ADOLPH RICKENBACKER

The name Rickenbacker was made famous during WWI by Eddie Rickenbacker, the Flying Ace who shot down 26 enemy planes, started his own car company and won races in some of his products, and then set up Eastern Airlines. However, a cousin of his, Adolph, was also making a big noise with products that still…

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JOHN DOPYERA (National Steel Guitar)

It is impossible to picture Son House without a National Steel guitar in his hands. This iconic instrument was favoured by many Blues players for its loud ringing tone that could penetrate down the street or across a big room. In the days before amplification, a guitar that could penetrate across a noisy crowd was…

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JIM MARSHALL

The ‘Marshall Stack’ is that tall black monolithic speaker set that you see behind most rock bands as they use its massive sound dynamic to tickle your ears one moment and blow your hair off the next. The man behind this vital equipment wanted to be a loud, wild, jazz drummer like his hero Gene…

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LEO FENDER

The man who gave the world the Stratocaster, the Telecaster and the Precision Bass was a trained accountant who started out tinkering with electronics in his spare time. Growing up in Anaheim CA, the 13-year-old Clarence Leonidas (Leo) Fender was fascinated by the loud, home-made radio his uncle used at his car repair workshop, so…

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LES PAUL

Les Paul invented the first effective solid bodied electric guitar. The Gibson Corporation rejected ‘The Log’, an electric guitar Les put together after hours in the Epiphone factory where Les worked in 1940, but when Leo Fender put out his ‘Esquire’ ten years later, they called him back! Les designed the guitar that carries his…

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