Wednesday 15th October

The first guitar to be “electrified” was in 1931.  Yes, that long ago.  In fact experiments had been going on since 1910 – over a century ago – to amplify traditional musical instruments.  The Electric Guitar was first used in Jazz Orchestras.  All the big names started in the 30’s – Les Paul, Gibson and Rickenbacker.  And actually the instrument hasn’t really changed that much since; a few innovations such as pedals and whamming bars and vibratos and a few that didn’t catch on like the Gizmo invented by two members of 10CC.   But that sound, that sudden blast of noise has shaped the music of the Twentieth Century and despite all sorts of Synthesisers and Computer Generated Sound it is still that unmistakable stab of electric noise that we love.  Whether strummed or picked or whammed the noise of Electric Guitars is unmistakable and is indispensable to all forms of Rock and Roll and whatever derivatives that have sprung from it.

I am currently listening to a CD of a live performance by Neil Young, and it is that screaming squeal of Electric Guitars that dominates; Neil duetting with Poncho Sampredo of Crazy Horse as they play extended guitar filled versions of all his famous songs.  Simply brilliant.  And I simply cannot get enough of it.  I quite like acoustic guitars, piano and even strings and brass, but it is the Electric Guitar that hits the right note, that whams you in the solar plexus, that lifts the soul, that seems to connect with the synapses in the brain and in short – makes you feel good.

I cannot explain it, but the Electric Guitar works like no other instrument and I cannot imagine ever not wanting to listen to it.  From the Beatles gentle notes from George, to Jimi Hendrix distilling sounds we had never heard before, to the power chords of the Who and Queen and the Wah-Wah of Clapton to all the multiple varieties of sound we hear today it is everywhere in Music today.  And long may it endure.