Guitar timeline

  • 1885/ Joseph Kekuku

    Joseph Kekuku uses a railroad spike on his steel string guitar and invents the Hawaiian slide guitar technique
  • 1908/ Andres Segovia

    Andres Segovia's first live performance
  • 1925/Carl T Sprague

    Carl T Sprague comes out with his first album "When the works all done this fall" selling over 900,000 copies
  • 1927/ Lonnie Johnson@Eddie Lang

    Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang making a good duet with Johnson playing the blues and Lang playing jazz.
  • 1931/Ro-Pat

    Ro-Pat makes the "frying pan" the first electric guitar.
  • 1934/Martin

    Martin makes the first modern 'flat top' guitar.
  • 1936/ Charlie Christian

    Charlie Christian becomes one of the best jazz guitar players and making the electric guitar more popular.
  • 1939/Gibson

    Gibson makes the cutaway making guitar's easier for people to put their hands to get those higher strings/cords
  • 1940/Django Reinhardt

    Django Reinhardt makes the song Nuages and creates Gypsy Jazz.
  • 1942/ T-Bone walker

    The blues starts to use electric guitars with T-Bone walker's 'Mean old world' song.
  • 1948/Les Paul

    Les Paul's single 'lover' is released making echo, delay, sped up recording, reverb, muted picking and layered overdubbed for the first time.
  • 1948/ Muddy waters

    Muddy waters goes electric. His first album sold out so fast that he said he couldn't find a album for himself making blues more modern.
  • 1948/Bigsby

    Bigsby makes the first good whammy bar for Merle Travis.
  • 1950/Leo Fender

    Leo Fender makes the telecaster. Most professionals use it because it is highly playable having a wide range of tones
  • 1952/Gibson

    Gibson makes the 'les paul' guitar that flops at first but then becomes (over time) one of the best guitars in the world
  • 1954/Fender

    Fender makes the Stratocaster having three pickups and a amazing whammy bar and a huge variety of tones.
  • 1954/Elvis

    Elvis records with Scotty moore making the popular song "That's All Right With Mama" inspiring a generation of guitar players
  • 1955/Seth lover

    Seth lover makes the humbucker pickups making guitarists able to turn up the volume without a hum or a buzz noise
  • 1955/Bill Haley

    Bill Haley's Rock around the clock becomes the number 1 because of a movie called Blackboard Jungle.
  • 1955/Chuck berry

    Chuck berry releases "Maybelline" with his lead guitar style becoming the definitive rock style.
  • 1957/Buddy holly

    Buddy Holly plays the Stratocaster on the Ed Sullivan show making a huge impact on people because of him rocking out on a more jazz like guitar
  • 1957/Bo Diddley

    Bo Diddley comes out with his first album named after himself. Having swagger and grooves. Making most older parents nervous the way music is going.
  • 1957/Ricky Nelson

    Ricky Nelson plays rock on the TV show "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"
  • 1958/Duane Eddy

    Duane Eddy releases the album "Rebel rouser" with a kind of Twangy guitar instrumentals which influences the idea of rock guitar instrumentals
  • 1958/Link wray

    Link wray releases "rumble" Punching a hole in his amplifier to make a ragged distortion making it one of the first hard rock/punk power chord
  • 1958/VOX

    VOX makes the AC15 and becomes the amp for British invasion rockers
  • 1958/Chuck berry

    Chuck berry releases "Johnny B. Goode" (one of my favorite guitar songs) one of the most influential guitar songs ever
  • 1960/ The incredible jazz guitar of Wes Montgomery

    'The incredible jazz guitar of Wes Montgomery' is released making a whole new level of jazz guitar to top.
  • 1961/ Robert Johnson

    Robert Johnson comes back with a rediscovered album 'King of the delta blues'
  • 1962/Dick Dale

    Dick Dale invents surf rock a whole new genre to rock
    (Dick dale's miserlou is an awesome song)
  • 1963/ The yardbirds

    The yardbirds is formed one of the best bands of rock ever made!
  • 1963/Maestro

    Maestro makes the FZ-1 the first distortion pedal
  • 1964/Beatles

    The most iconic band the beetles is made with their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show
  • 1964/Pete townshend

    Pete townshend Smashes his guitar on stage for the first time
  • 1965/Jimmy nolen

    Jimmy nolen invents funk guitar on james browns guitar in the 'papa's got a brand new bag'
  • 1965/bob dylan

    bob dylan goes for the electric guitar with him protesting for folk music
  • 1965/B.B King

    B.B King album comes out 'Live at the Regal' making people consider this to be the best blues recording ever
  • 1965/Rolling stones

    Rolling stones is here (my favorite guitar band) making parents nervous which way rock is heading
  • 1965/James marshal

    James marshal comes with his 100 Watt amp making things loud
  • 1966/the byrds

    the byrds release eight miles high which was banned from the radio because of lyrics that contain drug innuendos
  • 1966/John Mayall

    John Mayall releases 'Blues breakers with eric Clapton' having people graffiti stuff about eric Clapton around London
  • 1967/Jimi Hendrix

    Jimi Hendrix makes a whole new show making new sounds and lighting his guitar on fire breaking it and throwing it into the crowd
  • 1967/Jimi Hendrix (again)

    Jimi Hendrix releases a new album 'are you experienced' setting again a whole new bar to beat
  • 1967/vox

    Vox makes the "wah wah" pedal (guess what sound it makes)
  • 1967/Kustom

    Kustom makes the 'Solid state'' amplifier.
  • 1968/Mason williams

    Mason williams comes out with 'Classical gas' reaching number 1 on the charts making it the first instrumental to make it number 1.
  • 1968/ElectroHarmonix

    ElectroHarmonix makes the LPB-1 making it louder and better with new harmonics
  • 1969/Led zeppelin

    Led zeppelin is born making folk,metal,blues,punk and more! (and later immigrant song)
  • 1969/Carlos Santana

    Carlos Santana comes out with his first album making latin rock a genre making him become a guitar hero for everyone
  • 1969/Woodstock

    Woodstock celebrates peace and guitars with Jimi Hendrix playing "star spangled banner" to protest against the Vietnam war
  • 1969/ John McLaughlin@Miles Davis

    John McLaughlin records songs with Miles Davis and fuses their jazz and rock together
  • 1970/ Black Sabbath

    Black Sabbath's first album released making them one of the first heavy metal bands
  • 1970/Ovation

    Ovation makes acoustic and electric guitar pick ups making them able to have louder sounds with that natural sound
  • 1971/Allman brothers

    Allman brothers release 'At Fillmore East' this becomes popular quickly with songs over 15 minutes
  • 1972/ Deep purple

    Deep purple comes out with the song "Smoke on the Water" becoming one of the most popular guitar riff's in history
  • 1973/ Robert fripp

    Robert fripp uses loop effects in a performance
  • 1975/Jeff beck

    Jeff beck releases 'Blow by Blow' a fusion album instead of rock
  • 1975/ Kiss

    Kiss comes out with 'Alive' and it sells millions of copies and teenagers love it
  • 1976/ Peter Framptom

    Peter Frampton comes out with 'Frampton come alive' using a voice box to talk making the voice box more popular.
  • 1976/Al Di Meola

    Al Di Meola comes out with land of the midnight sun.
  • 1976/The Ramones

    The Ramones come with punk music with speed and loudness in most of their songs
  • 1978/ Van Halen

    Van Halen album goes out setting the bar as high as Jimi Hendrix did.
  • 1979/Randy Rhodes

    Randy Rhodes auditions for Ozzy Osbourne coming out with insane songs such as 'Crazy train'
  • 1980/John lennon

    John Lennon is assassinated by a obsessed fan. Having a huge impact on the world.
  • 1980/U2

    U2 comes out with 'boy' with lots of guitar effects
  • 1980/Paul Reed Smith

    Paul Reed Smith comes out with the golden eagle guitar a higher bar for guitar makers.
  • 1981/MTV

    MTV comes out with a shred guitar style
  • 1982/Randy Rhoads

    Randy Rhoads dies in a plane crash becoming a guitar hero.
  • 1983/Stevie Ray Vaughan's

    Stevie Ray Vaughan's plays electric blues and the style comes back becoming very popular
  • 1984/Yngwie Malmsteen

    Yngwie Malmsteen comes with a new neo-classical technique on the album "Rising Force"
  • 1987/Satriani

    Satriani comes out with "surfing with the alien" becoming the most selling album in the decade
  • 1990/ Internet

    You already know what this is. This killed some of the music because it can be used on YouTube instead of going to live concerts.
  • 1991/Nirvana

    Nirvana didnt like the way rock and metal was going so they changed it with new songs that parents hate
  • 1991/Stevie Ray Vaughan

    Stevie Ray Vaughan dies in a helicopter crash turning into an idle making blues become a popular genre
  • 1993/Jennifer Batten

    Jennifer Batten plays at the super bowl with Michal Jackson
  • 2001/White stripes

    White stripes release "White Blood Cells" with only a guitarist and a drummer raw rock solos are coming back again
  • 2005/ Guitar hero

    Guitar hero comes out making kids and adults able to play along with old rock songs