, with individual notes ringing through nicely. This can be changed by using a different pickup on the Stratocaster though.

Style

Since these two guitars were made for different types of music, it makes sense that the style would be different. The Frying Pan makes much more use of power chords and vibrato, owing to the fact that the player uses a metal rod to fret the strings. The Stratocaster, on the other hand, allows the player a much wider selection of different styles to play. The style really depends on the song. However, the Stratocaster does lend itself in particular to quicker volleys of notes and solos.

It is pretty amazing that in the span of only 24 years the electric guitar evolved from it's first iteration to something we would, even today, consider a modern guitar. The evolution has granted players much more freedom in playing, as well as many more tools to use in creating a unique sound.

References

Brain, Marshall. “How Electric Guitars Work.” HowStuffWorks, 24 Aug. 2022, entertainment.howstuffworks.com/electric-guitar.htm.

Sweetwater. “The World‘S First Solidbody Electric Guitar? | the Rickenbacker ‘Frying Pan’ Is on Gear Exchange!” YouTube, 27 Jan. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNnYdsITnrw.

Zach. “The Evolution of the Electric Guitar.” TrueFire Blog - Guitar Lessons, 31 Mar. 2022, blog.truefire.com/inspiration/first-electric-guitar-evolution.