Rickenbacker Guitar

The Rickenbacker Guitar is why now we have rock 'n roll music. Without this immigrant from Switzerland rock and roll stars like John Lennon and the Beatles may never have been noticed. The story began with Rickenbacker coming to this country in and working with a man who performed on the vaudeville stage.

The electric guitar was born because they wanted to create an instrument that would not be muffled by the other instruments in the orchestra. This was in the 1920's. The instrument went through lots of development when it was the mainstay of the rock 'n roll band.

But it was the guitar that John Lennon of the Beatles used when the group played in Berlin and he used this model guitar when the Beatles debuted on the Ed Sullivan show. Today it is the standard of the rock 'n roll groups. When the guitar was first invented it was called a pancake or a frying pan because of its design.

The first standby time with the electric guitar was those who played Hawaiian music. This music at the time was very popular and the electric sound blended in with that type of musical tempo. But soon guitar players from all types of musical background became interested in the instrument.

The musicians discovered that they were no longer background music makers but instead their sound was at the forefront of the band. We now hear the guitar as the main sound in the music we hear. But this was not the case before the electric guitar.

Today however the guitar player takes center stage in most popular music. It may be easily argued that without the Rickenbacker guitar rock and roll music as we know it today would not have been born.