A Brief History of the Guitar

By 1961 the electric guitar was in it's full maturity. Gibson had introduced "Humbucking" pickups into the Les paul, designed to eliminate unwanted hum from the magnetic coils Humbucking pickups utilized two coils wrapped out of phase so as to cancel out the common mode hum introduced by previous designs. Around 1961 Ted McCarty introduced the ES-335, a semi-hollow body guitar designed to incorporate the best of both the hollow body, and solid body designs.It quickly became popular and used by such influential guitarists as B.B. King and Chuck Berry. Both Gibson and Fender had introduced futurisic looking designs, the Gibson SG (solid guitar) and the Fender Stratocaster both became standard guitars for rock artists in the 1960's with the Stratocaster reaching it's peak by becoming the guitar of choice used by Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was the first guitarist since Charlie Christian to completely revolutionize the way the guitar was played.

Although there have been a handful of other manufacturers in addition to Gibson and Fender such as The Fred Gretch Co. formed in Brooklyn in 1883, who have contributed to the development of the electric guitar, the electric guitar as it exists today is for all practical purposes the same now as it was by 1961. A few newer companies such as Ibanez, and B.C. Rich have been able to attain some succes in the market mostly with younger players interested in Heavy Metal music but even now the overwhelming majority of electric guitars sold in the modern market are either a Fender or a Gibson. Older models have attained valuable collectors status in some cases being sold for as much as 70,000 to 80,000 dollars.