Electric Guitar E-Book

Helmuth Lemme

• Herausgeber: Elektor International Media
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 504

Beschreibung

What would today's rock and pop music be without electric lead and bass guitars? These instruments have been setting the tone for more than sixty years. Their underlying sound is determined largely by their electrical components. But, how do they actually work? Almost no one is able to explain this to the true musician with no technical background. This book answers many questions simply, in an easily-understandable manner. For the interested musician (and others), this book unveils, in a simple and well-grounded way, what have, until now, been regarded as manufacturer secrets. The examination explores deep within the guitar, including pickups and electrical environment, so that guitar electronics are no longer considered highly secret. With a few deft interventions, many instruments can be rendered more versatile and made to sound a lot better – in the most cost-effective manner. The author is an experienced electronics professional and active musician. He has thoroughly tested everything described here, in practice.

Leseprobe

an Elektor Publication

Electric Guitar

●

Sound Secrets and Technology

Helmuth Lemme

2nd Edition

Elektor is part of EIM, the world’s leading source of essential technical information and electronics products for pro engineers, electronics designers, and the companies seeking to engage them. Each day, our international team develops and delivers high-quality content - via a variety of media channels (e.g., magazines, video, digital media, and social media) in several languages - relating to electronics design and DIY electronics. www.elektor.com

●This is an Elektor Publication. Elektor is the media brand of Elektor International Media B.V.78 York StreetLondon W1H 1DP, UKPhone: (+44) (0)20 7692 8344© Elektor International Media BV 2020First published in the United Kingdom 2020

●All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form, including photocopying, or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication, without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, England W1P 9HE. Applications for the copyright holder’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publishers. The publishers have used their best efforts in ensuring the correctness of the information contained in this book. They do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this book, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause.

●British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataCatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

●ISBN 978-1-907920-87-5

●EISBN 978-3-89576-362-5

●EPUB 978-3-89576-363-2

Prepress production: DMC ¦ daverid.comPrinted in the Netherlands by Wilco

Table of Contents

● A Book as a Bridge between Two Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 1 ● History and Construction Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.1 ● The Beginning: Hawaiian and Full-Body Archtop Guitars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.2 ● Les Paul and Leo Fender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.3 ● The Triumph of the Solid-body Guitar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

1.4 ● Semi-acoustic Guitars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

1.5 ● The Electric Bass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 2 ● The Mechanics of the Electric Guitar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.1 ● What Determines the Sound? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.2 ● The Strings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.3 ● The Body. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

2.4 ● The Neck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

2.5 ● Mechanical Resonances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Chapter 3 ● Magnetic Pickups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

3.1 ● Market Situation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

3.2 ● The Most Common Constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

3.3 ● Manufacturing Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

3.4 ● Function and Transfer Characteristic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

3.5 ● Pickup Measuring Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

3.6 ● Low-Impedance Pickups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

3.7 ● Further Sound Affecting Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

3.8 ● Active Pickups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

3.9 ● DIY and Modification of Pickups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

3.10 ● Exotic Pickup Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Chapter 4 ● Piezo Pickups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

4.1 ● Construction and Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

4.2 ● Electrical Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Chapter 5 ● The Position of the Pickups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

5.1 ● Single Pickup Transfer Characteristic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

5.2 ● Combination of Multiple Pickups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Chapter 6 ● Guitar Wiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

6.1 ● ‘Classic’ Wiring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

6.2 ● Intricacies of Coil Switching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

6.3 ● Passive Wiring for Professionals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

6.4 ● Active Electronics in Mass-Produced Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

6.5 ● Active Electronics for DIY Use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

6.6 ● Shielding, Grounding, Cable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

6.7 ● Wireless Transmission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Chapter 7 ● Guitar Synthesizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

7.1 ● The Precursors: "Organ Guitars". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

7.2 ● Analog Guitar Synthesizers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

7.3 ● Digital Guitar Synthesizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

7.4 ● Guitar Modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Chapter 8 ● Feedback in Electric Guitars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

8.1 ● String or Body Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

8.2 ● Pickup Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

8.3 ● Endless Sustain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Chapter 9 ● The DIY Electric Guitar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

9.1 ● Repairing Electrical Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

9.2 ● Building your own Electric Guitar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Chapter 10 ● Guitar Collecting as a Passion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Chapter 11 ● Tips for Buying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

11.1 ● The Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

11.2 ● Mechanical Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

11.3 ● Electrical Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

● Epilog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

● About The Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

● Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

● Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

● A Book as a Bridge between Two Worlds

Where or what would modern popular music be today without electric guitars and basses? Over the past decades these instruments have set the tone, and experienced an explosively expanding distribution. The top players are treated like heroes presenting stimulating shows on stage with their freedom of movement and performance, in comparison to rather static keyboard players and drummers.

A cult following has arisen surrounding these instruments, also strongly influenced by clever marketing strategies of manufacturers and dealers. Brand names dominate the market and the guitar’s symbolic value is no longer based on its practical value. The idolization of electric guitars has taken on absurd forms. However, in this line of business – as is always the case in a free economy – a ruthless competitive battle rages in the background, with a potential for self-destruction. The romanticism is only a façade.

This book aims to disillusion the fictitious world and bring it back down to earth. A clarification of false opinions is urgently necessary. It is aimed at musicians and should be seen as a beneficial asset. Many musicians are short of money, but are nevertheless often tricked into buying overpriced guitars or spare parts – this should not happen.

Every musician wants to have the “best“ possible sound. The electrical equipment – pickups and internal wiring of an instrument – play a decisive role here. It is possible to improve this on many a commercial instrument. Once the art of modification has been understood, good sound can be achieved for little money. It depends less on the price of the parts used than on application of the right know-how.

This book’s first aim is not to increase manufacturer’s sales. Instead, it addresses the average consumer who is technically oriented; to help them invest their money as efficiently as possible.

The communication between musicians and technicians is often difficult. Musicians are usually emotionally-led artists who express their work through sound and lyrics, while technicians have to wind wires around magnets and measure physical values. These are two entirely different worlds and the ‘translation’ between the two can sometimes be difficult. This book attempts to build a bridge between them.

Guitar electronics is a narrow, specialized branch of electroacoustics which until now has not been taken very seriously in technical literature. However the interest is there; many a musician would like to know more about the operation of his or her instrument. This book aims to close this gap; not being content to stay at a superficial level, it delves astutely into the innards of electric guitars and basses. The main emphasis is on the pickups and their electrical environment – an area that’s usually not too familiar even to instrument builders. The manufacturers prefer not to disclose their secrets and instead choose to spread misleading information solely to their commercial advantage.

It has become apparent that a new systematic view on guitar electronics is desperately

needed. The guitar’s sound is shaped by many different parts that interact with each other to become the complete system. Therefore, it is not sufficient to describe the parts separately from each other. This can be compared to chemistry: even if all the properties of hydrogen and oxygen are known, the properties of water can still not be predicted based only on the knowledge of those of both in isolation. A common question is ‘What does this or that pickup sound like?’ This question is incompletely phrased; it should actually be: ‘How does the combinationof this or that pickup with that cable and other components transfer the sound material produced by strings and body?’

So as not to exceed the scope of this book, it is assumed that reader is factually familiar with certain fundamentals of electronics. Those who already have some basic existing knowledge of alternating current behavior and the design of electronic circuits can use the knowledge found here to modify and improve their electric guitar or bass with great success. Even those who do not yet have such knowledge can learn – using their own guitar experiments as a pathway to the intriguing world of electronics.

Personally I have been fascinated by electric guitars and basses since about 1966. I have acquired an extensive collection since then and have experimented a lot. Many instruments belonging to friends and customers have also been at my disposal; they allowed me to try out my ideas. For nearly every model I experimented with how the sonic possibilities could be improved. I see no benefit to keeping my knowledge secret and so I decided to share it via this book.

It was important for me to find a balance between technical and theoretical precision on the one hand and practical clarity for the musician/electronics hobbyist on the other. This was not always an easy task.

Those who are not interested in theoretical discourses – for example the discussion of mechanical resonances in section 2.5 – can skip those parts and still profit from other parts of the book. However a full understanding is only possible with a good knowledge of the entire guitar system – including how the mechanical structure affects the signal produced by the instrument.

Some musicians can be extremely sensitive in regarding their sound. Consequently the technical background should be examined meticulously, resulting in the search for the ultimate sound becoming visible and tangible. This knowledge becomes a tool with which you can begin to shape your sound. This helps to avoid the result being subject merely to chance but instead becoming something which can be purposely formed to meet your own ideals. This book attempts to address as many people as possible as tastes vary immensely. Even if not all the knowledge here is used in practice, it is always useful to know what is possible and what not.

Nowadays there are thousands of models and hundreds of manufacturers of electric guitars and basses. I have tried my best to remain as neutral as possible. However there are many companies who only have copied from others and therefore my focus lies on the original innovators in this field.

In order to write this book, I have spoken and corresponded with many musicians and manufacturers and have experienced very different opinions. With some I was not in accordance while others helped to support me strongly in my work, which is based on a solid background in electronics as it applies to electric guitars.

I am very grateful to a number of people who helped support me in writing this book. I would like thank especially Prof. Dr. Manfred Zollner (Technological University of Regensburg), Prof. Dr. Helmut Fleischer (Bundeswehr University, Munich), Tilmann Zwicker; Anna McCarthy and Robert K. Watson for the translation from German to English, and finally Gary Swift for revising the complete text of this second edition.

I wish you all a good sound!

Munich, January 2020

Helmuth Lemme

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Chapter 1 ● History and Construction Types

1.1 ● The Beginning: Hawaiian and Full-Body Archtop Guitars

Taking a look at today’s electric guitars one might find it hard to believe that this type of musical instrument is well over 90 years old. Its origins can be found in the United States somewhere in the 1920s. In those days, guitarists found it difficult to be heard where jazz and entertainment orchestras with brass sections and drums were in high demand, resulting in guitarists being desperately in need of greater volume. The first innovation to make a louder guitar was the metal resonator with a metal cone similar to that of a loudspeaker, built by National and Dobro. This increased the sound volume a little, but still proved inadequate to compete with drums and horns.

At that time, in addition to guitars being played in the normal “Spanish“ (upright) position, Hawaiian guitars were also very popular. They were placed flat on a table or on the player’s knees, hence the name ‘lap steel guitar’. Instead of frets on the fingerboard, there is a row of simple orientation lines. Intonation is achieved by pressing down the strings using a steel bar. To accommodate barring the strings without hitting the bar against the neck, the string action is set very high. The neck, in most cases, has a square profile – and, in some models (such as the Weissenborn) the neck was actually a full-depth hollow extension of the body itself. The resonance body is shaped like a normal acoustic guitar and volume is low. This type of instrument has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

Following the development of electrical amplification and its successful use in record players, some people began to experiment with the application of this principle to guitars. Lloyd Loar, a musician and instrument developer who was at that time working for the Gibson company in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is presumed to be the first to have equipped a guitar with a pickup device and connected it to an amplifier. The Gibson company was founded by Orville H. Gibson(1856 – 1918), whose essential innovation to the guitar was the introduction of arched tops and backs modeled on the violin body. This construction type was absolutely new to guitars, producing a beautiful and full sound, leading to the company’s legendary reputation. He sold his company in 1902 to a group of investors. It continouosly grew and was always striving to produce top quality. Lloyd Loar’sgreatest success – produced from 1923 – was the full-body guitar ‘L5’, which did not have a round or oval sound-hole, but two f-holes; once again inspired by the violin. Its voluminous, singing sound ensured an enthusiastic acceptance amongst the then jazz musicians. Eddie Lang, the most famous guitarist at that time contributed greatly to its distribution. Further models of this construction type were ‘L7’, ‘L12’, ‘L50’, amongst others. The most expensive model was the ‘Super 400’, introduced in 1934, its name indicating its price: $400, which was an exorbitant sum at that time.

Lloyd Loarwas fascinated by the idea of electric amplification and in 1923 he invented an electrostatic capacitive pickup. Sadly, due to its operating principle it had very high impedance and produced strong interference, proving to be practically unusable. In 1933 Loar left Gibson and founded his own company ‘Vivi tone’, which was not very successful.

Chapter 1 ● History and Construction Types

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Lester Polfuss(born in 1915) had also been experimenting in this field, ever since his school days. Later on he became very famous under the pseudonym Les Paul. His technique used the piezoelectric crystal of a record player pickup to detect the vibrations of the guitar top using the audio section of a radio as the amplifier. Others inserted microphones into the guitar body. At the time, most microphones used grains of carbon to create a variable resistance when cyclically compressed by sound waves. These microphones were inadequate for the task. In addition to the guitar sound, they also picked up airborne sound, which subsequently resulted in unwanted acoustic feedback. An important subsequent development was the invention of pickup elements sensitive to the string vibrations only and neglecting air sound and mechanical movements of the guitar top. These pickups consisted of magnets and coils. Most probably George Beauchampwas the inventor. Two men by the names of Horace Roweand Harold DeArmondwere also pioneers in this field, developing the first commercially available detachable guitar pickups.

The electric guitars created in the 1920s were in every respect hand-built instruments. Due to the growing interest in these instruments, some musicians started considering how to implement mass-production. George Beauchamp and Paul Barth were the essential trailblazers in this endeavor. Their experiments very soon led them to the groundbreaking idea that there was no need for a resonating body when electric amplification was being used. In order to achieve a long sustaining tone they constructed the neck and body out of a single piece of cast aluminum. Adolph Rickenbacher(born in 1886, emigrated from Switzerland to Los Angeles), who had already produced the metal bodies for the resonator guitars, was given the production order. The headstock of these new instruments carried his name, which was later Americanized by changing the ‘h‘ to a ‘k‘: Rickenbacker.

The first models were called ‘A22’ and ‘A25’ (referring to the string scales of 22 or 25 inches, respectively). These were Hawaiian guitars with a similar form to that of banjos (fig. 1.1), which were available up until the 1950s. It did not take long for musicians to nickname this model ‘Frying Pan’ because of its unique form. The pickup consisted of two horseshoe magnets and a coil. Suitable amps built similarly to those used for record players were also available to order.

The aluminum guitars had the disadvantage that the heat of the stage lights caused the guitar to go slightly out of tune. From 1935, Rickenbackerintroduced an alternative material: Bakelite - a very hard, brittle synthetic material with unforeseen high quality sound properties (fig. 1.2). The body was given a ‘waist’ , which more closely resembled a traditional guitar. For ease of production the necks were screwed on, which was new, but had no negative effect on the sound quality. These instruments came in many different variations, and were well appreciated by Country/Western and ‘Hillbilly‘ (later called “Bluegrass“) musicians. A few of the models even used actual frets and could accommodate the Spanish style of playing – these were the ancestors of today’s solid-body electric guitars. Nevertheless, sales were slow; as the time was not yet ripe for these early electric instruments. The boom of the Hawaiian guitars lasted into the 1960s, but with the rise of Rock & Roll they lost popularity.. From around 1932, Rickenbackerbegan to equip full-body archtop guitars with an L5 styled wood resonating body (supplied by the companies Harmony and Kay) and he began putting his name on the headstock. In the early 1950s

Electric Guitar ● Sound Secrets and Technology

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he sold his company to F. C. Hall.Rickenbackerdied in 1976, at the respectable age of 90.

His success soon inspired other manufacturers, especially Gibson, who in 1935 began constructing an electric Hawaiian guitar made of solid wood. It had a cavity for the electromagnetic pickup, which was still very bulky. It was named ‘EH-150’. This was soon

Fig. 1.1. The first electric series production model: Hawaiian guitar by Adolph Rickenbacher, 1931, called ‘Frying-Pan’.

Fig. 1.2. Made of Bakelite: Rickenbacher Hawaiian guitar around 1937.

Chapter 1 ● History and Construction Types

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followed by the ‘ES-150’ (fig. 1.3), a normally playable archtop guitar (‘EH’ stands for Electric Hawaiian, ‘ES’ stands for ‘Electric Spanish’, and the associated number was the selling price in the catalog of the day.) It had the body of an ‘L50’, but was equipped with a pickup. The electric mandolin ‘EM-150’ and finally the electronic tenor banjo ‘ETB-150’ followed. An amplifier suitable for all four instruments was also available and had an output of 15 watts. Compared to the power of today’s amplifiers this may seem rather low, particularly because the loudspeakers were far less efficient than today’s, but this still led to a considerable volume gain, in comparison to the unplugged instruments.

Fig. 1.3. One of the first archtop electric guitars playable in normal position: Gibson ‘ES-150’, about 1936.

Electric Guitar ● Sound Secrets and Technology

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On the earliest recordings of electric guitars, you can hear the guitarist Eddie Durham. However, Charlie Christianwas the one to become most affiliated with this new movement and who went on to become very well known. In the late thirties he was a member of the Benny Goodmanorchestra. In the early 1940s, together with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk, they took the first step from old into new jazz with a brand new style coined ‘Bebop’. Charliebroke new ground by introducing his guitar (the ‘ES-150’) as an equivalent solo instrument to the trumpet or the saxophone. This was only made possible by the introduction of electronic amplification. He is said to have shouted, ”Guitarmen, wake up and pluck wire for sound, let ‘em hear you play!”. The new sound soon found enthusiastic fans and the electric guitar spread fast within the American jazz scene. Another electric guitar pioneer was the famous blues musician T-Bone Walker.

During the Second World War (in the USA, 1941 to 1945), nearly all guitar manufacturers ceased production. However, following the war, production skyrocketed. Gibson developed many new models, often shaped with a ‘cutaway’ – ‘ES-5’ (the first guitar with three pickups), ‘ES-125’, ‘ES-175’, ‘ES-350’ and many others. In 1951 the two top pre-war models became the ‘L5CES’ and the ‘Super 400 CES’ (fig. 1.4). Some of them were designed tailored to the needs of great guitarists, such as Johnny Smith, Barney Kessel (fig. 1.5), Tal Farlowor Howard Robertsand the models were then named after them. There are a number of guitar history books available, which have dealt in great detail with the myriad of Gibson models.

Fig. 1.4. Gibson’s top of the line ‘Super 400 CES’.

Fig. 1.5. Rare double-cutaway archtop: Gibson ‘Barney Kessel Regular’.

Chapter 1 ● History and Construction Types

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Following Gibson’s success, other American companies started bringing out their own versions of archtop electric guitars: Rickenbacker, Epiphone (bought up by Gibson in 1957; for distribution reasons the name continued to be used for a second product line), National, Dobro, Harmony, Kay, Gretsch, and Guild. Even some very small but high class manufacturers such as John D’Angelico (began production in 1932, died in 1964), Elmer Stromberg, James L. D’Aquisto,and Robert Benedetto, had great success.

Following the Second World War, interest grew rapidly in Germany also. Jazz, once forbidden by the Nazis and known only as a ‘degenerate’ form of music, became very popular and generated high demand for electric guitars. The first European companies in production were previously manufacturers of violins and Spanish guitars. Framus and Hofner were the best known ones, alongside other smaller manufacturers such as Wenzel Rossmeisl (‘Roger’ guitars), Arnold Hoyer, Anton Pilar, Felix Starke(‘Este’ guitars), Gustav Glassl (who manufactured many guitars for Hopf), and, especially Artur Lang. The rise of rock music in the 1960s lessened the demand for hollow body archtop guitars, but through the years demand for these instruments has again risen considerably. Nowadays, guitar builders such as Klaus Roder, Stefan Sonntag, Stefan Hahl, Joe Striebelregister high demand for these guitars.

Electric Guitar ● Sound Secrets and Technology

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1.2 ● Les Paul and Leo Fender

Among electric guitars, solid-bodies are by far the most popular. The first solids for a normal ‘Spanish’ playing position were Rickenbacker’s models with Bakelite bodies, but they were very short-lived as there were only a few advocates of solid guitar bodies at that time. One of them was the previously mentioned Les Paul; a professional guitarist and soon one of the most sparkling personalities the U.S. guitar scene. He experimented enthusiastically, partly with off the shelf acoustic guitars (early on he had a Gibson ‘L5’) and partly with his own numerous constructions. He saw no importance in the resonance produced by a hollow body; his main aim being to find a long sustain of the string vibrations. This went so far that in one of his tests he even equipped a railway track with strings.

Although the early sounds he created were more or less by chance, Les Paul found out that different tonal colors are caused by different numbers of wire turns on the pickup coils and that the position of the pickups plays an important role in the instrument’s sound. His best known piece he built himself in 1941 using a thick 4” by 4” crosscut hardwood block as a middle section, to which he mounted two hollow lateral body parts of an Epiphone guitar and a Gibson neck. On the block, he mounted – probably the first to do this – two pickups, to achieve different tonal colors. On the outside, this instrument looked like a normal full-body acoustic guitar. He called it ‘The Log’ and also played it on stage on numerous occasions. From 1941 to 1947 he approached Gibson repeatedly, trying to convince them to manufacture his solid-body designs. They rejected him curtly however as they saw no place for his ‘broom-stick’ amongst their upscale acoustic guitars.

His musical success continued to grow, and he produced a string of hits together with his wife Mary Ford, long before the rise of Rock & Roll. He invested a lot of time in the further development of studio technology and developed many new recording techniques such as multi-track recording. In his multi-tracked pieces one or two guitars frequently sound an octave higher and twice as fast as normal. He achieved this by recording with the tape recorder set to half speed. He also invented the ‘flanging’ effect by playing two equal tracks in parallel and intermittently slowing one of the tape reels. Flanging was later achieved by electronic circuits and became very popular in the form of a little effect unit. Other inventions of his are double-tracking and tape echo, and the sound on sound recording technique with one recording head and several playback heads to play the sound over and over.

Les Pauldid not remain the only one developing the solid-body guitar. Paul Bigsby, later of vibrato tailpiece and pedal steel guitar fame, introduced some models built to the specifications of guitarist Merle Travisin 1947, which already had many similar features to later models. These included the shape of the 6-inline headstock and the neck through body construction. These innovative designs were sadly not commercially successful and only a few specimens were ultimately produced.

The man who helped the solid-body guitar achieve its biggest breakthrough was Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender,born in 1909. Although his biography reads like the American Dream come true, in reality he worked hard for every cent he earned. At a very early date,

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Fender became interested in electronic technology with the rise of radio. In the early 1930s he founded his own radio repair workshop in Fullerton near Los Angeles. Soon he was fixing not only radios, but also record players and the first electric guitars and guitar amplifiers such as Rickenbacker, Gibson, National and others. That is how he first came into contact with the local music scene. He lent out amplifiers and soon began building his own, many of them for the then popular Hawaiian guitars. Together with Doc Kauffmanhe founded the K&F company.

Due to the electrified hollow-body guitars frequently having problems with acoustic feedback at high volume, Fender developed his first solid-body guitar in 1943. This was not a Hawaiian guitar but one for the normal Spanish playing position. This instrument remained the only prototype as the business was sidelined during the second world war. However, production grew rapidly post-war. Kauffmanleft in 1946, and Fender’s company was then called ‘Fender Electric Instruments‘. The production of Hawaiian or lap steel guitars and amplifiers increased. Fender could hardly play guitar himself, but he had an excellent ear for good sound and developed the best contacts with almost all guitarists in and around Los Angeles, whose wishes he took into account. Fender’s amplifiers and instruments were highly successful with musicians because of their outstanding sound. They were very robust and could not easily be damaged by frequent transport to gigs. Their special sound quality had an emphasis on treble and bass frequencies and some attenuation at midrange frequencies. This was more successful with musicians than a strictly linear frequency response. Country and Western musicians were the target group as the Rock & Roll era had not yet begun.

Around 1950 Fender returned to the idea of a solid-body guitar for the normal playing position. He developed two models, the ‘Esquire’ with one pickup (at the bridge) and the ‘Broadcaster’ with two pickups. He was not allowed to keep the latter name because a drum set by Gretsch already carried the same name. So he renamed it ‘Telecaster’. The construction was designed as simple as possible in order to speed up production. It consisted of a one piece maple neck, i.e. without an extra fingerboard glued on, screwed to a body made of ash (fig 1.6).

These guitars were soon successful with Country and Western guitarists around Los Angeles and subsequently all across the U.S.A. The ‘Telecaster’ became a runaway success and the breakthrough for solid-body construction was a fact. Even today the demand has not decreased and the whole world has become used to its awkward shape. The ‘Tele’ has become a classic and is still built in large quantities, with hardly any technical changes. Its piercing sound marked the direction for the whole further development of the electric guitar. There was less demand for the cheaper ‘Esquire’ and it was discontinued in the 1960s.

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Encouraged by the success of the Telecaster, Fender together with designer Fred Tavares, started to develop a new improved model in 1953. He introduced this model to the public a year later as the ‘Stratocaster’ (fig. 1.7). It featured three pickups and a newly designed shape, optimally adapted to the player’s body. This solid guitar body had a “belly cut“ on the back, and an arm bevel on the top. So, unlike the slab-bodied Telecaster, it was much more comfortable against the player’s forearm and ribcage. At first the body was made of ash, and later alder was used. When Rock & Roll began, the Strat was accepted enthusiastically. It defined the whole sound of this era and eventually became the most successful electric guitar of all time. Its efficient and comfortable shape has been copied by

Fig. 1.6. The first successful solid-body guitar: Fender ‘Telecaster’ with original “ashtray“ bridge cover. This cover was often removed by players who like to palm-mute the strings using the edge of their hand on the bridge.

Fig. 1.7. The most played and copied electric guitar in the world: Fender ‘Stratocaster’.

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many other manufacturers.

Many of Fender’s later solid body guitar models did not achieve the high sales volumes of the first ones. In 1957 the ‘Jazzmaster’ (fig. 1.8)appeared, and in 1961 the ‘Jaguar’ was released. These were designed to be top models, but were much less popular than the ‘Tele‘ and ‘Strat‘ models. However, they have enjoyed a small comeback in recent years due to the nostalgic trend for reissued vintage instruments. Cheaper models were also made, that went by the name of ‘Mustang’ or ‘Bronco’. The line of amplifier models continued to grow.

Fig. 1.8. Fender ‘Jazzmaster’: a top 1960s model never enjoyed the widespread popularity of the Tele or Strat. However, there is nothing better for Surf music!

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The factory expanded very rapidly. In 1953 sales amounted to 1 million dollars, and by 1964 it had increased to 40 millions. Soon Leo Fenderlost his ability to oversee the whole operation and was completely overburdened with responsibility. He was more suited to the role of developer of new innovation than top manager and boss of 600 employees. In 1965, due to health problems, he sold his enterprise to the radio and TV group CBS (Columbia Broadcasting Service) for 13 million dollars. Owing to pressure from the new owners, the whole company was restructured and even in the area of production many things were modified. Numerous musicians at the time said that the quality of guitars and amps dropped and that some inferior products left the factory, which would not have previously passed the final check. Among other things, the pickups tended to feed back and the old nitrocellulose lacquer finish was changed to polyester finish. ‘Pre-CBS’ era equipment soon became known as premium quality. However, the product range and the quantities continued to grow and new instruments and amplifiers were in constant production.

In the 1970s and 1980s the wishes of the musicians and the end product drifted further and further apart. Fender left the original unified model and began producing a whole number of different variations of Telecaster and Stratocaster. The body shape remained the same, but smaller technical details were designed differently. Now, different versions that are nearly the same as the old models from the 50s (‘Vintage’-type) stand alongside the modernized models with all the technical improvements (‘American Standard’ and other series). Many are named after well-known guitarists whose ideas influenced the construction: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tom Delonge, Richie Sambora, Eric Clapton, Yngwie Malmsteen, Danny Gatton and many more. Meanwhile, there are now so many variants of Telecaster and Stratocaster being produced, with new models being introduced and existing models being discontinued, that it is difficult to keep track.

Another trend is that new models continued to appear that combined elements of various old models and names to become ‘Jagmaster’ or ‘Jagstang’, among others. The goal was to offer a model for every taste. In 1985, the factory was separated from the CBS group and became an independent company once again. Nowadays production takes place in the USA, Mexico and Asia (where they go by the name of ‘Squier’). Fender does not want to make public the amount of guitars produced to this day, but one could presume that, by now, it is sure to run into several millions.

In addition to the large-scale production, Fender founded the Custom Shop in 1987 – a specialist workshop for one-of-a-kind models and limited editions, designed according to customers’ wishes. These often featured extravagant paintwork, unsual types of wood, special electronics, etc. The prices were more realistic for wealthy rock stars than for the average consumer. The enterprise managed to regain success and acclaim following the business decline of the 1980s.

After retreating from management, Leo Fendercontinued to work as a developer for some years, but ultimately left the CBS company. His aim was to set up a smaller company, which he could be in charge of again. In 1973, together with some previous employees, he set up the company Music Man. He brought in a lot of experience and developed new guitars (fig. 1.9)and amplifiers, but the market reacted hesitantly. He finally discontinued

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the amplifiers and sold the company name to Ernie Ball. Together with his long-standing employee George Fullerton, he then formed the company G & L (for George & Leo) in 1980, which managed to combine old Fender know-how with a series of further technical developments. Leo Fenderdied in 1991, but his name as the pioneer of the electric guitar will live on.

The success of Fender was no secret to Theodore “Ted“ McCarty, President of Gibson since 1948. He was aware that something new was happening with Leo Fenderand that this young upstart could become serious competition. It became obvious that solid-body guitars were in demand after all, and so he decided to also take a shot at it. To make sure that the renowned name of the company was in no risk of being damaged, he made sure that the best possible model was to be produced. After careful testing of different wood types, the result was found in a two-layered body; a thick block made of mahogany on the bottom and a layer of maple on top carved in a way similar to the acoustic archtop models. This was done to prevent the new guitar looking as cheap as the ‘Telecasters’ (which at Gibson were only known as the ‘toilet lid with strings’). At that time by no-one but Gibson was built such a construction. The neck was glued instead of screwed on; the gold painted top matched the current fashion in show business – everything was of the highest quality available at the time. The guitar had two single-coil pickups with cream-colored plastic covers (type ‘P90’, or ‘soap bar’ as some liked to call it) and four potentiometers for individual volume and tone control of each pickup.

In terms of sales promotion Gibson was looking for a guitarist with a talent to play and success with the audience, capable of convincing others that a solid-body guitar was just as important as the hollow-body guitars. They remembered Les Paul who was still touring

Fig. 1.9. Leo Fender checking a Music Man guitar.

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the country and was consistently becoming more famous with his home-made ‘Log’ guitar. When Gibson presented the new prototype to him in 1951, he was immediately convinced and agreed to appear solely with this guitar in public. And so this model was baptized the ‘Les Paul Model’ (fig. 1.10). After a small alteration to the tailpiece, it went into production in 1952 and cost around $250.

A deluxe version followed in 1954, the ‘Les Paul Custom’ with high gloss black paint and gold-plated metal parts. Musicians called it ‘Black Beauty’ or, because of the very low frets, ‘Fretless Wonder’. Les Pauldid all he could on the advertising side of things, playing these guitars at all his concerts and using them for studio recordings. As of 1957, both models received the newly developed ‘humbucking’ pickups. In 1958, the design was altered: the standard version was given a brown-yellow shaded top (‘sunburst’), and the ‘Custom’ had a third pickup added to it in the middle.

Fig. 1.10. Early Gibson ‘Les Paul Model", mid 1950s

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However, sales remained limited. Fender continued to dominate the market for solid-body guitars in 1960. Nobody wanted the Les Pauls with its more conservative design and mellower sound. So, Gibson decided on a completely different design and changed the production. Les Paul‘s name remained on these guitars up until his contract with Gibson expired in 1962. After that they were called ‘SG’ (for Solid Guitar) (fig. 1.11). This model became a great success, especially in the 1970s and many versions appeared over the course of time. Notable SG players include Eric Clapton, Tony Iommi, Robby Krieger, Pete Townshend and Angus Young.The ‘SG Custom’ was the top model with its three gold-plated humbucking pickups.

In the mid 1960s, a stylistic change in popular music took place. The ‘Beat’ era, with its semi-acoustic guitars, came to an end and Blues became increasingly popular. The Les Paul

Fig. 1.11. Gibson ‘SG’, successor of the ‘Les Paul’

guitar. This one is an ‘SG Special’ with a simple

wraparound bridge/tailpiece.

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guitars with the humbucking pickups proved to be very popular with the leading guitarists of this era – Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Keith Richards, Mike Bloomfield and some others. Only this model managed to deliver the warm sound and very long sustain. After that, a high demand for the non-sellers from 1960 was on the rise. Since production was limited to 1500-2000 pieces, second-hand prices rocketed and far surpassed the original prices. These guitars are now collector’s items and are in an astronomical price range.

In 1968 Gibson finally listened to the wishes of the musicians and started to produce Les Paul guitars again, which were slightly different in detail. Innumerable different versions were produced and they are among the most popular electric guitars in the world. Fig. 1.12 is a rare deluxe version: the ‘Les Paul Artisan’ with three pickups and elaborate inlays. The ‘Les Paul Professional’ (1969) and the ‘Les Paul Recording’ (1971), with special electronics, were poorly selling extravagances. The guitar in fig. 1.13, depicted in the hands of its master, also belongs to this series – a one-of-a-kind model with a built-in microphone and remote control for a tape recorder, which could play previously recorded accompanying tracks.

Following the ‘Les Pauls’ and ‘SG’s’, Gibson put many other solid-body guitars on the market. In 1958, the ‘Explorer’ and the ‘Flying V’ were miserable market failures due to their bizarre shapes. Nowadays though they belong to one of the most sought-after collector’s items. In 1963 the ‘Firebirds’ were developed, with the aim of being serious competition for the Fender models, but they also only became recognized much later on. Many other models followed suit (these models are described in greater detail in numerous American books that deal with this topic).

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Fig. 1.12. Gibson ‘Les Paul Artisan’, a rare deluxe model with three pickups and elaborate inlays, 1970s.

Fig. 1.13. Les Paul with a prototype of the Gibson ‘Les Paul Professional’ with novel electric circuitry, a microphone and a remote control for a tape recorder.

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1.3 ● The Triumph of the Solid-body Guitar

The success of Fender and Gibson inspired many other guitar manufacturers in the USA and elsewhere to also start producing solid-body guitars. However, it was initially difficult for other companies to get their name established. The models developed by Guild, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, Danelectro, National etc. in the 1950s and 1960s, remained in the background. At least on the European market, German manufacturers Framus, Hofner, Hoyer and Hopf were more successful. In Great Britain, Burns and Vox were well known, and in Italy it was Eko. The Japanese came more strongly onto the market as of 1970; Ibanez, Aria and Yamaha became the leading Japanese brands.

Prompted by the great demand for Fender and Gibson models, German and Japanese manufacturers started to imitate their body shapes in the late 1960s. Initially, the similarities were slight, but after some years they resembled the originals exactly, right down to the last screw and could be distinguished by the name on the headstock only. At first, these imitations could not match the quality of the originals in sound quality, but this changed considerably over time. While Fender and Gibson were resting on their laurels, some models even exceeded theirs, especially in the overall workmanship. Competition and pricing pressure resulted in the German manufacturers losing the battle; Framus and Hoyer went bankrupt; Hofner survived but moved its focus from mass production to high quality workmanship. In the last few years, many new companies with few employees and with the highest quality workmanship have appeared across the country. Framus has risen from the dead as the guitar department of Warwick.

By far the largest amount of guitars still originate from the USA and eastern Asia. In the 1970s labor costs caused some U.S. companies to transfer part of their production to Japan in order to offer their superior guitar know-how at more reasonable prices. These instruments were often given alternative names. The instruments that were produced under Fender management were named ‘Squier’, after an old string supplier Fender had bought up in the 1950s. Gibson on the other hand revived the name ‘Epiphone’, while Guild came up with the name ‘DeArmond’ (Harold DeArmondwas an early designer of electric guitar pickups), which vanished after a short time.

But when, in the 1980s, Japanese wages also rose and the economic miracle took place in South Korea and Taiwan, part of the guitar production was taken out of Japan and moved to these countries. Even the Japanese enterprises adapted to the trend and transferred their production to neighboring countries with lower pay. Meanwhile Korea had lost the wage battle with China and Indonesia, whilst Fender manufactured its intermediate models in neighboring Mexico.

The number of manufacturers continues to grow. New brand names arise out of nothing and old ones re-appear – it is often not clear if they stem from an industrial concern or a small workshop. The number of available models has grown into the thousands. In comparison to the early days though, the diversity in design has decreased. Only very few manufacturers develop ideas of their own. Most of them are just knock-offs – i.e. style and technology copied from the successful models. Apparently, they seem to think this is a lucrative path

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to take and so the copying has no end in sight, although these companies can hardly make a name for themselves this way.

Thankfully, some manufacturers do create new models of their own. Full-time woodcarvers occasionally put their talent to show and come up with the craziest designs (e.g. at ESP). And even in their case, the fundamental construction for the most part is still based on the old principles of Fender and Gibson. Among American manufacturers, Paul Reed Smith (PRS) has built an outstanding reputation for itself (fig. 1.14). Other younger companies having gained acclaim are B. C. Rich, Tom Anderson, Brian Moore,Heritage, and Hamer. Their guitars most often have an excellent sound and are of high quality workmanship. The style, however, goes more or less along the well-trodden paths.

Fig. 1.14. subtitle: A dream of many a guitarist: Paul Reed Smith '513'

Fig. 1.15. Alembic ‘Tribute’ with the shape of Jerry

Garcia’s guitar.

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Companies having introduced real pioneering innovations are rare. One such company is Alembic, since 1969; a small company from Santa Rosa, California. Alembic vowed to deliver only the most exquisite quality, without consideration of price. Fig. 1.15shows the ‘Telluride’, whose shape is based on Jerry Garcia’sguitars of the Grateful Dead(built by Doug Irwin). The basses by Alembic became better known than their other guitars; more about them in section 1.5.

Ned Steinberger’sdesigns were regarded as revolutionary. He created headless guitars and basses made from carbon fiber embedded in epoxy resin, see fig. 1.32.(Germany)

Fig. 1.16. Veering off the well-trodden paths with new ideas of their own: Parker ‘Fly’

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manufactured guitars and basses of