Play It Loud

August 8, 2016
Tolinski (Light & Shade) and Di Perna (Guitar Masters), former editor-in-chief and current contributor, respectively, of Guitar World, construct a comprehensive history of the electric guitar, tracing its roots in George Beauchamp’s experiments in search of a way to amplify a guitar’s vibrations. His prototype, the Frying Pan, along with a partnership with Adolph Rickenbacker, led to the production of electric guitars in 1932, preceding rock music by 20 years. The book explores Leo Fender’s and Les Paul’s innovative designs, which developed guitar bodies. Exploring the birth of rock music, the amplification of Muddy Waters’s blues marks a turning point. At $25, the DeArmond electromagnetic pickup enabled Waters and other struggling blues musicians to electrify their music. Chet Atkins’s endorsement of Gretsch guitars, specifically the 6120 model, introduced the electric guitar to country audiences, influencing the burgeoning rockabilly scene. The authors engagingly explore the importance of amplifiers on artists’ sounds, particularly the Vox amps used by the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix’s manipulation of feedback. Beat-up thrift shop guitars used by experimental bands such as Sonic Youth and more traditional garage rock groups such as the White Stripes are highlighted, representing a path for innovating guitar sounds in an era when prices have rendered classic models largely inaccessible. Agent: David Dunton, Harvey Klinger.

Two music writers explore the history of one of the most iconic instruments of the past 100 years.The many connoisseurs of the electric guitar are inclined to argue over who put the ax into the hands of so many hewers. Former Guitar World editor-in-chief Tolinski (Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page, 2012, etc.) and longtime Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado contributor di Perna (Guitar Masters: Intimate Portraits, 2012, etc.) push the usual chronologies back into the 1920s, locating its birthplace in Hollywood, its principal author a Texas refugee named George Delmetia Beauchamp. Shrewdly, the authors note that at the very outset there were plenty of collaborators, tinkers, and improvers. If Beauchamp "invented the first fully functional guitar pickup," then Slovak immigrant John Dopyera had much to do with the first functional resonator, as did Swiss immigrant Adolph Rickenbacker. The point is, as ever, that the guitar was an accretion of inventions by a small army of inventors, almost none of them born in the countries where they made their inventions. The authors trace the evolution of the guitar nicely up to the present, writing knowledgeably of the merits and demerits of Japanese knockoffs, Pete Townshend-inspired amp stacks, and the contributions of mad-dog collectors to the whole rock 'n' roll genre: if Joe Walsh hadn't had an extra Les Paul on hand, then Jimmy Page might have played a Stratocaster, and the whole Led Zeppelin thing would have gone down much differently. Some of these stories are well-worn, but the authors are geeky enough to bring freshness to chestnuts through technical nuggets aplenty. Sure, the Beatles and the Stones had their fans and detractors, but their guitar sounds and rigs were different, and in any event, "the British Invasion was to guitar music roughly what the Gutenberg Bible and advent of printing had been to literacy." The electric guitar changed the world, and Tolinski and di Perna impressively reveal its epic story. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from September 1, 2016

The development of the electric guitar profoundly impacted 20th-century material culture and has a lore all its own, deeply enmeshed with the musicians and musical genres closely aligned to youth movements and political shifts in our history. It's fascinating and actually a big story, more often described in books focusing on specific guitar companies or musical movements. Providing a holistic overview packed with contextual insights, music journalists Tolinksi (The Faces: 1969-75) and di Perna (Guitar Masters) skillfully pinpoint the watershed innovations and key musicians who turned a novelty into a mainstay of popular music. While engineers such as Leo Fender, Paul Bigsby, and Ted McCarty brought forward developments such as a Fordist assembly approach or tweaks including the vibrato arm and humbucking pickups to the fore, many creative variations to the instrument originated from the direct involvement of guitarists Les Paul, Pete Townshend, and Eddie Van Halen, who invented on their own or worked closely with engineers and luthiers to further the sonic capabilities of this tonally malleable platform. Amplifiers grew in size and wattage, effects of reverb, tremolo, phasers and delays proliferated, and new generations found ways to use it all. VERDICT An engaging introduction to a fun topic with broad appeal; well done. [See Prepub Alert, 4/18/16.]--Dan McClure, Seattle, WAPhilosophy

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