THE REBIRTH OF MAESTRO PART II by Doug Doppler
Welcome to the second installment on the rebirth of Maestro . As I mentioned in Part I , be it the FZ-1 fuzz or Echoplex , Maestro ’ s iconic role in the guitar gear revolution is undeniable . To best tell this story we ’ ve opted to frame it by sharing the history of the brands , gear , innovators , and players upon whose collective shoulders we stand upon today .
We concluded Part I by stating the case as to why we ’ re inclined to believe that Lloyd Loar built the first electric guitar during his tenure at Gibson in early 1920s . Unlike Christian Martin or Orville Gibson , Loar was famous for his skill as a profession musician before he made his mark designing musical instruments . In this installment we ’ ll delve further into Loar ’ s accomplishments , as well as the release of Gibson ’ s first electric ‘ Spanish Guitar ’.
CHICKEN OR THE EGG Before we get to the who , what , and when , there are a few things we need to sort out , the first of which being the difference between companies and brands . Per the sake of this series , it is important to point out that Maestro is a brand owned by Gibson Brands , Inc ., a company . This practice dates back to the earliest electric guitars , and this tends to cloud already murky waters . Further complicating this story is the fact that there were two different types of electric guitars that first reached the market – Electric Hawaiian aka Lap Steel ( generally played flat on your lap using a steel bar ) and Electric Spanish ( played like a traditional Classical guitar ).
As we ’ ll discuss further in the next installment , Gibson was not the first to market with a commercially available Electric Spanish guitar , or an Electric Hawaiian for that matter . However , their ES-150 was the right instrument at the right time , and has achieved legendary status , thanks largely to the fact that it was Charlie Christian ’ s guitar of choice . Although Loar had since moved on to co-found Vivi-
Tone , his work at Gibson was foundational to the development of their first commercially available Electric Spanish guitar . The arched top , trapeze bridge , and F-holes on the ‘ Loar-signed ’ L-5 Molly Tuttle is playing in the accompanying video are clearly present on the ES-150 . As noted in the previous installment , George Gruhn considers his ‘ Loar-signed ’ L-5 to be the best acoustic guitar he ’ s ever played ! Noting that Loar is believed to have built an electric bass and done a concert with an electric viola during his Gibson era , his contributions to the development of the electric guitar as we know it are undeniable .
Charlie Christian at Carnegie Hall