The Guitar Plugged Archive
The Time Machine
25 dispatches from the moments that built the electric guitar — each one written as if we filed it the week it happened, then answered with what we know now.
Fullerton's New Contour: Fender Unveils the Stratocaster
Leo Fender's small California shop introduces a sleeker, three-pickup solidbody with a built-in vibrato, a sharp departure from the utilitarian Telecaster.
The Electric Dawn
Chess Records Cuts Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"
Chuck Berry's Chicago single, built on a double-stop intro he traces to Louis Jordan guitarist Carl Hogan, arrives as a defining statement of guitar-driven rock and roll.
The Electric Dawn
MembersGibson Slims Down the Les Paul With a Radical New Body
Gibson reworks its flagship solidbody into a thin, double-cutaway mahogany guitar with beveled horns and a sideways vibrola, still wearing the Les Paul name.
The Loud Revolution
MembersThe Beatles Land on Ed Sullivan, and America's Guitar Racks Empty Out
The Beatles' first live American television appearance puts Gretsch, Rickenbacker, Höfner, and Vox gear in front of seventy million viewers on a Sunday night.
The Loud Revolution
MembersFrom a Hanwell Drum Shop, Marshall Amps Are Rewriting the British Guitar Sound
Jim Marshall's music shop has grown into an amplifier maker whose JTM45, and now bigger 100-watt heads, are being pushed to their limits by London's loudest guitarists.
The Loud Revolution
MembersAre You Experienced? The Jimi Hendrix Experience Rewrites the Rules of the Electric Guitar
With Olympic Studios' new facilities, a stolen Stratocaster restrung upside down, and a box called the Fuzz Face, three young men have made the most radical debut album London has heard yet.
The Loud Revolution
MembersCream and the Case for Three: How Disraeli Gears Proves the Power Trio Works
Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker strip a rock band to guitar, bass, and drums and somehow make it sound bigger than ever on their second LP.
The Loud Revolution
MembersLed Zeppelin Arrives Fully Formed: Inside the Blistering Sessions for Their Debut
Recorded in a matter of days at Olympic Studios, Jimmy Page's self-produced debut album leans on a borrowed Telecaster, a tiny Supro amp, and a violin bow.
The Loud Revolution
Monday Morning at Woodstock: Hendrix Plays to the Ones Who Stayed
Delayed for hours and greeting a fraction of the weekend's crowd, Jimi Hendrix closed Woodstock with a Stratocaster performance no one who stayed behind will forget.
The Loud Revolution
MembersBlack Sabbath's Debut Sounds Like Doom, and a Factory Accident Is Part of Why
Recorded in a single day at Regent Sound and named for a horror film, Black Sabbath's first album turns Tony Iommi's detuned strings and severed fingertips into a new kind of heaviness.
The Album Era
MembersHow a Casino Fire in Montreux Gave Deep Purple Machine Head
Forced out of a burning casino, Deep Purple cut their heaviest album yet in a hotel corridor with the Rolling Stones' mobile truck parked outside.
The Album Era
MembersPink Floyd Chase Perfection at Abbey Road for The Dark Side of the Moon
With engineer Alan Parsons at the desk, Pink Floyd spent months at Abbey Road turning odd time signatures and heartbeat loops into their most focused record yet.
The Album Era
MembersAerosmith Sharpen Their Teeth With Jack Douglas on Toys in the Attic
At the Record Plant with producer Jack Douglas, Aerosmith trade blues-rock sprawl for tighter riffs, sharper guitars, and a breakout single called Walk This Way.
The Album Era
MembersInside the Record Plant Sausalito, Fleetwood Mac Turn Turmoil Into Rumours
With relationships inside the band collapsing, Fleetwood Mac spent months at the Record Plant Sausalito shaping Rumours around Lindsey Buckingham's fingerstyle electric guitar.
The Album Era
MembersVan Halen Detonate a Debut at Sunset Sound With Eruption and a Homemade Guitar
Producer Ted Templeman and engineer Donn Landee capture Van Halen live in the room at Sunset Sound, unveiling Eddie Van Halen's tapping and his self-built Frankenstrat.
The Album Era
MembersIbanez's Tube Screamer Rewrites the Rules of Overdrive
A new green box from Ibanez promises the sound of a cranked tube amp on demand, and it works by clipping the signal in a way fuzz boxes never did.
The Album Era
MembersAC/DC Answers Tragedy With Back in Black
Months after losing Bon Scott, AC/DC returns with a new singer and a record built entirely on the Young brothers' guitar interplay, cut in the Bahamas with producer Mutt Lange.
The Shred Years
MembersRandy Rhoads Brings Classical Discipline to Ozzy's Blizzard of Ozz
A young Los Angeles guitarist trained in classical technique gives Ozzy Osbourne's solo debut a sound built on layered harmony leads rather than raw riffing alone.
The Shred Years
MembersStevie Ray Vaughan Cuts Texas Flood Live to Tape in Days
A Texas blues guitarist who stunned Montreux with an unbooked festival set puts out a debut recorded almost entirely live in the studio, strings thick and amps wide open.
The Shred Years
MembersMetallica Pushes Past Thrash on Ride the Lightning
Recording in Copenhagen with producer Flemming Rasmussen, Metallica follows up its debut with a record that stretches the band's sound well beyond straight speed and aggression.
The Shred Years
MembersDire Straits Cut Brothers in Arms in a Volcano's Shadow
Recorded on a Caribbean island with one of the first fully digital rigs in pop history, Mark Knopfler's fifth Dire Straits album turns fingers into a signature sound.
The Shred Years
MembersAppetite for Destruction Brings the Strip's Filth Back to Rock Guitar
Guns N' Roses' debut, cut at Rumbo Recorders with producer Mike Clink, trades hair-metal polish for a rhythm section built on Izzy Stradlin's groove and a Les Paul copy nobody outside the band knew about.
The Shred Years
MembersJoe Satriani's Surfing with the Alien Puts an Instrumental Record on the Charts
A former Berkeley guitar teacher's second solo album, built on tapping, legato runs and a homemade theory of melody, finds an audience nobody expected for a record with no vocals.
The Shred Years
MembersSteve Vai Turns the Guitar Solo Into a Full Album with Passion and Warfare
The former Zappa sideman and David Lee Roth foil steps out alone with a whammy-heavy, multitracked record built around his green Ibanez JEM.
The Unplugged Correction
MembersNirvana's Nevermind Trades Guitar Heroics for Loud-Quiet-Loud
Recorded with Butch Vig at Sound City and mixed by Andy Wallace, the Seattle trio's second album swaps shred for a left-handed Fender and a Boss distortion pedal.
The Unplugged Correction
The press eras
1950s
The Electric Dawn
America's Newest Sound · Solid Body Weekly
1960s
The Loud Revolution
Beat · Blues · Feedback
1970s
The Album Era
Riffs · Rigs · Records
1980s
The Shred Years
Speed · Spandex · Superstrats
1990s
The Unplugged Correction
Distortion · Honesty · Fewer Notes
2000s
The Digital Turn
Modeling · Downloads · Home Studios
2010s
The Profiler Decade
Kemper · Quad Cortex · Silent Stages
2020s
The Hybrid Age
Vintage Prices · Modern Rigs · Everything At Once
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