electric guitar: Quick Facts

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Vintage 1950s Fender Telecaster electric guitar with a light wood body, black pickguard, and maple neck, designed by Leo Fender.

Innovators of rock music

A Fender Precision Bass electric guitar with a three-tone sunburst finish, white pickguard, and light maple neck resting diagonally on a wooden surface.

Jimi Hendrix plays guitar and Noel Redding plays bass on stage with amplifiers behind them during a live performance in London, 1967.

Eric Clapton plays an electric guitar onstage, eyes closed, wearing glasses and a dark shirt, with drums and bright stage lights in the background.

Eddie Van Halen

View a demonstration to understand the physics behind the working of an electric guitar

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Topics

Fender Stratocaster Les Paul Standard guitar pickup Fender Precision Bass Fender Jazz Bass Fender Telecaster Today in History—May 12: Jimi Hendrix Bent Reality—and Rock Followed Today in History—July 25: When Dylan Plugged In effects pedal electronic instrument bass steel guitar electronic music electronic carillon electronic organ music synthesizer slide guitar ondes martenot theremin trautonium

Key People

Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen

Dutch-born American guitarist

Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

American musician

Jimi Hendrix performs on an outdoor stage, wearing a colorful jacket, purple pants, and a headband, playing guitar and singing into a microphone at the Love-and-Peace-Festival in Germany.

Jimi Hendrix

American musician

Charlie Christian

Charlie Christian

American musician

Les Paul

Les Paul

American inventor and musician

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Leo Fender

American inventor and manufacturer

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John Lee Hooker

American musician

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Ernest Tubb

American musician

Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)

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