No other musical instrument has encountered as much impact on how music has evolved since the beginning of the twentieth century than the electric guitar. The electric guitar is the most played instrument in the U.S.
In a peak year (eg 2000), Fender makes over a quarter of a million guitars. They are the largest manufacturer of electric guitars in the world. Fender also makes banjos, mandolins and violins. The Fender factory makes around 90,000 strings per day. This is over 20,000 miles a year, enough to circle the world. They also make around 950 guitar necks a day!
The first electric (electrically amplified) guitar was invented in 1931 and was actually a hollow bodied acoustic guitar with pickups. Electric guitar pickups work by converting the vibration of their strings into electrical currents, which are then turned into sound by an amplifier
There are a number of different types of electric guitars, including hollow-body, solid-body, and metal-body varieties, as well as acoustic-electric hybrids. All have their individual sounds as the relationship between the pickups and body types is very important, hollow bodies typically sounding more "airy". There are also different pickup types, single coil, P90 and humbucker being the most common. Originally all pickups were single coil but "hummed" when in proximity to other electrical sources - particularly amplifiers and electric lighting. So the humbucker, first patented in the 1950s by Seth Lover and Gibson (the famous PAF pickups used in 50s Les Pauls), was an attempt to remove this hum. However it also had the result of dramatically changing the sound, giving much less clarity and definition, but more power, and less hum. This had an unexpected bonus in later years when it was embraced by the heavy rock players!
The most expensive guitar in history was the Reach out to Asia Fender Stratocaster which sold for $2.7 million, but actually made $3.7 million in total - see below!
This guitar sold in an auction held in Qatar in 2005 to raise fund for Reach Out to Asia, a Charity formed to help the tsunami victims. It was coordinated by Bryan Adams and was signed by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, Mark Knopfler, Ray Davis, Liam Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Tony Iommi, Angus & Malcolm Young, Paul McCartney, Sting, Ritchie Blackmore, Def Leppard and Bryan Adams himself. Initially was taken by Qatari royal family for $1 million and later donated as charity. Then It was sold again to a price of $2.7 million. This guitar has yielded a total of $3.7 million dollars for charity.
The highest price paid for an artist's electric guitar at auction, was $959,500 at Christie's in July 2004 for Eric Clapton's 'Blackie' Stratocaster. The previous record was for Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia's custom-made 'Tiger' ($957,500 in 2002).
The Gibson Les Paul started as an artist signature model - named after Les Paul (obviously!) the master and inventor of multi track recording and a very accomplished player. Les Paul had a car accident in 1948 and asked the doctor to set his arm permanently in a guitar-playing position. Les Paul was still playing live guitar weekly in Manhattan in his 90's, and right up to his death in 2009.
Griffbrett Gitarre
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