Meet the American who invented the electric guitar and inspired rock 'n' roll

Vinson

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I thought it was Les Paul but no, its Rickenbacker. Chris Squire of Yes was famous for his Rickenbackers


Incendiary sounds shooting like fireworks off the strings of an electric guitar have defined pop music around the world for 70 years.

Credit Adolph Rickenbacker (1887-1976) for this world-wide wonder of the airwaves. The Swiss-born entrepreneur invented the electric guitar in California alongside partner George Beauchamp in the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The powerful new instrument inspired a uniquely American art form that grew to dominate global pop music culture.

They called it rock ‘n’ roll.

Electric guitars "were affordable, they were loud and they were relatively easy to learn," Nicholas Toth, a professor emeritus of anthropology and cognitive science at Indiana University — and a stringed instrument collector — told Fox News Digital in an interview.

"The electric guitar was a great social equalizer."

The electric guitar produced more than just sound and power. It gave musicians an outlet to express every imaginable emotion — while also giving listeners the ability to feel an artist's joy, pain, elation or desperation seep into their own souls.

Beatles guitarist George Harrison, when he was just 25 years old and caught up in ungodly fame and fortune, lamented the world's love still to be realized "while my guitar gently weeps."

A young New Jersey musician struggled to find his voice in a Vietnam War-torn America. Then "I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk," Bruce Springsteen boasted to tortured love interest Mary on "Thunder Road."

"Just one guitar, slung way down low/Was a one-way ticket, only one way to go," raved the fist-pumping British-American act Foreigner in "Juke Box Hero" — reflecting the countless dreams of stardom inspired by six strings and an amplifier.

The earliest model electric guitar was dubbed the Rickenbacker Frying Pan. It resembled a round cast-iron pan with a long handle. In this case, however, it had a neck of steel guitar strings.

Toth and his wife, Dr. Kathy Schick, also an Indiana University professor emeritus, own one of the earliest-known models of the instrument, a circa-1934 model Frying Pan with the name spelled "Richenbacher."

The inventor changed his name later in the 1930s amid growing anti-German sentiment before World War II. His cousin Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s greatest flying ace of World War I, had changed his name years earlier.

The slick entrepreneur looked to capitalize on his war-hero cousin's national popularity, some rock experts have argued, noting that the inventor kept the name Rickenbacher in personal use.

The Rickenbacker Frying Pan quickly proved a commercial success while inspiring waves of imitators, innovations and improvements.

The slick entrepreneur looked to capitalize on his war-hero cousin's national popularity, some rock experts have argued, noting that the inventor kept the name Rickenbacher in personal use.

The Rickenbacker Frying Pan quickly proved a commercial success while inspiring waves of imitators, innovations and improvements.

Designers such as Les Paul, Leo Fender and Roger Rossmeisl all built upon the technology pioneered by the Rickenbacker Frying Pan — ultimately empowering a raw, energetic and, at first, uniquely American style of music.

"The guitar remains the primary sonic sexual and sensual stimuli for excitable people everywhere," rock star Ted Nugent told Fox News Digital, while describing the intense power that comes from wielding an electric guitar in front of a live audience.

"If ever there was an experience available to mankind that qualifies as ‘out-of-body,' it would be sharing, mining, milking, exploring and collaborating musical guitar-fire with people that love it as much as I do," he also said.
Adolf Adam Richenbacher was born on April 1, 1887, at 7 Gemsberg St. in Basel, Switzerland. He overcame great personal challenges on his way to reshaping global pop culture


more: https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/american-invented-electric-guitar-rock-roll
 
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Sonic Temple

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This was a great read mate - when I saw this - thought of Wendy Melvoin as well who played the Rickenbacker as well. The opening riff of Purple Rain is another iconic piece produced by this guitar.
 
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shack

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The powerful new instrument inspired a uniquely American art form that grew to dominate global pop music culture.

They called it rock ‘n’ roll.
Blues artists were using electric guitars before there ever was rock 'n roll. T-Bone Burnett in 1940 and Muddy Waters in 1944 are two examples. And as we all know, The Blues Had a Baby and They Named it Rock 'n Roll.

 
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xmontrealer

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Blues artists were using electric guitars before there ever was rock 'n roll. T-Bone Burnett in 1940 and Muddy Waters in 1944 are two examples. And as we all know, The Blues Had a Baby and They Named it Rock 'n Roll.

Fwiw T-Bone Burnett was born in 1948.

T-Bone Walker was a sophisticated electric blues guitarist and vocalist. Born 1910. Passed in 1975.

He had a unique jazzy blues style and out-of-phase tone, favourite guitar was a three - pickup natural finish 1949 Gibson ES-5, and was a big influence on Chuck Berry.

Started recording in 1940. This from 1948.

 
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xmontrealer

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You got me. LOL.

But I also love T-Bone Burnett's work. I would buy CDs of other artists that he produced.
That's a better picture of Walker's natural finish ES-5 than any I could find. He had an interesting semi-perpendicular to his body playing style that he often used.
 
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xmontrealer

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Here's Charlie Christian from 1941. He was one of the earliest electric guitar jazz musicians.

Also a Gibson guy. Note the very early bar pickup. Copies are made by several pickup manufacturers even today, and are referred to as Charlie Christian pickups. High output, similar tone to P90's.

 
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