How the evolution of guitar amps has shaped the sound of music

[jimmyc]

Hey I would like to hear people's thoughts on this? what do u consider the key points? and what has had a significant affect? Thanks

[Aaron Cheney]

Nothing changed the face of popular music in the 20th Century more than the popularization of electricity. Until then the guitar was just a background instrument in an ensemble, unable to compete volume-wise with louder acoustic instruments like the sax, trumpet, and trombone. Electricity changed everything. Within a few years the guitar could not only hold its own, but could be the loudest thing on the stage and take leads right along with the other players.
Players like Charlie Christian pioneered this era with jazz and bebop type playing that brought the guitar to the fore-front of public awareness. After a while, band started to build the entrie enseble around the guitar and rock-n-roll was born, a la Chuck Berry.
From there, it amplifiers have been pretty much a quest for volume and distortion. It's pretty well documented in all kinds of places, the key players being Fender and Marshall. Most other amps are flavors of these two.
Transistor succeeded tube amps, but most guitarists agree that tube is still a better sounding amp. The only other noteable technology is the arrival of digital amp modeling and computer technology, which promises to be in this century what electricity was in the last...