Editing Guitar amplifier (section)

==History==
[[File:McKinney Valco guitar amp (c.1940s).jpg|thumb|right|A 1940s-era Valco combo amp]]
[[File:Fender1953Deluxe.jpg|thumb|right|Fender Deluxe 1953]]
[[Image:EdgeAC30.jpg|thumb|[[U2]] guitarist [[The Edge]]'s 1964 [[Vox AC30]] combo amp]]
[[File:1968 Fender Bandmaster front.jpg|thumb|Even in the 2020s, the vintage [[Fender Bandmaster]] remains a sought-after amp by guitarists. Note the four inputs, two for regular sound and two that run through the onboard "vibrato" ([[tremolo]]) effect unit. The amp pictured is a 1968 model.]]

In the 1920s, it was very hard for a musician playing a pickup-equipped guitar to find an amplifier and speaker to make their instrument louder as the only speakers that could be bought were "radio horns of limited frequency range and low acoustic output". The cone speaker, widely used in 2000s-era amp cabinets, was not widely offered for sale until the 1930s and beyond. The first amplifiers and speakers could only be powered with large batteries, which made them heavy and hard to carry around. When engineers developed the first [[AC mains]]-powered amplifiers, they were soon used to make musical instruments louder.

Engineers invented the first loud, powerful amplifier and speaker systems for [[public address system]]s and [[movie theater]]s. These PA systems and movie theatre sound systems were very large and very expensive, and so they could not be used by most touring musicians. After 1927, smaller, portable AC mains-powered PA systems that could be plugged into a regular wall socket "quickly became popular with musicians"; indeed, "...[[Leon McAuliffe]] (with [[Bob Wills]]) still used a carbon mic and a portable PA as late as 1935." During the late 1920s to mid-1930s, small portable PA systems and guitar combo amplifiers were fairly similar. These early amps had a "single volume control and one or two input jacks, field coil speakers" and thin wooden cabinets; remarkably, these early amps did not have tone controls or even an on-off switch.<ref name="vintageguitar.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.vintageguitar.com/1804/antique-guitar-amps-1928-1934/|title=Antique Guitar Amps 1928-1934|first=John|last=Teagle|date=September 5, 2002}}</ref>

In 1928, the Stromberg-Voisinet firm marketed an electric stringed instrument and amplifier package. There are no records as to how many—if any—of the amps were ever built and sold, beyond marketing materials. Stromberg-Voisinet still launched a new idea: a portable electric instrument amp with a speaker, all in a transportable wooden cabinet. In 1929, Vega electrics launched a portable banjo amplifier. In 1932, Electro String Instruments and amplifier (this is not the same company as Stromberg Electro Instruments) introduced a guitar amp with "high output" and a "string driven magnetic pickup". Electro set out the standard template for combo amps: a wooden cabinet with the electronic amplifier mounted inside, and convenient carrying handles to facilitate transporting the cabinet. In 1933, Vivi-Tone amp set-ups were used for live performances and radio shows. In 1934, [[Rickenbacker]] launched a similar combo amp that added metal corner protectors to keep the corners in good condition during transportation.<ref name="vintageguitar.com"/>

In 1933, Dobro released an electric guitar and amp package. The combo amp had two 8" Lansing speakers and a five-[[vacuum tube|tube]] chassis. Dobro made a two speaker combo amp that was on the market over 12 years before Fender launched its two-speaker ''Dual Professional/Super'' combo amp. In 1933, Audio-Vox was founded by [[Paul Tutmarc]], the inventor of the first [[electric bass]] (Tutmarc's instrument did not achieve market success until [[Leo Fender]]'s launched the [[Precision Bass]]). In 1933, Vega sold a pickup and amplifier set for musicians to use with existing guitars.

In that same year, the Los Angeles-based [[Volu-Tone]] company also sold a pickup/amplifier set. Volu-Tone used ''high voltage current'' to sense the string vibration, a potentially dangerous approach that did not become popular. In 1934 Dobro released a guitar amp with a [[vacuum tube]] rectifier and two power tubes. By 1935, Dobro and National began selling combo amps for Hawaiian guitar. In 1934, Gibson had developed prototype combo amps, but never released them. By 1935, Electro/Rickenbacher had sold more amps and electric guitars than all the amps and electrified or electric guitars that had been made from 1928 through the end of 1934.<ref name="vintageguitar.com"/>

The first electric [[instrument amplifier]]s were not intended for electric guitars, but were portable [[PA system]]s. These appeared in the early 1930s when the introduction of [[electrolytic capacitor]]s and [[rectifier]] [[vacuum tube|tubes]] enabled economical built-in [[power supplies]] that could plug into wall sockets. Previously, amplifiers required heavy multiple [[battery (electricity)|battery packs]]. People used these amplifiers to amplify [[acoustic guitar]], but electronic amplification of guitar first became widely popular in the 1930s and 1940s craze for [[Western Swing]] and [[Hawaiian music]], which extensively used amplified [[lap steel guitar]]s. In fact, the very first recording of an electrically amplified string instrument was the September 1933 recordings of [[Milton Brown]] and his Musical Brownies, featuring steel guitarist [[Bob Dunn (musician)|Bob Dunn]]<ref>Timothy Miller, [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy2.library.arizona.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2241449?q=hawaiian+guitar&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit "Hawaiian Guitar"], The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd edition</ref>

In the 1920s, the earliest combo amplifiers had no tone controls. The first tone controls were simple, mainly providing treble adjustment. The limited controls, the early [[loudspeakers]], and the low amplifier power (typically 15 watts or less before the mid-1950s) gave poor high treble and bass output. Some models also provided [[Effects unit|effects]] such as an electronic [[tremolo]] unit. In confusion over nomenclature, Fender labeled early amplifier tremolo as ''vibrato'' and called the vibrato arm of the [[Stratocaster]] guitar a ''tremolo bar'' (see [[vibrato unit]], [[electric guitar]], and [[tremolo]]).

Some later amplifier models included an onboard [[spring reverb]] effect, one of the first being the [[Ampeg#Innovations and characteristics|Ampeg Reverberocket]] amp.

A bluesy-style guitarist by the name of [[Junior Barnard]] for the popular [[western swing]] band [[Bob Wills]] and his [[Texas Playboys]], was the very first to create electric guitar distortion by deliberately overdriving his amplifier on a number of groundbreaking San Francisco recordings in 1946 and 1947, called the Tiffany Transcriptions.{{cn|date=February 2025}} Another pioneer of electric guitar distortion who followed Barnard's lead during the late 1940s was [[Sister Rosetta Tharpe]].{{cn|date=February 2025}} In the early 1950s, several guitarists experimented further with producing distortion. These included [[Goree Carter]],<ref name="palmer19">[[Robert Palmer (American writer)|Robert Palmer]], "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13-38 in Anthony DeCurtis, ''Present Tense'', [[Duke University Press]], 1992, p. 19. {{ISBN|0-8223-1265-4}}.</ref> [[Joe Hill Louis]],<ref name="decurtis_phillips">{{cite book|last=DeCurtis|first=Anthony|title=Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture|year=1992|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|location=Durham, N.C.|isbn=0822312654|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bsT3RQ9e58kC|edition=4. print.|quote=His first venture, the Phillips label, issued only one known release, and it was one of the loudest, most overdriven, and distorted guitar stomps ever recorded, "Boogie in the Park" by Memphis one-man-band Joe Hill Louis, who cranked his guitar while sitting and banging at a rudimentary drum kit.}}</ref><ref name="rolling_memphis">{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Jim|title=The Rolling Stone illustrated history of rock & roll|year=1980|publisher=Rolling Stone|location=New York|isbn=0394513223|url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstoneillu00mill|url-access=registration|access-date=5 July 2012|quote=Black country bluesmen made raw, heavily amplified boogie records of their own, especially in Memphis, where guitarists like Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson (with the early Howlin' Wolf band) and Pat Hare (with Little Junior Parker) played driving rhythms and scorching, distorted solos that might be counted the distant ancestors of heavy metal.}}</ref> [[Elmore James]],<ref>John Morthland (2013), [http://www.wonderingsound.com/spotlight/how-elmore-james-invented-metal/ How Elmore James Invented Metal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094851/http://www.wonderingsound.com/spotlight/how-elmore-james-invented-metal/ |date=2016-03-04 }}, ''Wondering Sound'', [[eMusic]]</ref> [[Ike Turner]],<ref>{{Cite book  | last = Shepard  | first = John  | title = Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World  | publisher = Continuum International  | series = Performance and Production  | volume = II  | year = 2003  | page = 286  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pJvzEzjahkQC&q=rocket+88+distortion&pg=PA286  | isbn = 9780826463227}}</ref> [[Willie Johnson (guitarist)|Willie Johnson]],<ref name="rubin61">{{Cite book|last1=Dave |first1=Rubin |title=Inside the Blues, 1942 to 1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0amzAiwBmOcC |year=2007 |publisher=Hal Leonard |page=61|isbn=9781423416661 }}</ref> [[Pat Hare]],<ref name="palmer">[[Robert Palmer (American writer)|Robert Palmer]], "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13-38 in Anthony DeCurtis, ''Present Tense'', [[Duke University Press]], 1992, pp. 24-27. {{ISBN|0-8223-1265-4}}.</ref> [[Guitar Slim]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Aswell|first=Tom|title=Louisiana Rocks! The True Genesis of Rock & Roll|year=2010|publisher=[[Pelican Publishing Company]]|location=[[Gretna, Louisiana]]|isbn=978-1589806771|pages=61–5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BSHTGsnI8skC&pg=PA61}}</ref> [[Chuck Berry]],<ref>{{Cite book  | last = Collis  | first = John  | title = Chuck Berry: The Biography  | publisher = Aurum  | year = 2002  | page = 38  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0AgUAQAAIAAJ  | isbn =9781854108739}}</ref> [[Johnny Burnette]],<ref name="rubin61"/> and [[Link Wray]].<ref>{{Cite book  | last = Hicks  | first = Michael  | title = Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions  | publisher = University of Illinois Press  | year = 2000  | page = 17  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JviHtOrIlkkC&q=link+wray+pencil+rumble&pg=PA17  | isbn = 0-252-06915-3}}</ref> In the early 1960s, [[surf rock]] guitarist [[Dick Dale]] worked closely with [[Fender Musical Instruments Corporation|Fender]] to produce custom made amplifiers,<ref name="amg_dale">{{cite web|last=Huey|first=Steve|title=Dick Dale|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dick-dale-mn0000820232|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=25 July 2012}}</ref> including the first 100-watt guitar amplifier.<ref>[http://www.dickdale.com/history.html History], Dick Dale official website</ref> He pushed the limits of electric amplification technology, helping to develop new equipment that was capable of producing "thick, clearly defined tones" at "previously undreamed-of volumes."<ref name="amg_dale"/>

Distortion became more popular from the mid-1960s, when [[The Kinks]] guitarist [[Dave Davies]] produced distortion effects by connecting the already distorted output of one amplifier into the input of another. Later, most guitar amps were provided with preamplifier distortion controls, and ''fuzz boxes'' and other effects units were engineered to safely and reliably produce these sounds. Overdrive and distortion have become integral parts of many styles of electric guitar playing, ranging from [[blues rock]] to [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]] and [[hardcore punk]].

Guitar combo amplifiers were at first used with bass guitars and [[electric piano]]s, but these instruments produce a wider frequency range and need a full-range speaker system. Much more amplifier power is required to reproduce low-frequency sound, especially at high volume. Reproducing low frequencies also requires a suitable [[woofer]] or [[subwoofer]] speaker and [[Loudspeaker enclosure|enclosure]], with bass cabinets often being larger than a cabinet for mid-range or high-range sounds. As well, the open-back cabinets used on many electric guitar amps, while effective for electric guitar, do not have good bass reproduction.

Woofer enclosures must be larger and more sturdily built than cabinets for [[mid-range speaker|mid-range]] or high-frequency ([[tweeter]]) speakers. As such, in the 1950s, when [[Ampeg]] introduced [[bass amplifier]] and speaker systems, bass guitarists began to use them. Similarly, [[Hammond organ]] players used a specialized keyboard combo amplifier, the [[Leslie speaker]] cabinet, which contains a woofer for the low frequencies and a horn for the high frequencies. The Leslie horns rotate and a baffle around the woofer rotates as well, producing a rich tremolo and [[chorus effect]].
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