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Electric Guitar My invention, the electric guitar, has to be one of the most amazing instruments ever invented. First thought up by Les Paul in the mid 1930's, the electric guitar that was developed used many unseen techniques that had never been pursued before. His Waukesa, Wisconsin lab would be busy, for Les Paul was about to start a revolutionary movement. The hardest part for Mr. Paul to invent must have been the famous Les Paul pickups (A device that collects and sends the sounds made by an electric guitar to an amplifier). The first set that was used on his first and second prototype were single-coil and worked by an electromagnet picking up the string vibrations and signals. These signals were then transmitted to an amplifier, where the signals would be reproduced as sounds. The famous guitar was then reproduced with humbuckling pickups (Pickups that work like regular single-coil pickups except they are two single coil pickups that are wired backwards to each other, giving the guitar a distinctive harmonic tone.) The other part of Les Paul's guitar was the use of frets and of the small, solid-wood bodies that accompanied the strings and pickups. The introduction of imbedded frets acquainted classical guitarists with new musical mobility and incredible new, rich sounds. To help build on the incredible sound, Les Paul took the old guitars and reproduced them with a solid, non-hollow body. Although Les sold his guitar patents to Gibson, a modern industry giant, he will be remembered for the incredible guitar that Gibson made. That guitar was named for Les, called the Gibson Les Paul. Les Paul was a very smart man with incredible dreams, and I hope his ideas will last forever in his modern invention, the electric guitar. Bibliography: Les Paul Backstage Pass Kelly, Kurt D. Http://bspaa.com/Artist/Les/Les_bio.html