Who invented the electric guitar?

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The first magnetic pick-up was invented in 1924 by Lloyd Loar, a Gibson employee. The real first all electric guitars were made in 1931 by the Electric String Company. Designed by, amongst others, the legendary Adolf Rickenbacker, these 'fry pan' guitars were made of aluminum and played across the knees with a slide.
The first electric or electrified acoustic guitar was the Gibson EL150 in 1936.
The first 1940's solid body guitars electric guitars, similar to those we recognise today, were made by Gibson employees Merle Travis and Paul Bigsby, after the Les Paul 'Log' showed the way.
In the 1950s, Leo Fender made the first mass produced electric guitars; the ubiquitous Telecaster being the first. This was rapidly followed by the Gibson Les Paul.

George Beauchamp developed the first successful Electric Guitar in 1931 after leaving the National Resophonic Guitar Company of Los Angles, California to start the electRO-PATin-INstrument Company with Adolph Rickenbacker and Paul Barth. The goal of the Ro-Pat-In Company was to produce a line of electrically amplified instruments using the string driven electro magnetic pick-up (the design most widely used to this day). The company went into production in late summer of 1932 with both Hawaiian and Spanish (standard) guitars; the Hawaiian models being the most popular of that time. Each instrument was sold as a set with an amplifier. Neither instrument was designed to have any acoustic quality; the Hawaiian being made of cast aluminum and the Spanish of thick laminated wood construction. By 1933 the company had changed its name to Electro Stringed Instrument Company and by 1934 to Rickenbacker Electro Instrument Company. The company is still manufacturing electric guitars under the name Rickenbacker International. Perhaps the most widely recognized users of Rickenbacker guitars are The Beatles.


Harland Bernard Bodkin, invented the first solid body Electric Guitar 19 June 1941, which was based on a magnetic field pick up. He lived in Marrickville in Sydney Australia. The original prototype still exists in the Tamworth Musuem. The Patent for his guitar is titled 'Electric Guitar'. See below. No other claimed inventors of the electric guitar have been able to provide documented proof that they are in fact the inventor of the electric guitar. Harland Bernard Bodkin is the only claimed inventor of the Electric Guitar, that has documented proof.

Adolph Rickenbacker invented an electric semi hollow body guitar. It was basically a guitar with a microphone attached to it. Harland Bodkins guitar was a solid body with a magnetic field pick up, which is what Leo Fender produced when he first began

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The electric guitar was invented by a very talented man who went by the name of Adolph Rickenbacker

The first complete setup was back in the 1930's, which was only a mere 70 years ago. On the other hand, the Classical guitar and the Acoustic Guitar have been around for many centuries. There is evidence that dates back to 1800 B.C., that shows the presents of guitars, or similar instruments. There is really no comparison between todays electric guitars and the past. The evolution of electric guitars has been nothing short of amazing.

Adolph Rickenbacker manufactured his fist electric guitar in the early 1930's, and equipped it with tungsten pickups. These pickups would sense the vibrations from the strings and convert them into electrical currents. The currents are relayed into the amp and produces sound.

• Semi-hollow body are what the older guitars were know as. They were called this because they had sound holes in the body of the guitar. This style of guitar is still very popular today.

As the Big Band era approached in the 30's and 40's, the use of electric guitars became more popular. Plugging the guitar into an amplifier would give the much needed sound levels to be heard over the loud surroundings of the bands.

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A guy by the name of Les Paul i is the inventor of the solid body electric guitar. Les Paul invented the fist solid body in 1941.
This type of guitar is made of one piece of wood and has no sound holes. You are able to simply plug into an amplifier and start thrashing. Paul's first original guitar he made was nothing to brag about. It consisted of nothing more than a rectangular body attached to the neck and six steel strings. However, a modern day Les Paul is simply a thing of beauty. Gibson's Ted McCarty and a couple of other guys designed 98 percent of the Les Paul Goldtop and presented it to LP at his home.
It was in the 50's that Gibson hooked up with Les Paul and presented the Gibson Les Paul to the world. From that day there was no turning back. The Gibson Les Paul has been a major success for over 50 years, and is considered the most popular selling electric guitar on the market. One guy very partial to the Gibson is Slash from Guns n' Roses.
Leo Fender soon became the next big thing in solid-body guitars. Leo invented the Fender Broadcaster in the late 40's. The Broadcaster was introduced to the public in 1954, but instead of Broadcaster, it was named the Fender Telecaster or Fender "Tele". The Fender Telecaster guitar was very different from the Gibson in the fact the the Tele had a different body shape, used different hardware, and was much lighter. Despite these differences, the Fender has become the second favorite guitar among musicians. Musicians such as Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and many others play the Fender Stratocaster.

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First answer by ID2935841330. Last edit by Compendium. Contributor trust: 1100 [recommend contributorrecommended]. Question popularity: 42 [recommend question].