Music Technology A2 | Guitar Technology
Guitars [part 1]
Early days: 1920s and 1930s. Les Paul and others experimented with attaching various types of microphones, often of the type associated with telephone systems, to acoustic instruments. The suffered from limited frequency range and poor signal-to-noise. Les Paul attached a phonograph needle to his acoustic guitar and wired it to a radio amplifier.
Due to increased ensemble sizes and the sheer volume of brass instruments, there became a need for electrically amplified guitar for use in the Big Band era. Guitars were also central to Hawaiian music which was popular at the time, and larger venues required amplification.
1931: Ro-Pat-In Corporation started manufacturing an aluminium lap-steel electric guitar nicknamed “The Frying Pan”. Designer George Beauchamp discovered that using 'horseshoe' electromagnetic pickups on acoustic instruments lead to feedback, so reduced the acoustic properties by shrinking the body. The production company soon underwent a name change to Rickenbacker.
Early recordings included Milton Brown's Musical Brownies, who, featuring the amplified lap steel guitar took and element of the Hawaiian sound and blended it with jazz influences to create Western Swing.
Listening: Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies - “Avalon” [1936]
1932: After the success of “The Frying Pan”, Rickenbacker quickly launched their “Electro Spanish” which was closer in design to regular acoustic (or 'Spanish') guitars being made of wood and featuring the familiar 'f' holes based on orchestral string instruments. Like “The Frying Pan” it utilised a horseshoe pickup.
Allegedly the first recorded amplified guitar solo in a jazz record featured Eddie Durham in 1935.
Listening: Jimmie Lunceford - “Hittin' the Bottle” [1935]
1936: Gibson started producing the ES-150. This ground breaking electric guitar was based on one of their earlier 'resonator' guitar models, but had one single coil pickup positioned near the end of the fretboard beneath the strings. It was not designed to work well acoustically in an effort to avoid feedback problems. The ES in its name stands for Electric Spanish, and the 150 refers to the fact that along with an amplifier and cable it cost $150. It can be heard on recordings featuring influential jazz guitarist Charlie Christian.
Listening: Benny Goodman & his Orchestra - “Solo Flight” [1939]
During the rest of the 30's and the 40's, many more semi-acoustic and guitars based on Rickenbacker's Electro Spanish and Gibson's ES-150 were produced, with various design features such as the cutaway body to allow easier access to the higher frets and some flat-top designs. During this period, a number of pioneers (including Les Paul) began experimenting with solid (or partially solid) body guitars with pickups. Others were working on designs for electric bass guitars; a concept which would radically change the approach to the bass as an instrument, with convenience and playability seemingly great improvements on upright basses.
1950: Californian Leo Fender's company released the Fender Broadcaster, soon to undergo a name change to the Telecaster. This instrument represented a breakthrough for popular music, being the first mass-produced solid-bodied electric guitar. It featured 21 frets, a characteristic asymmetrical headstock and two single-coil pickups with a three-way selector switch. The Telecaster has a bright, choppy sound when using the bridge pickup which was initially popular in rock 'n' roll and has been extensively used by soul and funk guitarists ever since, also by punk, new wave and indie rock guitarists since the 1970s. Using the neck pickup produces a warm, mellow tone popular with blues musicians.
Listening: Sam & Dave - “Hold On, I'm Comin'” [1966] Listening: Led Zeppelin - “Stairway to Heaven” [1971] Listening: Prince - “1999” [1982]
1951: Fender follow up the Telecaster with its stablemate the Precision Bass, a solid-bodied bass which initially had one single-coil pickup. Both the Telecaster and the Precision bass were constructed with bolt-on necks.
1952: Gibson release a solid body competitor to the Fender's Telecaster, known as the Les Paul and designed in collaboration with Les Paul himself. It differed from the Tele in several ways: Although it was solid body, the Les Paul still featured an arched top. The bridge construction meant the strings ends remained above the body rather that on Fender guitars where the strings are fed through from the back. Most importantly though the neck was 'set in' to the body and glued, rather than being bolted on. This created a darker sound with more sustain, leading to the instrument being hugely popular with blues guitarists. Initially the Les Paul had two single-coil pickups which could be combined and shaped using various volume and tone controls and a three-way selector switch. From the mid 50s onwards these were replaced by two humbucker pickups. Humbuckers consist of two single-coil pickups wired out of phase, thus cancelling out common signal (in this case hum). The resulting audio signal is louder than that of single coil, with a better signal-to-noise ratio.
Listening: Gary Moore - “Parisienne Walkways” [1979] Listening: Guns 'n' Roses - “My Michelle” [1987]
1954: Fender release the hugely popular Stratocaster which competes with the Gibson Les Paul as the most popular electric guitar in history. Superficially similar to its predecessor, the Telecaster, with the asymmetrical headstock, the Strat differs in several ways: It features a contoured body, designed for comfort and distinctive double cutaways to allow easy access to the high frets. There are three pickups, which initially could be individually accessed by a three-way selector switch, although Fender introduced the five-way switch during the 1970s. The bridge had potential to be 'floated', whereby a combination of removing screws and utilising springs allowed the bridge to be rocked slightly while playing causing a pitch vibrato effect. This mechanism is the basis for the increasingly popular tremolo arm or 'whammy bar' featured on many guitars since. Due to the pickup positions, the Stratocaster is capable of a wide range of sounds, from the 'quacky' sound of the bridge and middle pickup to the smoother sound of the neck pickup. Overall the guitar has less sustain than the Les Paul due to the bolt-on neck.
Listening: Buddy Holly & the Crickets - “Peggy Sue” [1957] Listening: The Shadows - “Apache” [1960] Listening: Pink Floyd - “Time” [1973]
Although the solid-body models such as the Stratocaster and Les Paul became increasingly popular from their inception, hollow-bodied electric guitars such as the Gibson ES-150 and its successors have remained popular to a lesser extent ever since, particularly among blues and jazz players. Rickenbacker continued to compete in electric guitar production, notably with their semi-hollow 325 model. The 325 became hugely popular during the 1960s due to John Lennon's close association with the instrument. As with many of the successful guitars launched in the 50's and 60s, the 325 is still played by many guitarists today. Another notable design was the Gibson Flying V which was released in 1958 and was a distinct departure from the more typical guitar shape.
Amplification & Effects [part 1]
During this foundational period of the electric guitar, amplification was limited to simple 'combo' amps, where the amplifier 'head' and speaker cabinet were combined in one unit. They were relatively low powered and only featured simple controls such as volume, tone
(treble boost), and occasionally spring reverbs or tremolo effects. These early amplifiers all worked using vacuum tube (valve) technology.
The 1960s brought about several main changes:
Towards the end of the 1950s in the tail end of the rock 'n' roll boom, guitarist Link Wray recorded a song called “Rumble”. He purposefully drove his amplifier beyond its capabilities, which resulted in a warm, distorted sound.
Listening: Link Wray and the Wraymen - “Rumble” [1958]
“Rumble” inspired the likes of Ray Davies from 60s British Rock band The Kinks and Pete Townshend from The Who to experiment with different methods of achieving the exciting distortion sound. Davies famously slashed the speaker cone in his amplifier with a razor blade, creating the fuzzy sound heard on “You Really Got Me”.
Listening: The Kinks – “You Really Got Me” [1964]
Pete Townshend collaborated with British amp pioneer Jim Marshall in creating built-in distortion effects in Marshall amplifiers, while also making design suggestions that resulted in the Marshall 'stack'. As groups like The Who continued to play increasingly large venues, the need for more volume arose for guitarists. Marshall initially produced a large scale amplifier containing eight 12” speaker cones. This was incredibly heavy and inconvenient to move around, so at the suggestion of Townshend, Marshall re-designed the system as separate pieces: An amplifier head and two stackable cabinets, each containing four 12” speakers. Each component was much more portable, but resulted in the same powerful rig.
During the 1960s transistor technology (solid state) facilitated the production of small, independent effects pedals, often known as “stomp boxes”. The Maestro Fuzz Tone pedal was an early example, first manufactured in 1962, and becoming popular after it was featured on The Rolling Stones “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction”.
Listening: The Rolling Stones - “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction” [1965]
Other early transistor stomp boxes were the wah-wah and octave effect. Jimi Hendrix famously utilised various pedal effects on his late 60s recordings, including the Octavia pedal which is featured during the solo on “Purple Haze”
Listening: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - “Purple Haze” [1967]
Other types of stomp box were manufactured during the 1970s, including flanger, chorus, ring modulator and phaser. Transistor amplification also became popular, providing a cheaper and more reliable alternative to vacuum tube models.
Guitars [part 2]
Guitar design has remained fairly constant over the years with some subtle variations in shape (including the sharpening of angles popular with heavy metal guitarists) while the 'old guard' such as the Strat, Les Paul and the original 50s hollow-bodied designs continue to be widely used, maintaining most of their original design.
One main functional development occurred in the late 1970s when guitarist and jewellery maker Floyd Rose invented the ground-breaking Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo. A development of the classic vibrato arm featured on 1950s guitars, Rose designed a system where the strings were locked at the top of the neck, thereby reducing string slippage when the string tension changed. The practical advantage of this was that dramatic 'dives' in pitch using the whammy bar and frequent note-bending could be performed with less risk of the strings going out of tune. Virtuoso rock guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani extended the realms of the guitar solo by featuring trademark whammy bar 'divebombs', note-dipping, flicks creating expressive bursts of vibrato and plentiful string-bending among their other complex playing techniques.
Listening: Steve Vai - “Blue Powder” [1990]
Various experiments with number of strings, MIDI implementation and other unusual guitar features have occurred over the years, but most of these have remained niche and characteristic to specific guitarists.
Amplification & Effects [part 2]
During the 1980s the rise of digital audio technology facilitated the development of digital effects units. While revolutionising recording studio technology, these devices also created many more diverse possibilities for guitarists due to their potential versatility. Using digital systems, effects could easily be combined in customisable chains, all in one unit. These creative devices were known as 'multi-effects processors'. Users could more easily contrive all manner of new sounds and save presets for instant recall at any moment. The introduction of MIDI in 1983 further enhanced the control of multi-effects processors using MIDI foot controllers, either to switch presets or control parameters in real time. Effects took on a new dimension, with delay effects being infinitely more accessible than their tape predecessors, new possibilities such as harmoniser effects, and countless combinations of effects creating an ever-expanding sonic potential. Open-minded, more experimental guitarists such as Steve Vai integrated the possibilities of digital guitar effects into their playing and composition.
Listening: Steve Vai - “Alien Water Kiss” [1990]
As well as widening the potential for effects, digital processing technology also facilitated the development of the 'amp simulator'. With an amp simulator unit, a guitarist could DI their instrument and create the required amplifier sound without the need for microphones, or indeed an amplifier! Since their inception, amp simulators have become more sophisticated, enabling guitarists to access a range of different manufacturer characteristics through one device. Many combo amps now have inbuilt amp simulation modules.
In 1996, VST saw the birth of virtual digital effects, giving producers and musicians instant access to many and varied effects and processors, all from a central software program. Now a guitarist can achieve the impressive sound of a Marshall stack with access to myriad effects from just a guitar, a cable and a laptop with the relevant software. Of course hardware is still widely used in live situations and regularly in the studio, with many guitarists continuing to use valve equipment and analog effects to achieve a more 'organic' sound, or because they simply prefer physical devices.