The instruments, brands and innovations that shaped the guitar as we play it today: documented stories, from the first prototype to today's models.
A drum teacher from west London, two electronics men and a Fender circuit copied for want of anything better: how Jim Marshall created in 1962 the amp that would define the sound of rock, from the JTM45 to the JCM800, from Clapton to Hendrix.
Born in 1954 to correct the Telecaster's flaws, the Stratocaster became the most copied, most played and most expensive electric guitar ever sold at auction. The story of a perfect drawing, from Buddy Holly to David Gilmour.
Turned down by Gibson in 1946, discontinued in 1961 for lack of sales, resurrected by Clapton and Page: the story of the Les Paul is that of a myth built backwards, whose 1959 examples now change hands for the price of a house.
From Leo Fender's radio workshop to the Gretsch telegram that cost it its name: how the Telecaster became, in 1950, the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar alongside its sister the Esquire, and why its design has barely moved since.