Originally Posted By: rockstar_not
...Why were guitars electrified to begin with? To 'COMPETE' with the rest of the band...


Actually, the historical reason was so that a guitarist could escape the Rhythm Section Only task of chunkin' out chords in the bigbands and venture into the realm of Soloing.

The Charlie Christian story.

Then along came Les Paul, who injured his right arm terribly in an automobibile accident and had the doctor set it bent at the elbow such that it was permanently in guitar-strumming position. After healing, though, he found out that he no longer had the swtrength to play loud enough and decided to try amplification. He pounded one of the old 78 rpm phonograph steel needles into the bridge of his archtop, and attached the needle to the tone arm of his record player - and went to work locally with his amplified "electric" guitar, now able to be heard without the ability to pluck strings with strength of the forearm and wrist.

So it was originally all about "being heard at all" and the situation where "being heard too much" kind of evolved along the way, actually not coming into its own until a younger generation came along and redefined the role away from the bigband concept and into the "combo" as it was once called to indicate a small ensemble trying to do the job of the older bigbands.


--Mac

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