Facts about the electric guitar

1. The electric guitar was the original metal instrument!

But not heavy metal. The first commercially successful electric guitar was made from cast aluminium. The Electro A-22, affectionately known as the “frying pan,” was developed in the early 1930s by the inventor and musician George Beauchamp, together with the engineer and machinist Adolph Rickenbacker. Yes, that Rickenbacker.

Hawaiian music, with its heavy use of steel guitar, enjoyed a surge of popularity in the 1920s, prompting Beauchamp to begin experimenting with pickups for his resonator guitar. Feedback put a stop to that and led to the development of the solid aluminium lap steel guitar.

2. The Les Paul wasn’t Les Paul’s first electric guitar

In the late 1930s, the electric guitar was a hollow-bodied instrument with a pickup to amplify the sound. The problem with that was unwanted feedback from the hollow construction. To get around it, Les Paul cut a guitar in half and stuck a 4”x4” pine plank in the middle.

He presented his invention, nicknamed “The Log,” to Gibson in 1941, and they dismissed it as a “broomstick with pickups” – at least, until The Fender Broadcaster became a huge success a decade later. When that happened, Gibson realised they needed a solid-body guitar to compete. They contacted Les Paul and began their partnership in 1951, leading to the Les Paul we all know.

3. Fender’s famous colours only exist because they were cheap

Building guitars is expensive, so saving money where you can without compromising on quality is just good business. With that in mind, Fender went looking for affordable paint they could use. The result? Many of the iconic colours from the ‘60s were actually repurposed car paints.

The car industry had a range of paint colours that were cheap and easily available, and Fender made the most of that. Lake Placid Blue, Fiesta Red, and Shell Pink were all used on cars before they became guitar finishes!

4. Got an old Gibson with no serial number? It’s probably from 1952

Have you ever used only serial number lookup tools to find out more about a guitar? If you’re fortunate enough to come across a 1952 Gibson, you’ll be out of luck! For that single year, the company decided not to use serial numbers on their guitars.

Creative Commons License by John Seb Barber

5. The Precision Bass got its name from its frets

When electric guitars first started revolutionising popular music, the low end came from the upright bass. It wasn’t long before Fender decided to change that, though, releasing the Precision Bass in 1951. If you’ve ever wondered why they called it that, the answer is simple: frets! Upright basses are fretless instruments, but the addition of frets to the P-Bass made accurate intonation on every note simple. Precise, in fact.

6. Fender developed a 7-string guitar in the 1980s

When you think of 7-string guitars, Fender probably isn’t the first name that springs to mind. In fact, their first official 7-string wasn’t released until 2024 – Chris Garza’s Custom Shop Strat. There were some Squiers in the 1990s, but nothing with the Fender name on the headstock.

But there almost was.

Back in 1987, Fender’s head of R&D, Dan Smith, collaborated with Maestro Alex Gregory to create a 7-string Stratocaster as the third Fender artist signature model. Interestingly, unlike modern 7-strings with their heavy-riffing low B, it featured a high A string. Some prototypes were built; it was showcased at the 1988 NAMM show, then… nothing. It never entered production.

7. Great Scott! The ES-345 was actually released four years after the Back to the Future scene is set

Back to the Future is a genuine classic, and so is the Gibson ES-345 featured in the film. It’s a fabulous guitar, and that iconic hollow-body shape fits perfectly with the way we picture 1950s rock and roll. However, the ES-345 was released in 1959, four years after the scene is set.

The guitar that was used in the film has an interesting story behind it, with Gibson hunting for it in the run-up to the film’s 40th anniversary in 2025, as well as releasing some fantastic replicas. If you want to read more about it, we covered the Hunt for the Back to the Future Guitar in another post.

8. Guitars and guitar-based music have reached space!

We know that the various transmissions that we use for radio, television, and so on are travelling out into space, but did you know that we’ve actually sent recordings out there like some sort of interstellar record swap?

Both Voyager 1 and 2 have a gold-plated copper phonograph record on board. As well as encoded pictures, sounds from Earth’s environment, and greetings in 55 languages, each one contains a sample of music from around the world. Thanks to Carl Sagan’s influence, that musical selection includes Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”.

If you want actual guitars in space, cosmonauts took one to Mir in 1987, and there’s been an acoustic on the ISS since 2001. Astronaut Chris Hadfield famously played Bowie’s Space Oddity on it in 2013.

Creative Commons License by Steve Jurvetson

9. The record number of string changes in an hour is 226

If you’ve ever had to change a string in the middle of a song at a gig, you probably know that it can be done fairly quickly when it has to be. However, even with the right tools, you’re probably not as fast as Thomas Silkman, guitar technician and music store owner.

On 20th April 2018, he managed to change 226 strings in a single hour. That’s just over 15.9 seconds per string. To put it another way, that’s the equivalent of restringing 37 guitars in an hour (if four of them were 7-strings). Not a fun way to spend an hour, but a very impressive record!

10. Eddie Van Halen generously donated guitars to schools in LA

Music in schools matters – studies suggest that it can make a real difference to academic outcomes. It’s also something that most musicians probably feel quite strongly about. The legend that was Eddie Van Halen certainly did.

The hugely innovative and influential guitarist donated no fewer than 75 guitars from his own collection to schools. He worked with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, a charity that champions music education in underfunded schools. Those guitars went to seven public schools in low-income areas of Los Angeles, giving hundreds of students access they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

Creative Commons License by Abby Gillardi

11. An interesting fact about pedals

We know that you’re interested in more than just electric guitars. So, here’s a pedal fact for you: the largest pedalboard ever put together used 319 separate pedals!

The record was set on 9th July 2019 when YouTuber Rob Scanlon teamed up with Sweetwater to create the mammoth pedalboard. As well as 319 pedals, it involved over 500 feet of cabling and 34 power supplies. If you want to recreate it, the total cost is estimated to be around $90,000 (a bit over £67,000). To be honest, we’d probably suggest starting with a decent tuner pedal and working your way up from there.

FAQs

How old is the electric guitar?

The electric guitar is nearly a century old, with the first commercially successful model created in 1931. It was a lap steel, rather than what we think of as a standard electric guitar, but it laid the foundation for every electric guitar made since then.

Which is older, guitar or piano?

The guitar is much older than the piano, with early ancestors dating back to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The first piano wasn’t invented until around 1700. The word guitar comes from the ancient Greek word kithara, via Arabic and Spanish! We’ve been playing guitar for a long time.

What is the best-selling electric guitar?

The best-selling guitar of all time is considered to be the Fender Stratocaster – it’s been around since the ‘50s and has evolved in that time. With a huge range of models available, including a wide range of pickup options, colours, and hardware choices, there’s a Strat to meet every need!

Final thoughts

There you go! That’s our list of 11 facts about the electric guitar – what have we missed? Let us know your favourite little-known facts over on Reddit!