The development of the guitar in the 20th century.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a plastic protective collar placed on the soundbox began to be used. This type of guitar was the Gibson Style O. In addition, it was characterized by quite fanciful cutouts of the box. Other model, The Gibson L-4, on the other hand, had a stiffening rod in the neck. Next, L-5, it was equipped with an internal resonator called Virzi, and, moreover, it was distinguished by two f-type soundholes.
The 1920s brought new designs of resonators by the Dopyera brothers, that created a whole new sound. These resonators were used not only in guitars with a wooden soundbox, but also in metal guitars. An example of such a guitar is the National Style O.
Rickenbacker Electro Spanish z 1931 is the first guitar, in which electromagnetic transducers were used. Guitars of this type have been defined as electro-acoustic, and many manufacturers started producing them. Gibson created the ES-150, in which the transducer was placed right next to the neck.
Experiments were started to replace the soundboard with solid wood. The result of these actions was. gitara Bigsby Merle Travis, whose body was made of solid wood. Another interesting construction from this period is the guitar constructed by Les Paul, which has a neck attached to a pine board, an extension of the cervix. Pickups and a tailpiece are placed on the board. In addition, this guitar has a regular acoustic guitar body.
In year 1950 the Fender Broadcaster was born (Later: Telecaster), the first mass-produced guitar with a body made of solid wood. Two years later, the first Gibson Les Paul appeared, also made of solid wood. This guitar had many elements from earlier electro-acoustic models. W 1953 year the Fender Stratocaster was released, which is an extension of the idea of the Telecaster. Additionally, the Stratocaster had a Vibrato system fitted.
Another interesting model were three Gibson guitars: Flying V, Explorer, Futura in Modern. These models had intriguing shapes for the 1950s. All are equipped with two Humbuckers and Tune-O-Matic bridges.
In the early 1960s, the successor to the Les Paul was born – Gibson SG. New was a neck with a flatter profile, which was additionally glued into the body at the height 22 threshold, which increased the comfort of playing through easier access to high positions on the neck.
In year 1966 Ovation has created a guitar with a soundboard made of fiberglass. This guitar was equipped with piezoelectric pickups and was a very modern design. In turn in the year 1977 the first guitar-synthesizer was constructed. The manufacturer of this instrument was Roland, which named it the GS-500. Externally, it was a Les Paul-style guitar, however, it worked completely differently, than the previously known models, because she controlled the Roland GR-500 synthesizer.
The 1980s saw mass production of modern Floyd-Rose vibrator guitars. Steinberger constructions deserve attention here, made of graphite-epoxy composite, equipped with a special vibrator bridge and no headstock (its function is performed by a mechanism located at the bridge).