Is invention a flash of individual inspiration? Sometimes, but typically it is a far more complex process. Amplifying the sound of a guitar by means of electricity, for example, involved many inventors and musicians working since the 1920s to develop, design, and popularize a louder instrument.
The electric guitar may be the most important and popular instrument of the last half-century in American music. Certainly its introduction brought a major change to American musical technology and has shaped the sound and direction of modern musical styles.
At first shunned as something of a novelty, electric guitars today are at home in the classroom and conservatories, in the concert hall, in garages, and even in marching bands. They are valued as much for the artistry of their craftsmanship as for the sounds they make. Musicians and avid collectors prize certain vintage models, and many electric guitars made in the years before World War II up through the 1960s sell for thousands of times their original price. The story of the electric guitar reaffirms an important historical theme.
Any technology, no matter how prosaic or grand, is the result of dynamic relationships among inventors, purveyors, and users. The electric guitar came to prominence through the desire of musicians and inventors for a louder, better, and different sound. It grew to be such an important element in American music through the interactions of listeners, players, luthiers, manufacturers, engineers, dealers, and, eventually, scholars and connoisseurs.
Because the electric guitar helped musicians to create in new ways, they and their listeners heard new things and imagined new possibilities about their music and, ultimately, about themselves and their world.

Commercial Success Of The Electric Guitar
As with many inventions, the electric guitar initially met with skepticism from traditionalists--performers as well as makers and audiences. But country and blues players and jazz instrumentalists soon took to the variety of new tones and sounds that the electric guitar could produce, exploring innovative ways to alter, bend, and sustain notes.
The instrument's volume and tones proved particularly appealing to the enthusiasts of rock and roll, which emerged in the 1950s. While it was important to other genres, the electric guitar was at the heart of the cultural revolution that rock and roll symbolized. The media capitalized on the image of the rock and roller with his slicked-back hair, leather jacket, motorcycle--and electric guitar.
Rock and roll music was particularly associated with a new electric guitar design, the Spanish-style solid-body. The earliest known commercially produced Spanish solid-body is the 1939 Slingerland. Around 1940, Les Paul experimented with such a design, and in 1947, Paul Bigsby teamed up with country singer Merle Travis to design a solid-body guitar that more closely resembled the ones we know today. But it was radio repairman Leo Fender who would be the first to successfully mass-produce and market a Spanish-style solid-body electric guitar beginning in 1950.
The immediate success of Fender's new style of electric quickly influenced other manufacturers to start producing their own models. In 1952 Gibson became Fender's first major competitor, introducing its own solid-body guitar with the help of celebrity endorser Les Paul. The mass production of these and other new models of highly desirable electrics allowed teenagers across the country to reinvent themselves in terms of a vision of musical rebellion and independence.
Although many people thought that rock and roll would be a passing fad, by the 1960s it was clear that this music was firmly rooted in American culture. And electric guitarists had become the superstars of rock. Live performances in large halls and open-air concerts increased the demand for greater volume and showmanship. Popular groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones generated an international following that verged on the hysterical.
By then, most rock guitarists were no longer aiming to achieve clean, cutting sounds on the electric guitar. They began to experiment, and new sounds and textures, like distortion and feedback, became part of the guitarist's language. Jimi Hendrix was rock's great master of manipulated sound. By using techniques such as maneuvering the guitar's tremolo arm and playing close to the amplifier, Hendrix achieved spectacular effects.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s guitarists continued experimenting.Their new musical vocabulary emphasized loud, raunchy power chords, flashy solos, and overall volume, becoming known as heavy metal. Eddie Van Halen experimented with sounds like "dive bombing," using the tremolo arm to drive the guitar's lowest note even lower. Hendrix had done this and frequently forced the instrument out of tune as a result. But by the mid-1980s, inventor Floyd Rose had improved solid-body guitar tremolo systems, making it possible to "dive bomb" repeatedly.
Today, more than six decades after bursting on the American musical scene, the electric guitar still features in all types of music and is played and admired by men and women, young and old, throughout the world.