Guitar Development Timeline

1400-present

This timeline traces the development of the guitar from its earliest origins, through the golden eras of US design, to the present day use of technology and innovation. Construction methods, patented designs, and more are explored!

1400-1500

• The first guitars were likely produced in Spain in the 15th Century. These instruments had four ‘courses’ of strings (pairs of strings tuned to the same note, which gave the guitar more volume and clarity). Though the guitar was developed in the 15th century, the Lute was a much more popular instrument through the end of the 15 century.

1516

• The Bass Viol was invented in the late 1400s, however, the first known illustration of the instrument dates to 1516. The Bass Viol featured gut frets and often had 6-strings. It was the predecessor to the upright bass

1560

• Guitars began trending towards 5-courses of strings (rather than 4) and larger bodies, which offered more volume

1581

• The world’s earliest surviving guitar was made in 1581 by Belchior Dias of Libson, Portugal. It featured five courses of strings.

1600-1650

• During the Baroque period the 5 course guitar effectively replaced the 4 course, and the tuning was largely standardized to ADGBE. Note that this matches the current standard tuning of the top 5 strings.

1659

• Strings with metal windings are introduced. These strings were adopted on the guitar in the 1750s and allowed the guitar to move from courses (doubled) of strings to single strings. Gut strings were often doubled in octaves to give a louder and more clear sound (particularly in the lower strings), however, metal being wound around gut or silk gave the instrument a louder and punchier sound. Metal windings also allowed for the creation of larger strings for deeper tone that sounded more musical than a large solid gut string. Because most guitars used gut frets, the new strings damaged the frets, causing guitar makers to later move to metal frets. It also necessitated bridges designed with pins instead of strings tied to the bridge, as the tension of the metal wound strings necessitated something more secure.

1700

• Antonio Stradivari, famously known for his violins, crafts a five-course guitar (one of only 4 to survive). He used the traditional woods for a violin – spruce, maple, and ebony, making this the first guitar to use the spruce/maple wood combination.  

1773

• The earliest known six-string guitar is built in 1773 by Francois Lupot in Orleans, France. With the transition to the romantic musical era, guitarists wanted to play melodies on individual strings rather than strum on courses of strings

1780s

• French and Italians luthiers begin to design more guitars with 6 individual strings – with the most popular tuning being EADGBE. Spanish luthiers, for the most part, continued building guitars with 6 courses of strings.

1822

• Viennese luthiers Johann Georg Stauffer and Johann Ertl design a fingerboard glued onto the top of the guitar, rather than flush with the top, as was common to most guitars of the day. The raised fingerboard not only improved access to the upper frets, but also gave more strength to the neck/body joint (early guitars would often have some collapsing at the neck/body joint)
• Johann Stauffer and Johann Ertl receive an imperial commission to improve the guitar, and made such improvements as a raised fingerboard that was not attached to the top (similar to a violin), embedded metal frets, and a detachable neck (which attached to the body with a single bolt and using a clock-key could be utilized to adjust the action). Their design allowed for many more frets on the instrument, moving from the common 14 frets to 22.

1825

• Luthier François René Lacote begins building guitars in France with fixed metal frets, fixed bridges with ivory saddles and bridge pins, and slotted headstocks. His instruments paved the way for the modern classical guitar. His instruments were loud enough to make public guitar performance possible.
• Johann Stauffer invents machine heads that attach to a metal plate. They were six-in-a-line and followed an asymmetrical scrolled headstock. The “Stauffer” headstock design was copied by many luthiers in the 19th Century.

1840

• Luthier Beau makes a double-cutaway guitar in Mirecourt, France

1843

• German luthier Christian Frederick Martin, an apprentice of Johann Stauffer, makes his first X-brace pattern for a guitar top

1852

• The modern “classical” guitar took its present form when the Spanish maker Antonio de Torres increased the size of the body, altered its proportions, standardized 19 frets, and introduced the revolutionary “fan” top bracing pattern, in 1852. His design radically improved the volume, tone and projection of the instrument, and very soon became the accepted construction standard. Other Torres innovations include the use of machine heads rather than friction pegs, and separating the saddle from the bridge (enabling fine adjustments of string height). He built his guitars from 1852-1869 in Seville, and from 1875 until his death in 1892 in Almeria, Spain. It is estimated that Torres made 320 guitars in his lifetime.
• C.F. Martin standardizes his body sizes with Size 3 (11.25” wide), Size 2.5 (11.625” wide), Size 2 (12” wide), and Size 1 (12.75” wide)

1854

• C.F. Martin introduces the Size 0 model (13.5” wide) and Size 5 (Terz – short scale with higher tuning) model (11.25” wide)

1863

• C.F. Martin introduces the Size 00 model (14.125” wide). His largest guitar to date.

1885

• Joseph Kekuku, a Hawaiian schoolboy, invents the Hawaiian guitar. The guitar was held on the player’s lap and the strings were fretted with a metal bar.

1890

• US Navy Officer George Breed granted a patent for a design for an electrified guitar – the first application of electricity to a fretted string instrument. The instrument used electromagnetism to vibrate strings, not to pick up the strings’ vibrations and transmit them to an amplifier like later pickup design. The guitar, however, was extremely heavy, required an unconventional playing technique, and produced a sound that was very “unguitarlike”

1893

• Martin patents the bolt-on neck with clock-key adjustment
• James S. Back of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada granted a patent for a guitar with an arched top. Instruments using the design were produced under the Howe Orme name

1895

• James S. Back granted a patent for a means of adjusting detachable necks for guitars and other stringed instruments

1896

• Guitar maker, A.H. Merrill of Atlanta, Georgia, is granted a patent for a guitar design with an arched top and back, as well as four tear-drop shaped “f-holes.” This instrument could be seen as a precursor of the archtop guitar

1898

• Orville Gibson granted a patent for his idea for a mandolin design with a carved top and back (like a violin), oval sound hole, pear-shaped body, and solid one-piece sawn sides. Gibson’s instruments shared many of these characteristics with carved tops, backs, and sides, with no braces. His instruments (including guitars) were made with steel strings – a novel concept at the time.

1900

• The Larson brothers purchase the Maurer & Company and set up shop in Chicago, making instruments under the Maurer, Stahl, Dyer, Stetson, Prairie State, and Euphenon brands. They were the first important makers to build steel-string acoustic guitars, but also produced harp guitars, mandolins, and more. They pioneered laminated top braces with a combination of spruce, ebony or rosewood, and spruce sandwiched together, which were stronger than solid spruce, and utilized 5-piece laminated necks with maple and ebony strips for more strength
• E.A. Edgren files a patent for an angled fret pattern with the first and last frets angled in opposite directions. This concept could be seen as early as the 16th century with an instrument called a bandora, which had angled frets with the bass strings longer than the treble strings. Edgren’s design was a forerunner of the “fanned fret” guitar

1902

• Martin begins building special order steel-string guitars
• Martin introduces the size 000 guitar (15” wide). This size body is made to compete with the volume of mandolins and banjos.

1906

• American inventor Lee De Forest pioneers the triode vacuum tube. While the vacuum tube was invented by British engineer John Fleming in 1904, De Forest’s invention allowed for signals to be amplified, paving the way for electric guitar amplifiers
• Martin releases a budget line of guitars – the 17 series – featuring mahogany back and sides. Up until this point in their history, Martin exclusively used rosewood for back and sides

1907

• Gibson changes from round paddle-shaped pegheads on their guitars to the “mustache” shape that is still used today. All guitars were then given solid pegheads the following year in 1908. 

1908

• Gibson sales manager, Lewis Williams, invents the elevated pickguard – originally used on the Gibson F-style mandolin

1909

• Gibson patents the intonation-adjustable bridge and elevated pickguard

1910

• Gibson plant superintendent George D. Laurian patents the trapeze tailpiece. With the higher tension of steel strings, these tailpieces relieved tension on the neck, bridge, and belly of the guitar

1916

• Martin begins to design and build guitars for Oliver Ditson Co. of Boston and New York. The first “Dreadnought” is produced and is named in honor of the huge battleships of the day.

1917

• Martin releases a line of all-koa guitars with steel strings intended for Hawaiian playing in response to the Hawaiian music craze. These were the first Martin production models built exclusively with steel strings. By 1929, almost all Martin guitars are made for steel strings.
• Martin changes its necks from two-piece spanish cedar to one-piece mahogany

1918

• Martin discontinues use of elephant ivory in bridges and bindings, instead using ivory-colored celluloid (“Ivoroid”) for bindings and ebony for bridges. Ivory continued to be used for bridge saddles and string nuts until the 1960s. The last guitar recorded with an ivory nut was in 1980.

1919

• Gibson employee Ted McHugh designs the height-adjustable bridge

1921

• Gibson employee Ted McHugh designs the adjustable truss rod and is granted a patent in 1923. The invention of the truss rod allowed guitars to be made with thinner necks, which accommodated more lead playing in the higher registers
• A DuPont paint employee named Edmund Flaherty invents nitrocellulose lacquer. It went on to be used on cars, furniture, and also guitars

1922

• Lloyd Loar began working on experimental electrostatic pickups at Gibson as a means to amplify the guitar and make it louder and more suitable as a competitor to the banjo for rhythm and increase its potential as a solo instrument.
• After the success of their steel-string Koa models, Martin releases its first production steel-string for regular playing – the all-mahogany 2-17. The 2-17 was their first all-mahogany guitar and represented about half of Martin’s guitar sales during the first years of the Great Depression as it was their lowest priced model

1923

• Gibson L-5 introduced. It was the first commercially successful guitar with “f-holes,” first with elevated fingerboard with 14 frets clear of the body, first with height-adjustable bridge and adjustable truss rod, and first with parallel top bracing
• All Martin style 18 instruments now made with steel strings.
• Gibson replaces its pinned-bridge tailblock with a metal wrap-around bar – the modern iteration of the “trapeze tailpiece”
• Lloyd Loar builds a solidbody violin with a coil-wound pickup

1924

• Lloyd Loar builds a prototype “stick” upright bass with an electrostatic transducer pickup mounted in a Bakelite box under the bridge. While the instruments likely did not go into production, the idea later caught on in the mid 30’s with companies like Rickenbacker, Regal, and Vega.
• Inventor, musician, and native of Spokane, Washington, Art Stimson, designs a magnetic pickup attached to the neck of a guitar so that it could be electrically amplified

1925

• Half of US homes now have electricity, paving the way for the development of electric instruments
• American inventors and General Electric engineers Edward W. Kellogg and Chester W. Rice invent the moving-coil cone loudspeaker. This invention was key to the development of PA systems as well as guitar amplifiers

1926

• Hawaiian-guitar performer George Beauchamp seeks out a craftsmen to build a louder guitar to compete with banjos for the rhythm sections of bands. Using Beauchamp’s ideas, violin repairman and inventor John Dopyera invents the “tri-cone” resonator guitar. He filed the patent for his first design on October 12, 1926, but dissatisfied with it, he created a new version. Dopyera filed a patent for this second version on April 9, 1927 and that model was later put into production

1927

• Martin offers steel strings as standard on their instruments, and gut strings as special-order only

1928

• In order to offer a lower-cost option to their Tri-Cone Resonator guitars, George Beauchamp at National develops guitars with single-cone resonators

1929

• Great Depression begins
• Stromberg-Voisinet produces the first commercial “electric” guitar – the Stromberg Electro. The company developed a transducer pickup that used the vibrations of the bridge or soundboard to produce an electrical signal. The pickup was offered on a 6-string flat-top guitar, a tenor guitar, a mandolin, and a tenor banjo. An amplifier was available for the instruments as well. The idea failed to catch on, however, as only approximately 100 were made.
• Gibson introduces a Hawaiian model guitar called the HG-24. It was the first flat-top guitar with a 14-fret neck joint and 16” wide dreadnaught body
• Martin introduces its first flat top guitar with 14 frets clear of the body – the OM-28. The OM body style was the same size as the 000, however, it had a longer 25.4” scale length
• Martin replaces their pyramid bridge with a larger “belly bridge” to add extra strength at the bridge
• Martin introduces pickguards on their guitars 
• Doc Kauffman, who later worked with Leo Fender, files a patent for the first vibrato arm for a guitar. The patent was granted in 1932 and was subsequently used on Rickenbacker lap steels as well as Les Paul’s and Chet Atkin’s guitars

1930

• Art Stimson and Henry Francis Parks invent a magnetic pickup for resonator instruments. Stimson sold the pickup design to Dobro in 1932 and subsequently worked for the company. Dobro released their “All-Electric” model with the Stimson pickup in 1933.

1931

• While working at National, George Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacher, Paul Barth and Harry Watson develop a lap-steel guitar known as the ‘Frying Pan,’ that featured an electromagnetic pickup with horseshoe-shaped magnets. Instead of picking up vibrations from the bridge or soundboard, the horseshoe pickup created a magnetic field around the strings – giving the pickup much more output than previous pickup designs. The vibration of the strings over a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet created current that could be electrically amplified. The original design was similar to Art Stimson’s pickup. The ‘Frying Pan’ was the first Hawaiian electric lap steel guitar
• Martin starts selling Dreadnaught sized flat-top guitars under its own name. They had been making fan-braced Dreadnaughts for Ditson since 1916 (33 to be exact).
• Martin begins offering models with a “dark top” (sunburst finish) in response to its use on Gibson archtops

1932

• Ro-Pat-In puts the A-25 (long 25” scale) and A-22 (shorter 22.5” scale) “Frying Pan” electric hawaiian-guitars, as well as a hollowbody electric spanish-neck guitar, into production under the “Electro” brand. ‘Spanish’ refers to the upright placement of the instrument on your knee: the way guitars are played today. In the first six months, they only sold 13 hawaiian guitars and 4 spanish guitars. This was likely due to the depression, and the fact that many rural and some urban homes did not yet have electricity to use their guitars
• The first guitar amplifiers were developed in the early 1930s by Western Electric. Amplifiers were popularized in the 1930s and 40s during the Hawaiian music craze, as they were used to amplify Hawaiian lap steel guitars.
• Musician Gage Brewer becomes the first person to perform with an electric guitar. Brewer performed in Wichita, Kansas with a Ro-Pat-In Spanish electric guitar.
• In France, classical guitarist Mario Maccaferri developed a new guitar design to increase volume. The instruments were then manufactured by the Selmer Company. They had an internal resonator, steel reinforced neck and cutaway. The design was effective in producing a louder guitar, and this allowed the acoustic guitar to have the capability of becoming a lead instrument. Guitarist Django Reinhardt began to use the model, but due to a dispute, less than 300 instruments were made
• Former Gibson employees Lloyd Loar and Lewis Williams form the Vivi-Tone Company, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and develop a variety of electric instruments, including the first electric piano and arguably, the first solidbody electric guitar. Vivi-Tone’s innovative ideas and instruments, however, did not catch on with consumers and the company closed its doors in 1938.

1933

• Martin builds its first D-45 guitar for singer and actor Gene Autry. Only 91 D-45s were built up until 1942 before being discontinued and are some of the most valuable flat-top acoustic guitar models.
• Martin introduces the D-28 herringbone model. D-28’s from 1934 until 1945 are considered to be some of the finest flat-top guitars ever built
• Instrument manufacturer Dobro made a handful of modified resonator Spanish style guitars with electromagnetic pickups.
• Vega introduces a full line of guitars – including steels, acoustic archtops and electric archtops (including one that sported the first double-coil “humbucking” pickup), however, their guitar line was not very successful.

1934

• Gibson responds to Martin’s dreadnaught with it’s 16” “Jumbo” model (3/8” bigger than the dreadnaught)
• Martin replaces bar frets with modern “T” frets, and introduces a steel “T-bar” neck rod to replace the ebony neck reinforcement

1935

• Gibson launches a counterstrike against Epiphone’s expanding archtop line of guitars by “advancing” many of their models from 16” to 17” width, and introducing the 18” Super 400 at $400. It was the biggest archtop to hit the market and the highest price tag at the height of the depression.
• By the end of 1935, Epiphone retaliates against Gibson by advancing several of their models to 17-3/8” wide and introducing the 18-3/8” Emperor Masterbuilt – slightly bigger than the Gibson Super 400. The competition for the biggest and flashiest instruments was on.
• Epiphone introduces their first electric spanish guitars – the Electar archtops
• In response to the Rickenbacker Frying Pan, Gibson commissions employee Walt Fuller to design an electromagnetic pickup for the company. Fuller designed the “bar” pickup, which is often referred to today as the “Charlie Christian” pickup as it was popularized by the jazz guitarist. Gibson released the pickup on its first electric instrument – a Hawaiian guitar called the E-150 (later renamed the EH-150). This instrument is also the first to feature a tone control.
• Electro String Instrument Corporation releases the Electro Model B lap steel in a Spanish neck version. The instrument featured a bolt-on (as opposed to a glued-in) neck, and it’s small solid body was made out of a synthetic called Bakelite. Bakelite was the first synthetic plastic invented by Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland in 1909. 
• Electro String Instrument Corporation releases the Ken Roberts model which was an archtop guitar with their horseshoe pickup and also featured the very first vibrato arm (designed by Doc Kauffman)

1936

• The Slingerland company, best known for its drums, introduces the Songster 401 – the first electric spanish guitar with a solid wood body. It was also the first guitar to use neck-through construction, and featured a pickup with one coil for each string that were wound opposite to each other – creating a humbucking effect. However historically significant, the Songster 401 did not catch on as it was small and impractical, and was discontinued in 1939.
• Gibson releases the ES-85 pickup which attached to acoustic archtop guitars, and the ES-96 and ES-75 pickups which attached to the soundholes of flat-top acoustic guitars
• Gibson introduces the ES-150. The 150 was basically a modified L-50 archtop fitted with a bar electromagnetic pickup placed in the neck position. It is viewed as the first readily available production model electric guitar. They also released the EM-150 electric mandolin, ETB electric tenor banjo, EPB electric plectrum banjo, and ERB electric regular banjo
• Electro String Instrument Corporation releases Rickenbacker Electro Bass Voil. This upright bass was fretless and had an aluminum body. It was the first fully electric bass with string-driven pickups. The instrument did not catch on, however, as there was no such thing as electric bass strings, and there were no suitable bass amplifiers.
• Paul Tutmarc of the Audiovox company (established in 1934 in Seattle, Washington) produces the first fretted, electric solidbody bass. The Model 736 Bass Fiddle featured a 30.3125” scale length and was available with the Model 936 bass amplifier. The bass featured a pickup designed by Tutmarc and Art Stimpson. Audiovox produced around 100 of these instruments, not achieving market success.

1937

• In response to Martin’s D-45, Gibson introduces the Super Jumbo flat-top acoustic guitar. It is seen in the hands of Ray Whitley and Gene Autry on the silver screen.
• Patents were granted to George Beauchamp for the electromagnetic horseshoe pickup – filed originally in 1934
• Gibson granted a patent for their under-the-strings bar pickup (which was differentiated from Beauchamp and Rickenbacker’s over-the-strings horseshoe pickup)
• Epiphone’s head of electronics, Herb Sunshine, files a patent for adjustable pole pieces on a guitar pickup, allowing for adjustment of individual string volume. The patent was granted in 1939.
• Stromberg introduces the Master 300 & 400 archtops, the largest guitars of its kind measuring at 19” wide at the lower bought. These guitars also introduced a new bracing pattern – a single diagonal bar instead of a traditional X-brace
• Regal releases the Bassoguitar – a cross between an acoustic guitar and an upright bass. It had the body of an acoustic guitar, but was over 6 feet tall and played upright.

1938

• Martin changes its X-bracing from forward-shifted to rear-shifted. This was in response to players adding larger string gauges on their instruments in order to achieve a louder sound. The added tension of the heavier strings required Martin to move its X-bracing closer to the bridge to strengthen that area of the guitar top
• Guitarist George Van Eps asks Epiphone to add a seventh string (low A) to his guitar. This was the first seven string guitar

1939

• World War II begins causing manufacturing difficulties for guitar makers and largely stunts the progress of the development of the electric guitar
• Guitarist and entertainer, Les Paul, begins working on his “log” guitar – mounting pickups on a solid 4”x4” block of pine with body “wings” added from an Epiphone archtop. The guitar also featured a Kauffman vibrola and could be said to have been a predecessor of the ES-335.
• Gibson releases its L-5 Premiere and Super 400 Premiere models – the first Gibson guitars to feature a cutaway
• Epiphone releases its “Zephyr” electric model – the first guitar to feature a pickup with six individual pole pieces (one for each string)
• Martin moves from a 1-3/4” to a thinner 1-11/18” nut width as standard on all of its 14-fret models
• National releases the Sonora archtop electric guitar – the first spanish guitar to feature two pickups
• Harry DeArmond develops the RH (round hole) and FH (F-hole) detachable guitar pickup for archtop guitars

1940

• Gibson unveils its P-90 pickup, designed by Gibson’s head of electronics – Walt Fuller
• String manufacturer La Bella introduces flat-wound strings, which use a tape-like metal wrap around the metal string core. These strings became especially popular with bass guitarists

1941

• America joins the war effort
• Les Paul completes his “log” guitar and presents it to Gibson, however, he is laughed off
• O.W. Appleton, a musician and inventor from Burlington, Iowa, builds a solidbody electric guitar that looks strikingly similar to the Les Paul model that Gibson released in 1952. In 1943, Appleton actually took the guitar to Gibson and was told that they couldn’t imagine someone playing a solidbody electric guitar. When the Les Paul model was released in 1952, Gibson sent a letter to Appleton saying that they finally released his guitar and should have listened to him in 1943.
• Paul Barth, factory manager at Electro String Instrument Corporation, develops a detachable version of their horseshoe pickup
• Harry DeArmond at Rowe Industries introduces the first electric guitar effects pedal – the floor-based Model 601 Tremolo Control.

1942

• Gibson flattop guitar headstocks change to a “banner” headstock logo until 1946
• Country-Western performer Fred Clay brings his Martin 000-18 guitar to Leo Fender as audiences were having a hard time hearing Clay’s guitar. Leo Fender installed a magnetic pickup he had been using on lap steels. This was Fender’s first attempt at amplifying a fretted stringed instrument

1943

• Due to the war, Gibson was forced to reduce its guitar product line to 6 models – two archtops (L-50 and L-48) and four flat-tops (L-00, LG-2, Southern Jumbo, and J-45). The instruments they did produce did not have truss rods due to wartime restrictions on metal and instead had very large necks with an internal strip of maple. They also only offered “three-on-a-plate” strip tuners and sunburst finishes
• Leo Fender and Doc Kauffman craft a prototype solidbody spanish electric guitar (that they named the “log”) which they rented out to musicians to try out. It featured a “direct string pickup” where the strings passed through the center of the magnetic coil, rather than over the top of it.

1944

• Martin’s Style 28 herringbone wood marquetry is discontinued due to war time supply difficulties. Herringbone was sourced from Germany
• Martin’s scalloped bracing is discontinued because of the shift to heavy gauge string usage (which required stronger bracing).
• Gibson begins using Sitka spruce instead of Adirondack Spruce for its guitar tops, and begins using metal truss rods again

1945

• World War II ends in September
• Martin guitar tops change from Adirondack spruce to Sitka spruce
• The Schaller Company is founded by Helmut Schaller in Feucht, Germany. The company is most known for its guitar hardware components including tremolos, bridges, and tuning machines. Schiller’s M6 tuner was the first fully-enclosed and self-locking precision tuner.

1946

• After being discontinued due to the war in 1942, Gibson reintroduces the ES-150 with a single-coil P-90. The P-90 would become the standard pickup on all Gibson electrics until the introduction of the PAF Humbucker in 1957.

1947

• Inventor Paul Bigsby builds 2 prototype solid body electric guitars. The first was a single-pickup guitar (neck position) with a small octagonal maple body and 3-on-a-side tuners. The second was built for Les Paul and featured a single bridge pickup, a small figure-eight string-through Birdseye maple body, and 6-in-a-line tuners
• Merle Travis approaches Paul Bigsby about an idea for an electric guitar in 1947. Travis wanted the sustain of a steel guitar and figured this could be accomplished with a solid body. Bigsby completed the guitar for Travis in 1948, and it featured 6 tuning pegs on one side of the headstock, neck-through construction, through-body stringing, and Bigsby’s own blade pickup with aluminum casing (to eliminate 60 cycle hum). Bigsby made 23 of these solidbody guitars for other customers as well and was the first boutique electric guitar builder. More importantly, Bigsby solidbody electric spanish guitars were the first of what is now considered the modern electric guitar.  
• After experimenting with adding pickups to their acoustic archtops, Gibson releases its first model specifically designed as an electric guitar – the ES-350. It featured a laminated maple top to help control feedback (as opposed to a carved spruce top) and a rounded cutaway (Gibson’s first electric to have this feature). Now that the guitar could be amplified, single notes on the upper fingerboard could be easily heard

1948

• Albert Augustine Ltd produces the first nylon strings for classical guitars due to a shortage of gut strings after the war.
• Gibson ES-350 electric model is given a second pickup – Gibson’s first guitar to sport two pickups

1949

• Leo Fender launches a new pickup design with six individual magnets that sits under the strings – a first of its kind. It is first featured in his student-model Champion lap steel.
• Leo Fender and George Fullerton develop the prototype for their new solidbody guitar design. This guitar had many of the features of the Esquire, which was soon to be released, but differed in that it had 3-on-a-side tuners, not 6 in a line. 
• Gibson releases the ES-5 – the first guitar with three pickups
• Gibson introduced the hollowbody ES-175, its first guitar made with a florentine (pointed) cutaway. It became a favorite of jazz guitarists.
• Gibson introduces pickguard-mounted pickups as an option on archtop guitars (either one or two pickups). Often referred to as a “McCarty” pickup unit
• Gibson modifies it’s P-90 pickup to include adjustable pole pieces 
• Gretsch re-releases the Electromatic Spanish with a Model 2000 DeArmond single-coil pickup. This pickup would go on to be known as the “Dynasonic” and was used on all of Gretsch’s electric guitars until 1957 when the Filtertron humbucker was released.
• Paul Bigsby designs a solidbody electric guitar with double cutaways. Later, Fender’s Precision bass (1951) and Stratocaster (1954) both sported double cutaways. The trend towards two cutaways really took off in the late 50’s with Gibson and Rickenbacker releasing several double-cutaway models in 1958 and Gretsch in 1961.
• Merle Travis liked the neck on his Bigbsy solid body electric guitar that he approached Paul Bigsby about putting a Bigsby neck on his 1941 Martin D-28. Bigsby added a Birdseye maple neck with the Bigsby headstock with six-in-a-line tuners. Travis’ D-28 started a trend and many other players went to Bigsby to get one of his necks installed on their acoustic guitars

1950

• Fender introduces its first production solidbody guitar with the single-pickup Esquire in the Spring of 1950. These solidbody guitars featured bolt-on one-piece necks with no separate fingerboard, a height adjustable pickup, and a bridge that was adjustable for height as well as length for intonation (a huge advantage over archtop bridges). The earliest Esquires did not feature truss rods. Fender’s new guitar shared several features with Bigsby guitars including – 6 tuners on one side of the headstock, a string-through solid body with the same depth, and a 3-way blade switch that activated capacitors for differing tones
• In the fall of 1950, Fender introduces the Broadcaster – a two-pickup version of the Esquire that did feature a truss rod. This was the world’s first solidbody electric guitar to be produced on a substantial scale
• In response to Fender’s Esquire, Gibson begins building prototype solidbody electrics. One of the first prototypes was called the “Ranger” and was a solid mahogany body with a single P-90 pickup – similar to a Les Paul Jr but with no cutaway
• Jazz guitarist, Tal Farlow, has his Gibson 1939 ES-250 modified to a 24-fret neck with 16 frets clear of the body, and a shorter scale length to enable bigger left-hand stretches. In 1955, Gibson released two short-scale models – the Byrdland and ES-350.
• Gibson introduces the CF-100 – the first flat-top guitar with a cutaway, and the only with a Florentine cutaway in the 1950s
• Gibson releases the ES-140 electric guitar, which was a 3/4 sized guitar suitable for students and smaller players. It was similar to an ES-175 but with a small 12.75” wide body and short 22.75” scale length. Gibson went on to introduce 3/4 sized solid body electrics with the Les Paul Junior 3/4 and the Melody Maker 3/4. Other manufacturers such as Fender and Rickenbacker followed suit with 3/4 sized models.

1951

• Fender releases the Precision bass – the first commercially successful fretted, electric bass. The Precision bass came with flatwound strings and string mutes attached to the bridge cover, as Leo Fender’s goal was to create a sound similar to an upright bass but with more volume.
• Gibson’s Ted McCarty presents Les Paul with an opportunity to endorse a prototype solidbody guitar which included a sunburst finish and sharp cutaway. Les requested the cutaway be rounded off and it be given a gold finish, and then signed a deal for a 5% royalty on each guitar sold. Thus, the Les Paul model was born
• Gibson releases the electric version of its L-5 archtop, the L5-CES. It was the first guitar to have 2 P90 pickups, and the first to have a 3-way pickup selector & 2 volume and 2 tone controls – this became the standard layout for Gibson’s 2 pickup guitars
• Gibson introduces an electrified version of the CF-100 with the CF-100E, which was the first flat-top guitar with a permanently mounted pickup. It featured an uncovered P-90 pickup between the sound hole and fretboard, and a volume and tone control mounted to the top of the guitar
• Paul Bigsby debuts the Bigsby True Vibrato – the first successful vibrato unit for guitar. Bigsby filed a patent in 1952 and it was granted in 1953. The first unit was given to Merle Travis, but was later featured on many electric guitars including those by Gibson and Gretsch. It was so successful that it led to the end of Bigsby’s instrument manufacturing in 1956, and Bigsby had to move from a one-man-shop to employing others to help him manufacture the vibrato
• Sebastiano Melita is granted a patent for the “Melita” electric guitar bridge – the first to offer independent intonation adjustment for each string. The Melita bridge was employed on many Gretsch electric guitars

1952

• Gibson introduces it’s first solid body electric guitar – the Les Paul
• Gibson president Ted McCarty develops the adjustable Tune-O-Matic bridge (featuring individually adjustable saddles) and stop tailpiece. It was first utilized on the Les Paul Custom model in 1954. The patent was filed in 1952 and granted in 1956.
• Paul Bigsby develops the first double-neck electric spanish guitar built for session guitarist Grady Martin. It featured a six-string guitar neck and a mandolin neck. It also featured one of Bigsby’s first vibrato arms
• Kay introduces the “Thin Twin K161” model which featured a hollow maple body with two thick wood braces running from the neck block to the tailpiece in order to prevent feedback. Gibson later applied a similar concept with a solid center block of wood running on the inside of its thinline semi-hollow guitars such as the ES-335. The Thin Twin was a predecessor of the Gibson semi-hollows, although the Kay model was much thicker at 2.75” and did not feature “f-holes”
• Kay introduced the K-162 “electronic” bass, which was the first commercially available thinline-hollowbody bass guitar.
• Stromberg introduces the G-5 model – a 23.5” short-scale length archtop, which was the first of its kind

1953

• Gibson changes the tailpiece on the Les Paul from a trapeze style to a combination bridge/tailpiece, often called the “wraparound.” The original tailpiece was designed by Les Paul in 1945 with the strings wrapping over the bridge. Les requested Gibson use the tailpiece on the new Les Paul model, however, Gibson implemented it with the strings wrapping under the tailpiece, which did not allow for palm muting. Ted McCarty developed the new bridge/tailpiece in which the strings wrapped over it, and filed a patent for it in January of 1953.
• Gibson releases its first solidbody bass guitar – the EB, which featured an extendable end-pin, so that one could play the instrument upright or horizontally
• Gretsch introduces its first solidbody guitar – the Duo Jet – to compete with Gibson’s Les Paul. Though the Duo Jet was not truly solid, it featured a chambered body. The Duo Jet also featured removable screwed-on strap buttons, which prevented the guitar from slipping off its strap, and was the precursor to straplocks
• Bigsby designs a vibrato arm (B-16) specifically for the Fender Telecaster. It was discontinued in 1954, however, after Fender released their own vibrato arm on the Stratocaster
• Mario Maccaferri introduces Plastic guitars. The concept worked well with plastic ukuleles in 1949, but the plastic flat-top G-30 and archtop G-40 never really caught on.

1954

• Fender introduces its new three pickup guitar – the Stratocaster. It featured a contoured body for player comfort, six-individual string saddles, and the first combination bridge-vibrato unit
• Rickenbacker introduces the Combo 800 solid body electric guitar – the first production guitar to feature a double-coil or “humbucking” pickup
• Ray Butts begins work on a new humbucking pickup design for Gretsch.
• While most companies offered standard natural or sunburst finishes, Gretsch sought to differentiate itself and released several eye-catching finishes such as silver sparkle, amber-red, Cadillac green, Jaguar tan, and later two-tone finishes using yellows, coppers, and ivories. These finishes inspired Fender to later offer custom-color finishes
• Danelectro begins producing guitars, with the majority sold to Sears & Roebuck under the “Silvertone” brand name, but also selling some under their own “Danelectro” brand. The guitar bodies featured masonite tops and backs with a pine frame, as well as pickup casings made from lipstick tubes

1955

• Gibson employees Walt Fuller and Seth Lover develop Gibson’s humbucker pickup, that would later become known as the “PAF” (patent applied for). It made it’s debut on Gibson’s Consolette pedal steel
• Gibson releases the first thinline archtop electric guitar – the ES-225T – at 2.25” deep. Players often found that the standard 3.375” depth of standard archtops cumbersome to play. Gibson also releases 2 additional short-scale thinline models – the ES-350T and Byrdland – the same year for even greater ease of playing
• Gretsch releases an electric hollowbody model endorsed by country guitar superstar, Chet Atkins – the 6120
• Stratosphere Guitar Manufacturing Company of Springfield, Missouri releases the first production double-neck guitar with a 6-string neck & 12-string neck – called the “Twin.” It also offered a single-neck 12-string electric, the first of its kind

1956

• April 10th: Fender patents its Tremolo system.
• President of Gibson, Ted McCarty, wanted to use the Bigsby True Vibrato on Gibson guitars, however, felt that the arm of the vibrato got in the way. He contact Paul Bigsby and modified the design so that the arm could swing in the opposite direction to get out of the way when it wasn’t in use. With this change, Bigsby established an exclusive distribution agreement with Gibson Guitars. Gretsch desired to continue to use Bigsby vibratos as well, and so came to an agreement to put the Gretsch logo on the vibratos and also design it with a “V” cutout (first seen in 1959)
• Rickenbacker releases the first production through-neck guitar, the Combo 400.
• Danelectro releases the UB-2, the first six-string bass guitar. It had a 30” scale length and was tuned the exact same as a guitar, just an octave lower, making it more akin to a modern baritone guitar than a modern six-string bass. It was also the first bass guitar to feature 2 pickups
• First stereo recorded tapes appear, prompting guitar makers to experiment with “stereo” guitars
• Gretsch employee Jimmy Webster worked with pickup and amp-designer Ray Butts to develop the first practical stereo guitar system. Webster subsequently filed a patent for the system
• Danelectro releases the U-1 solid body electric guitar. It featured a single pickup but with a three-way selector switch for 3 different tone settings – a first on a single-pickup guitar. This feature was later incorporated into other guitars, such as 1958 Gretsch models.

1957

• Gibson begins installing its PAF humbucker pickups in their electric guitars, starting with the ES-175 and moving throughout most of its line, including the Les Paul Standard.
• Gretsch also introduced a humbucking pickup designed by Ray Butts that year at the Chicago summer NAMM show: the Filtertron. There is still disagreement as to who designed the first humbucker.
• Fender releases its first official custom color Stratocaster – a see-through blonde finish with gold hardware – nicknamed the “Mary Kaye” Stratocaster due to Kaye posing in an ad with the custom guitar. This color combination was likely produced to complete with Gretsch’s White Falcon and White Penguin guitars
• In response to Gretsch’s White Falcon, Fender begins offering the option of gold hardware on some of its models
• Rickenbacker releases its 4000 bass, the first bass to feature a through-neck design
• Ramirez Guitars is passed down to Jose III, who experimented with non-traditional classical & flamenco guitar construction methods, developing guitars with a longer scale length (26.14”), asymmetrical fan bracing, and red cedar as the soundboard wood (in 1965). 
• Antonio “Wandre” Pioli begins manufacturing Wandre Guitars in Cavriago, Italy. The guitars were the first to feature an aluminum neck, solving the problem of many Italian instrument necks warping. Wandre Guitars only lasted until 1970, however, the aluminum neck concept was taken up later by luthiers such as Travis Bean.

1958

• Fender releases the Jazzmaster to try to compete with Gibson in the jazz market. Fender designed the Jazzmaster single-coil pickups to be wider –  producing a more mellow sound, in an attempt to compete with Gibson’s humbucker. It was also designed with an offset body to make the guitar comfortable to play in the seated position. The guitar did not catch on with jazz players as anticipated. The guitar featured a new vibrato system, called the floating tremolo, and also incorporated separate rhythm and lead circuits – a design developed by Fender’s General Manager Forrest White on a hobby guitar in 1942.
• Gibson introduces the ES-335 thinline archtop. It was thinner than the previous thinline models at 1.75” deep and featured a solid maple center block. The ES-335 was an attempt to find a middle ground between a solidbody electric and an archtop – a warmer tone than a solid body but still capable of producing little to no feedback. While the Les Paul was a reaction to Fender’s Telecaster, the semi-hollow ES-335 was Gibson’s own groundbreaking design.
• Gibson introduces a line of modernistic guitars – including the Flying V and Explorer. For centuries, guitars were designed with variations of a figure-eight body design, but with their modernistic instruments, Gibson completely redrew the boundaries for how a guitar could look. These instruments were too far ahead of their time, however, and ended up just hanging in music stores. With less than one hundred of each model produced, they were discontinued in 1963. Because of their rarity, these guitars are worth a great deal of money to collectors today.
• Gibson begins producing double-neck guitars. They included a 12-string and 6-string neck model, & a 6-string mandolin and 6-string guitar neck model
• Gretsch introduces trestle bracing on most of its hollowbody models to improve sustain and reduce feedback. This bracing was used until 1962, when Gretsch went to thinner body depths on its hollowbody models
• Gretsch introduces two new Chet Atkins models to complement the 6120 – the higher end Country Gentleman, and the more affordable Tennessean. The Country Gentleman was Gretsch’s first thinline hollowbody model and also its first to use their new “Filtertron” humbucking pickups
• Gretsch introduces Project-O-Sonic stereo electronics on the White Falcon and Country Club – three strings were captured by each pickup and sent to a separate output. The controls included two 3-way tone switches (one for each pickup) and a 3-way pickup and amp combination selector switch. These were the first stereo guitars
• Rickenbacker releases its “Capri” thinline hollowbody models
• Martin releases a line of flattop acoustic models with DeArmond pickups, volume and tone knobs, and a pickup selector switch attached directly to the guitar top
• Harmony releases it’s first guitars with DeArmond Golden-Tone Indox single-coil pickups (later known as “gold foil” pickups). Harmony used these pickups extensively on their guitar models.
• Danelectro releases the Guitarlin model (otherwise known as the “longhorn”) which featured 31 frets (as opposed to 21-24 on conventional electric guitars) giving it an additional extended mandolin range. The Guitarlin did not catch on, however, only selling approximately 200 units between 1958 and 1968.

1959

• Fender begins using rosewood fingerboard on all of their instruments, after successfully utilizing rosewood on the Jazzmaster of 1958. Leo Fender chose to use rosewood as it didn’t wear as much as maple
• Gibson’s Seth Lover granted the patent for his humbucking pickup. Despite the patent now being granted, “Patent Applied For (PAF)” pickups were still sporadically used by Gibson up until 1964
• Gibson introduces its first stereo guitar – the ES-345 – with each pickup outputting to a separate amplifier
• Gretsch releases their own single-coil pickup called the “Hi-Lo Tron” – first featured on their Clipper model. They had previously been using DeArmond Dynasonic single-coil pickups, but because many guitar manufacturers were using DeArmonds, Gretsch wanted their own pickup to set themselves apart.

1960

• Fender offers custom colors on all models (Olympic white, Black, Fiesta Red, Dakota Red, Shell Pink, Lake Placid Blue Metallic, Daphne Blue, Sonic Blue, Sherwood Green Metallic, Foam Green, Surf Green, Shoreline Gold Metallic, Inca Silver Metallic, Burgundy Mist Metallic) in addition to standard blond and sunburst finishes
• Gibson develops and begins to utilize its own vibrato – the sideways “Vibrola” which involved the vibrato arm moving side to side rather than up and down, like most other vibrato systems. This style of vibrato did not appeal to players, and Gibson discontinued its use around 1963.
• Gibson releases a classical guitar called the C-1E, which was the first guitar to feature a piezo pickup. In 1880, it was discovered that certain natural crystals when pressed or squeezed put out an electrical signal, called piezo-electricity. Gibson used this concept to create a bridge out of ceramic materials that produced an electrical signal that could be amplified
• U.K. Guitar manufacturer, Burns, releases the Artist model that features a heel-less glued-in neck with a 24-fret fingerboard. This guitar was the first with a 24-fret fingerboard.

1961

• Gibson develops a new vibrato called the Maestro Vibrola. The system had various iterations (ebony block, lyre, etc) and underwent many changes, but never caught on like Fender or Bigsby’s vibrato systems
• Musician Bill Wyman makes the first fretless bass guitar by removing the frets on his UK-built “Dallas Tuxedo” bass and filling the slots with wood putty
• Luther Ritchie designs and patents the “Silver-Sound” pickup, which was an early effort to provide an electric guitar with amplified acoustic-like sound (similar to today’s piezo bridge pickups). This pickup was mounted to some National and Supro fiberglass-body guitars in the late 50s and 60s.

1962

• Gibson humbucking pickups are given a patent number, thus, they are no longer called PAFs (Patent Applied For)
• Fender releases its new premier model – the Jaguar, which featured an extra fret (for a total of 22) and a shorter 24” scale. All other standard Fender models featured 21 frets and a 25.5” scale length.
• Roger Rossmeisl leaves Rickenbacker and takes a position at Fender. Along with Leo Fender, Rossmeisl helped develop Fender acoustic guitars. Fender acoustics were unique in that they featured bolt-on necks, the classic six-in-line tuners on a Fender headstock, and a fully adjustable bridge.
• Valco introduces a line of “Res-O-Glas” electric guitars under the National brand, which featured a moulded fiberglass body. The intention was to save money on materials, however, the fiberglass bodies were prone to cracking and proved messier and more time consuming than anticipated.
• Ernie Ball establishes the Ernie Ball Corporation in Tarzana, California, to produce lighter gauge electric guitar strings. The electric guitar was transitioning from a rhythm instrument to a lead instrument, and Ball, a music store owner and guitar teacher, noticed that beginners were unable to bend strings like the lead guitar players of the day. As a result, he developed the “Slinky” line of guitar strings with lighter gauges so that guitar players could effortlessly bend strings for lead playing

1963

• Violinist John Berry joins with audio engineer Les Barcus to develop the Barcus-Berry piezo pickup system. This was the first pickup suitable for acoustic guitar.
• Fender drops Shell Pink as a custom color finish and adds Candy Apple Red
• In an attempt to compete with the Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar, Gibson introduces the Firebird, which was designed by car designer Ray Dietrich. It had many features unusual for Gibsons, including neck-through construction, a reverse headstock with 6-on-a-side banjo tuners, and their own unique pickups (with 2 blade magnets with no adjustable pole pieces). The guitar came in 4 configurations – the I (one pickup), III (two pickups and vibrato), V (2 pickups and deluxe vibrato) and VII (three pickups and deluxe vibrato)
• Gibson introduces its first long scale (34”) bass, the Thunderbird
• Gibson offers custom colors on Firebird and Thunderbird models (Polaris White, Cardinal Red, Ember Red, Frost Blue, Pelham Blue, Kerry Green, Inverness Green, Golden Mist, Silver Mist, and Heather). They were subsequently discontinued in 1969
• Epiphone guitars move to narrower nut width (from 1-11/16” to 1-9/16”) and a much slimmer neck. Gibson guitars followed suit 2 years later.
• Burns releases the TR2 – the first guitar with active circuitry. It featured low-impedance pickups with a battery-powered preamp. Burns also released a bass version of the TR2, which was the first active bass guitar.
• Mosrite releases the Ventures model electric guitar (made for the popular surf rock band). The Ventures organization became the worldwide distributor for Mosrite guitars, and production increased from 35 instruments a month to 300. The Ventures model went on to be especially popular in Japan
• British string company, Rotosound, develops the first roundwound bass guitar strings which gave the bass a brighter and clearer sound. All that was available up to that point were flatwound strings for the bass guitar

1964

• Fender offers custom neck sizes on the Jaguar, Jazzmaster and Stratocaster. The sizes included A (1.5” nut width), standard B (1.625”), C (1.75”), and D (1.875”)
• Rickenbacker releases the 360/12 – the first successful production electric 12 string guitar. Many other manufacturers followed suit to ride the wave of the 12-string electric trend. Rickenbacker 12-string guitars have a non-traditional stringing, with the fundamental string on the bottom, followed by the octave string (the reverse of traditional 12-strings). 

1965

• Fender releases the Bass V – the first 5 string bass. The tuning was EADGC, adding a high C string, rather than the more modern lower B string. The Bass V proved unpopular, and was discontinued in 1970.
• Fender revamps its custom color finishes – dropping Daphne Blue, Shoreline Gold, Burgundy Mist, Sherwood Green, Surf Green, and Inca Silver; and adding Blue Ice, Firemist Gold Metallic, Charcoal Frost, Ocean Turquoise Metallic, Teal Green Metallic, and Firemist Silver Metallic.
• Gibson decreased the nut width size on most of its models (including all solid bodies) from 1-11/16” to 1-5/8.” This change was not favored by players, and Gibson reversed this change in 1970
• Gibson changes its headstock angle from 17 degrees to 14 degrees in response to players complaining about their guitar headstocks breaking when dropped. Gibson reverted to a 17 degree angle in 1973
• Gibson switches from nickel-plated hardware to chrome. Nickel tarnished easily, whereas chrome retained its lustre
• Martin introduces a new top of the line model to oust the D-28, the D-35. The D-35 featured a three-piece rosewood back as larger pieces of Brazilian rosewood were in short supply
• The Bill Lawrence company develops the first aftermarket pickup
• Rickenbacker introduces the 4005 semi-hollow bass. They made an 8-string version of this bass, called the 4005/8, with octave strings doubled with each of the standard 4 strings

1966

• Fender releases its Wildwood acoustic guitars that used wood from beech trees that was dyed with color during growth, producing a colorful streaked finish. The Wildwood finish was later applied to the Fender Coronado range of semi-hollow electrics
• Rickenbacker releases 12-string “convertible”guitars, which were able to convert to 6-strings (or any number of strings between 6 and 12) with the flick of a lever. James E. Gross of Glenview, Illinois designed the converter comb that pulled down certain strings, moving them down and away from a player’s pick. The idea never really caught on and the line was discontinued in 1976.
• Charles Kaman, owner of about 30 aerospace companies, forms Ovation Instruments. Frustrated with acoustic guitars cracking with changes in temperature and humidity, Ovation engineers designed an acoustic guitar with a one-piece parabolic body shell pressed from synthetic fibers – similar to the covering the company used for helicopter rotor blades – that was impervious to weather conditions
• Ampeg releases the AUB-1, the first production fretless bass

1967

• Fender switches the wiring on the Telecaster’s pickup selector to include the neck, neck+bridge, and bridge positions. Up to that point, the selector included the neck pickup with a preset bass rolloff, the neck pickup, and the bridge pickup.
• Fender introduces the maple cap fingerboard – a maple fingerboard glued on to the maple neck (as opposed to the earlier one-piece maple neck with no added fingerboard). This lasted until 1969 when Fender switched back to one-piece maple necks.
• The Fender Telecaster and Esquire are available with an optional Bigsby Vibrato that Bigsby engineered specifically for those guitars
• Nathan Daniel at Danelectro, along with New York session player Vinnie Bell, develop an electric sitar under the “Coral” brand name. The instrument featured 6 strings along with 13 drone strings, all captured by 3 “lipstick” pickups.

1968

• Fender changes from nitrocellulose lacquer undercoats to polyester. Polyester is a thicker finish which allowed for less coats to be sprayed.
• Fender switches from 250K volume pots to 1 MEG, giving a brighter overall sound. They reverted back to 250K pots in 1981.
• Roger Rossmeisl at Fender develops a new semi-hollow Telecaster, called the Telecaster Thinline. It featured a chambered solid body with a single “f-hole.” It was a much more successful instrument than Rossmeisl’s earlier Fender semi-hollow, the Coronado, which was released in 1966 and designed to compete with Gibson’s ES-335.
• Fender releases two Telecaster models with stickum wallpaper on the front and back of the guitars – which was then given a clear polyester finish overtop. The two models were Paisley Red and Blue Flower.
• Fender releases a Telecaster made entirely out of rosewood. The first one was famously given to George Harrison of the Beatles. The rosewood Teles were very heavy and expensive to produce, and thus, they were discontinued in 1972.
• Micro-Frets, which was established in Frederick, Maryland by Ralph Jones in 1965, releases the first wireless guitar, the Orbiter, using FM radio waves to transmit signal on the frequency 102.3 MHz

1969

• Due to an embargo on the import of Brazilian rosewood logs by the Brazilian government, Martin discontinues the use of Brazilian rosewood for stock models, and replaces it with rosewood from East India.
• Gibson begins using Indian rosewood on most fingerboards, but still was able to use stockpiled Brazilian rosewood for acoustic guitar bridges
• Gibson president Stan Rendell begins making several changes to Gibson’s guitar designs including adding a neck volute to strengthen the neck, moving from a one-piece to three-piece mahogany neck, and adding a maple laminate between two pieces of mahogany on guitar bodies. These changes were reversed in the late 70s and early 80s.
• Gibson discontinues all slope-shoulder dreadnaught guitars and transitions them to their square-shoulder dreadnaught shape. All acoustics in their line-up adopted this shape (except for the J-200) and were given a longer 25.5” scale length, rather than the traditional Gibson scale length of 24.75”
• Gibson released the Les Paul Deluxe which featured mini humbucking pickups. Mini humbuckers were constructed the same way as larger humbuckers, but because of their size, produced a brighter, more articulate tone. These pickups were inherited by Gibson from the sale of Epiphone and originally featured on the Epiphone Sheraton guitar.
• Gibson introduces the Les Paul “Personal” guitars which featured low impedance pickups (Les Paul’s preference). They required a transformer to be played into high-impedance amplifiers. Low impedance pickups allowed for a fuller frequency range, longer cable runs, and less noise, however, the idea did not catch on with guitar players and the model was discontinued in 1973.
• Rickenbacker offers an option to outfit its guitars with slanted frets. These frets were designed to more naturally fit the position of the hand and also reduce the stretch length of fingerings. The angled frets were later featured as standard on the model 481 which was released in 1973
• Alembic Inc was founded by Owsley Stanley, Rick Turner, Ron Wickersham, and Bob Matthews as an electronics workshop in the rehearsal room of the band, the Grateful Dead, in Novato, California. Alembic began making high-end custom bass guitars in 1971, a forerunner of companies specializing in high-end basses. They used low-impedance pickups with an active onboard preamp to give a wider frequency response in the sound of the instrument, through-neck construction, exotic woods, as well as brass hardware to assist in sustain.
• The Ampeg company releases a see-through guitar and bass built by luthier Dan Armstrong. The guitar bodies were made out of an acrylic plastic called lucite, and featured a single-pickup design with 6 interchangeable pickup options. Due to the relatively expensive manufacturing process and a lack of popularity amongst conservative guitar players, the line was discontinued in 1971.

1970

• Tony Zemaitis begins building custom guitars in Britain. Zemaitis guitars feature elaborately engraved aluminum plates that cover the entire front of the body. Zemaitis continued to build other electric and acoustic instruments on a custom-basis until his retirement in 2000.
• John Veleno begins Veleno Guitars in St. Petersburg, Florida. The guitars were unique in that they were almost entirely made out of aluminum

1971

• Due to a huge amount of warranty claims on acoustic guitars, Gibson begins using a “double X” bracing pattern for tops. This solved the warranty problems but also diminished sound quality. They went back to single X-braces in 1984.
• Fender introduces it’s Wide Range humbucking pickup, designed by Seth Lover, to compete with Gibson’s humbucker guitars. It was installed in the Telecaster Deluxe, Custom, and Thinline models, as well as the Starcaster model.
• Fender introduces the micro-tilt adjustment for electric guitar necks. This enabled the neck angle to be adjusted without removing and shimming the neck

1972

• Larry DiMarzio releases the Super Distortion Humbucker, which is widely regarded as the first mass-produced aftermarket pickup. Guitarists were wanting more and more gain and DiMarzio’s new design utilizing ceramic magnets, allowed guitarists to have much higher output than traditional pickups. The hard rock movement, along with the trend towards modifying guitars, allowed DiMarzio’s business to thrive
• Robert Godin founds Godin Guitars in La Patrie, Quebec, Canada. What started as a small operation has grown to include six different guitar brands including: acoustic guitar manufacturers Seagull, Simon & Patrick, Art & Lutherie, and Norman; classical guitar manufacturer La Patrie; and electric guitar and bass manufacturer Godin. Godin has been on the forefront of innovation of hybrid guitars that incorporate both acoustic and electric sounds. They also design and manufacture TRIC cases, which are made of expanded polypropylene and are incredibly lightweight yet strong.
• Ernie Ball collaborated with George Fullerton to produce one of the first acoustic bass guitars – the Earthwood Bass. Ball’s goal was to have a bass instrument that matched closely with an acoustic guitar in tone and look

1973

• Fender releases the Telecaster Deluxe which featured a flatter 9.5” fingerboard radius (up to this point Fender had only used a 7.25” radius) and wider jumbo frets. Both of these features became standard on later Fender designs
• Ovation Guitars engineer Jim Rickard designs an under-saddle piezo pickup for their acoustic guitars, which included a volume control on the side of the guitar

1974

• Bassist Anthony Jackson works with luthier Carl Thompson to develop the first modern six-string bass with BEADGC tuning, which they termed the “contrabass” guitar
• Sam Radding decides to sell the “American Dream” guitar shop, and employees Bob Taylor, Kurt Listug and Steve Schemmer purchase the shop and tools. They then established their business as Westland Music, making guitars under the brand “Taylor.” The company began making dreadnaught and jumbo guitars as custom orders. Taylor guitars began to be known for their playability, due to skinny neck shapes (feeling more like an electric guitar) and utilizing a bolt-on neck for acoustic guitars – making neck angle adjustments much easier.
• Car mechanic Travis Bean went into business with Gary Kramer to produce guitars with aluminum necks. The guitars did sustain very well, but were very heavy. The Sun Valley, California business did not last long, however, closing up shop in 1979 and only producing 3650 instruments.
• Luthier John Monteleone begins building custom mandolins and officially opened a shop in Bayshore, New York in 1976. He later began building flat-top and then archtop guitars, with innovative features such as sound ports in the sides of the guitar and adjustable tailpieces that could slightly alter string tension. Monteleone was mentored by Jimmy D’Aquisto and Mario Maccaferri, and builds some of the finest archtop guitars and mandolins available.

1975

• Gibson begins using 3-piece maple necks (instead of 3-piece mahogany) for added strength. They went back to mahogany in the early 80s
• Guild introduces the first dreadnaught flat-top model with a cutaway – the D40C

1976

• Alembic makes a custom 5 string bass for bassist Jimmy Johnson with EADGC tuning. Johnson wanted a 5-string with the fifth string as the lowest, and so he modified the nut and bridge to accept the largest diameter string he could find (.120) and tuned it to B. This was the first bass with the modern low B string and BEADG tuning.
• Music Man releases the Sting Ray bass, which was the first widely-produced bass with active electronics and also featured a unique 3+1 tuner configuration. The bass was designed by Leo Fender, Tom Walker, and Sterling Ball (Ernie Ball’s son)
• Gibson modifies its ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge to be a little deeper, allowing for better intonation adjustment. The modified bridge was called the “Nashville” bridge
• Seeking to improve upon the loss of resonance caused by a round soundhole in the middle of an acoustic guitar’s top, Ovation released the Adamas guitar, which featured 21 various sized sound holes on the upper treble and bass bouts. The guitar also featured a 1/32” thick top made from a piece of birch sandwiched with carbon graphite. This extremely thin top made for good resonance, and its carbon graphite structure added the strength needed under string tension.

1977

• Fender Stratocaster given a 5-way pickup selector. For years, players had balanced the 3-way pickup selector to find “in-between” pickup sounds.
• Floyd Rose, a jeweler, begins making and selling “locking trem bridges.” This addressed the issue of vibrato systems not returning to pitch. He was awarded a patent for them in 1979, and went on to license the unit with companies like Fender, Washburn, Jackson, Ibanez, and others.
• With the additional string tension on 5-string basses, bassist and satellite engineer Geoff Gould approached Alembic with the idea of using graphite for bass necks. Graphite (carbon fiber and epoxy resin) is extremely strong but also lightweight. Alembic built the first bass with a graphite neck, however, decided not to pursue using the material

1978

• Takamine develops the Palathetic pickup, with six individual piezo transducers embedded under the bridge plate. They featured the pickup in their first acoustic-electric guitar, the PT-007S, released the following year. 
• Peavey introduces its first guitars – the T-60 electric guitar and T40 bass. These were the first production instruments built using computer-controlled carving (CNC) machines
• Because Alembic decided not to pursue using graphite necks, Geoff Gould began his own company called Modulus Graphite. He made some Alembic/Modulus basses, custom graphite replacement bass necks, and began to build his own basses as well.

1979

• Ned Steinberger establishes Steinberger Guitars in Brooklyn, New York, with co-founders Stan Jay, Hap Kuffner, and Bob Young. Steinberger’s radical  designs include the XL2 headless bass with a body made of a blend of carbon and fibers.

1980

• Warmoth Guitars is founded in Puyallup, Washington, as a manufacturer of custom guitar bodies, necks, and parts for players to put together as a customized instrument. In the late 80s, Warmoth pioneered the compound radius fretboard – allowing players to have a rounder playing surface near the nut for fretting chords comfortably, and a flatter playing surface towards the body of the guitar for easier bending and lead playing
• Gibson employee Tim Shaw works to recreate the PAF humbucker. His new pickup mostly replaced Gibson’s existing “T-Top” humbuckers.

1982

• John Decker designs a flat-top acoustic made of carbon-fiber (graphite) in order to withstand the elements. He subsequently formed the Rainsong Guitar Company in Maui, Hawaii.
• Gibson releases the “Chet Atkins Cutaway Electric Classical,” which was a solidbody nylon string guitar with a piezo pickup and a cutaway
• Hardware company Hipshot releases their Bass Xtender tuning machine that allows bass players to lower the tuning of their low string with the flip of a lever. Using the Bass Xtender, bass players could drop their low string up to a fourth below the pitch of the string

1983

• Fender transitions to using polyurethane finishes for top coats
• Graph Tech Guitar Labs is founded by Dave Dunwoodie in British Columbia, Canada. He sought to fix the problem of string binding in traditional guitar nuts made out of bone or plastic, and invented the first self-lubricating guitar nut out of graphite and other materials. Graph Tech went on to become the world’s largest nut and saddle manufacturing company, working with companies such as Fender, Gibson, Taylor, Godin, and Yamaha.
• Modulus Graphite releases the Flight 6 Monocoque electric guitar, which had a body and neck made out of a single-piece of carbon fiber

1984

• Jackson releases the “Soloist” guitar, which was the first production “Super Strat,” featuring a through-neck, 24 frets, bridge humbucker, and locking tremolo system 
• Yamaha releases the BB5000, the first production 5 string bass with BEADG tuning
• Taylor Guitars releases its first original body shape – the Grand Concert body style which catered to fingerstyle players with its smaller body and larger 1-3/4” nut. There was not much on the market suited to fingerstyle players from the big manufacturers, Martin, Guild, and Gibson.
• Paul Reed Smith designs his own unique electric guitar body shape with asymmetrical double cutaways, inspired by the Stratocaster and the Les Paul Junior double cut. He then began to market his guitars to guitar retailers
• Pickup manufacturer DiMarzio patents a design for a “stacked humbucker” pickup that would work as a replacement for a single-coil pickup in a Stratocaster or Telecaster
• Unsatisfied with the string spacing on his pioneering 6-string bass, bassist Anthony Jackson worked with luthier Ken Smith to build a 6-string bass with similar string spacing to a Fender Precision. The resulting bass had a very wide fingerboard, but this string spacing became standard on most 6-string basses.
• Canadian luthier Linda Manzer pioneers the Manzer wedge which maintains the body depth on the treble side of acoustic guitars but has a slightly shallower bass side. This allows for the guitar to be more comfortable in the sitting position and also giving the player a better view of the strings without sacrificing tone

1985

• PRS launches its Custom model at the winter NAMM show. It combined elements of both Gibson and Fender guitars with a double cutaway mahogany body with a maple cap, humbucking pickups with a 5-way rotary selector switch to achieve single-coil tones, vibrato system, and 25” scale length (in between Fender’s 25.5 and Gibson’s 24.625). PRS’s other model “The PRS Guitar” (later called the Standard) did not have a maple cap
• Floyd Rose tweaks his vibrato design by adding fine tuners and is awarded a patent in 1985.
• Don Lace designs a single coil pickup that dramatically reduced the hum associated with traditional single coils, called Lace Sensors. Lace Sensors were exclusively used by Fender from 1987 to 1998 until Fender began designing their own noiseless pickups
• Pickup manufacturer Seymour Duncan patents their design for a “stacked humbucking” pickup
• Jim Kauffman designs the sunrise pickup system which consists of a magnetic humbucking pickup that mounts in the sound hole of flattop acoustic guitars

1986

• PRS Guitars releases its limited edition “Signature” model which featured Paul Reed Smith’s signature on the headstock. This later became a standard feature of all PRS Guitars
• Kramer releases the first acoustic-electric bass guitar – the Ferrington. Other manufacturers such as Washburn and Ovation followed releasing their own models

1987

• Ibanez produces the “JEM” guitar in collaboration with guitarist Steve Vai. This guitar was a “superstrat” with a handle cut into the body, and went on to sell very well. It also featured a 24 fret fingerboard with frets 21-24 scalloped and was one of the first guitars with a humbucker-single-humbucker pickup configuration
• Ibanez releases the RG550 guitar – a JEM style guitar without some of the custom features. It featured Ibanez’s extremely thin “wizard” neck, which necessitated a redesigned truss rod to fit the slim shape. The RG series guitars sold extremely well and put Ibanez on the map as an innovator in guitar design

1988

• Tom Anderson Guitar Works becomes the first company to incorporate CNC machines into the guitar-building process
• Takamine introduces its TP preamp with parametric EQ to control their acoustic guitar pickups

1989

• Fender releases the Precision Bass Plus, which was the first bass to feature both a precision bass pickup and jazz bass bridge pickup – what is now commonly referred to as “the PJ” pickup configuration
• Takamine introduces an external battery box and replaceable preamp package systems for their acoustic-electric guitars
• Luthier Ken Donnell pioneers the flexible sound hole mini microphone which was an attempt at getting a more natural acoustic sound than the common under saddle pickups
• Canadian luthier William “Grit” Laskin develops the beveled armrest on acoustic guitars to increase player comfort on the strumming arm. Laskin also developed a “rib rest” on the back side of the guitar to increase comfort for those who play seated. He later co-developed the side port soundhole on acoustic guitars so that players could directly hear the instrument’s sound
• Ralph Novak designs and patents the “fanned fret” arrangement – which utilizes different scale lengths for each string in order to achieve better intonation. This fret design also necessitates an angled bridge, so that the lower strings are longer than the higher strings. This creates a “multi-scale” guitar (ex. 24.75” to 26”) which results in uniform tension on all strings and easier adaptability to altered tunings.

1990

• Taylor Guitars incorporates CNC machines into their guitar-building process after learning that Tom Anderson of Anderson electric guitars was using this technology. They are the first company to use this technology to build acoustic guitars
• Ibanez releases the Universe 7-string electric guitar. While 7-string guitars had been produced in the past by a few different manufacturers, the Universe was the first large-scale production 7-string guitar
• Musician and guitar instructor Gerd Anke with his partner Michael Dubach found the company Plektron in Berlin, Germany, which builds PLEK machines. These are CNC machines that analyze a guitar’s frets and make minute adjustments so that the fretwork is perfectly consistent. The goal is to get the best possible string action for each instrument.

1991

• James Tyler creates a “psychedelic vomit” finish as a joke for guitarist Michael Landau, using random paints all over the guitar. The finish caught on, however, and became a popular option on Tyler Guitars. Tyler later introduced more multicolor distressed finishes called “Burning Water” and “Shmear.”

1992

• Taylor guitar employees Larry Breedlove and Steve Henderson found the Breedlove Guitar Company in Bend, Oregon. Their acoustic flat-top guitars feature a graduated top and innovative bridge truss system
• Parker Guitars established in Wilmington, Massachusetts, backed by the Korg Company. Ken Parker, with the assistance of Larry Fishman, releases one of the first “hybrid” guitars, the Fly, which can produce both acoustic and electric guitar sounds. Parker guitars used ultra-lightweight body woods such as spruce, poplar, or basswood, which were then reinforced by a composite on the back of the guitar for strength. The fingerboard was also made of composite to strengthen the neck which virtually had no heel, in order to gain better access to upper frets. On the fingerboard was a new kind of fret material – stainless steel – which is much more durable than traditional nickel-silver frets.
• PRS launches its first “Dragon” guitar – which had ornate dragon themed inlays. This was also the first PRS guitar to feature a 22 (instead of 24) fret neck
• Graph Tech Guitar Labs introduces a material called TUSQ for guitar nuts, saddles, and bridge pins – a type of man-made ivory.

1993

• Gibson releases its “Historic Collection” which included reissue guitars with exacting details of how they were made in the 50s and 60s, down to screws, wiring, and exact dimensions

1994

• Taylor Guitars releases two 20th Anniversary models with a “Grand Auditorium” body style – which strikes a balance between the traditional Dreadnaught and OM shapes, creating a versatile instrument for strumming, flatpicking, and fingerpicking. The Grand Auditorium body became part of their standard offerings in 1996. One of the anniversary models also featured a cedar top with mahogany back & sides which very much appealed to fingerstyle players and was later incorporated into the 500 series models
• Seth Lover partners with pickup-maker Seymour Duncan to develop a re-creation of the PAF humbucking pickup, called the Seth Lover model
• PRS Guitars releases the “McCarty” model which paid tribute to Ted McCarty, the former president of Gibson guitars. Smith experimented with thicker neck profiles and a steeper headstock angle in order to achieve more of a thicker traditional Les Paul tone. The McCarty model was also the first PRS to feature pickup covers and a three-way pickup selector switch

1995

• Fender introduces “reliced” guitars in its Custom Shop. These instruments were intentionally “aged” to look like vintage instruments
• Tom Anderson and Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars devise a method of using UV lighting to cure instrument finishes, reducing curing time from 12 days to 30 seconds. It also reduced the number of coats of finish needed from 10 to 2
• Linda Manzer builds the first baritone acoustic guitar for guitarist Craig Snyder
• Duesenberg Guitars release the Starplayer model, which went on to become their most popular model. It featured a semi-hollow body with a spruce top and maple back & sides, with a P-90 in the neck position and humbucker in the bridge position. 

1996

• Taylor Guitars begins using computer-controlled laser technology to cut tops, backs, sides, and other guitar components, as well as for inlay work
• Taylor releases a 3/4 sized model suitable for younger children and for traveling, called the Baby Taylor. The model was so popular that by 2000, Taylor established an 8000 square foot facility dedicated to manufacturing Baby Taylors
• Kinman Guitar Electrix releases “noiseless” single-coil pickups that achieve a single-coil tone without the associated 60 cycle hum
• Takamine releases a signature acoustic-electric model for Garth Brooks, country music’s biggest star. The instrument featured a guitar-shaped soundhole.

1997

• Martin begins using Adirondack spruce tops again on select models
• Joe Knaggs at PRS Guitars designs a full 4” thick hollowbody archtop with the familiar small solidbody PRS shape. Production of the solid wood instrument would not have been realistic without the use of CNC technology to carve the tops and backs of the guitars – hand carving simply took too much time, and PRS felt that pressed laminates compromised tone
• Noted guitar and amp tech Joe Naylor founds Reverend Guitars in Detroit, Michigan, producing electric guitars and basses with unique designs, pickup configurations, and electronics. Notably, the guitars were built with bodies made of formica with a center block of mahogany running the length of the body and a steel bar inside for sustain and balance. Reverend guitars also incorporate a bass contour knob which tightens up the bass, revoicing the pickups new sounds

1998

• Bob Taylor develops and patents the NT (New Technology) neck joint for Taylor acoustic guitars. Prior to this, his bolt-on necks still required the fretboard extension to be glued to the top. With this development, the neck was fully independent and was fitted into a pre-formed pocket, making neck resets a very simple process. With the new neck joint, Taylor changed from one-piece necks, to three-piece necks with separate heel, neck, and headstock pieces
• PRS introduces a stoptail bridge that incorporated tuneomatic intonation adjustment

2001

• Bradley Clark and Adam Cole found Cole Clark Guitars in Melbourne, Australia. They are the only major manufacturer to feature a spanish heel on their flattop guitars, meaning that the neck extends inside the body all the way to the soundhole. The company also focuses on using all sustainable and local wood sources, as well as the goal to have the most natural sounding acoustic guitar pickup on the market.

2002

• Matt McPherson, owner of Mathews Archery, applies the principles of compound archery bows to the concept of an acoustic guitar and founds McPherson Guitars in Sparta, Wisconsin. McPherson’s goal was to allow the guitar top to vibrate as freely as possible, and included unique features to accomplish this such as: an offset sound hole, a cantilevered neck that does not touch the top, and a complex bracing system that doesn’t have any two pieces of wood touching.
• Tom Anderson pioneers the use of stainless steel fretwire that is installed the same way as traditional nickel-silver frets. This allowed guitar players to install stainless steel frets on any of their guitars, giving their frets more longevity.

2004

• California luthier David Eichelbaum develops an 8-string acoustic guitar with octave strings on the D and B strings

2005

• Taylor releases the T5 hybrid guitar, capable of producing both acoustic and electric guitar tones in one instrument. While it was not the first hybrid guitar (Parker, Godin, Hamer, and others previously released hybrid guitars), the T5 was very successful and helped to popularize the hybrid guitar concept

2006

• Taylor introduces a new body shape – the Grand Symphony, which falls in between a Grand Auditorium and Dreadnaught (similar in size to a small jumbo)

2007

• Ibanez releases their first 8-string guitar, the RG-2228

2009

• Strandberg Guitarworks is founded by Ola Strandberg in Uppsala, Sweden, with the goal of producing guitars as ergonomic as possible. Stranberg guitars are headless with fanned frets and a trademark EndurNeck profile that has a flat back instead of a rounded profile which encourages proper hand positioning
• Taylor introduces a beveled armrest on its 35th Anniversary models – the first large manufacturer to offer this feature. The beveled armrest was originally developed by Canadian luthier William “Grit” Laskin in 1989. Taylor’s armrest was incorporated into standard models beginning in 2011. 

2010

• Relish Guitars founded by Pirmin Giger and Silvan Kung in Neuenkirch, Switzerland. Their electric guitars incorporate many innovative features such as magnetically swappable pickups, bodies consisting of an aluminum core and wood top and back, a touch pad in lieu of a pickup selector switch that allows 17 tonal options, and bamboo fingerboards.
• Engineering student and guitarist Cosmos Lyles, with the help of engineer Paul Dowd design the Evertune bridge, which maintains constant string tension using a series of springs and levers. This consistent string tension enables a guitar to never go out of tune. Once a guitar is tuned at the bridge, it will have perfect tuning and intonation

2012

• Luthier Dana Bourgeois begins using the process of torrefaction on guitar tops. This process involves heating the wood in an oxygen-free environment, causing the wood to dry out and stabilize – a process that takes many years to occur naturally. The goal is to make new guitars sound like sought-after vintage guitars.
• Cole Clark designs a 3-way flat-top acoustic guitar pickup system featuring an under-saddle pickup for bass frequencies, a soundboard transducer for midrange, and a condenser microphone for high-end

2013

• Andy Powers at Taylor Guitars designs the Grand Orchestra body style – replacing the longstanding Jumbo model

2014

• Andy Powers begins revamping each Taylor Guitar model – beginning with the 800 series. He focused on three key areas – reshaped bracing, optimized wood thicknesses, and thinner finishes. He even began adding braces to the sides of the guitars to help maximize the movement of the top and back
• Taylor introduces its ES2 electronics which incorporated 3 piezo elements situated behind, not underneath the guitar’s saddle as in a traditional piezo pickup. In order to manufacture this pickup, Taylor had to employ a pair of three-axis robots to handle the small and delicate parts
• McPherson Guitars releases an all carbon fiber guitar with the Kevin Michaels model
• Danelectro combines 2 of their single-coil “lipstick” pickups into a humbucking configuration

2015

• After selling Parker Guitars, Ken Parker begins building archtop guitars with adjustable necks, adjustable tailpieces, non-traditional soundhole in the upper bout, six-on-a-side tuners, and a carbon fiber neck reinforcement

2018

• Taylor introduces V-Class bracing – providing increased sustain and volume, as well as better intonation compared to the traditional X-brace used for over 150 years on acoustic guitars

2019

• Martin unveils their modern deluxe series that incorporated a carbon-fiber bridge plate which gives the guitar increased stability and also more volume. The modern deluxe models also incorporated liquid metal bridge pins enhancing resonance, volume, and sustain
• PRS introduces a semi-hollow version of the CE24. This guitar included the unique combination of a bolt-on neck with a semi-hollow body.
• Polish Luthier Rafal Turkowiak is granted a patent for his innovation of using acoustic tubes in the neck of his acoustic and classical guitars. This allows for sound to resonate not only from the body, but also the neck itself creating more sustain.

2020

• Fender unveils its acoustisonic series of hybrid guitars. They released Stratocaster, Telecaster, and Jazzmaster models that featured both acoustic and electric sounds with 10 different voicings
• Taylor releases its Grand Theater model, featuring a body size and scale length (24.125”) in between a travel guitar and full-size guitar. The guitar also featured newer sustainable woods such as  Urban Ash back and sides (sourced from local Shamel ash trees that were removed from urban environments) and a smoked Eucalyptus fingerboard and bridge. The guitar also featured a new bracing pattern that Taylor called “C-Class” bracing.
• Inventor and guitar player Greg Atkin begins “Altered State Guitars” which utilizes two different tone woods for his guitar bodies – one for the upper bout and one for the lower bout. The guitars also feature a 3D split bridge that brings the resonance of the wood to the tone of the guitar
• Martin releases a new innovative acoustic guitar design – the SC13E. This guitar sought to bridge the gap between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar in terms of playability. It featured an offset body for comfort and better feedback rejection, a cutaway and contoured help that allowed access to the upper frets, and a “sure align” neck joint system that uses a modified dove-tail joint with bolts.

2021

• Fern Guitars of Arlington, Virginia, releases the Pheonix guitar – the first all-wood modular guitar. Swappable wooden modules feature a variety of pickup and control configurations that attach magnetically to the wood body of the guitar. Modules can be swapped in a mere seconds for completely different sounds out of the same guitar

2022

• Taylor releases the AD27 model – which featured a flame maple top, back, sides, and neck. A maple top is unusual for flat-top acoustic guitars, which normally feature spruce, cedar, or mahogany top woods

2023

• Taylor CEO Andy Powers releases an independent line of electric guitars called Powers Electric. His first model – the A-type – featured a split radius fingerboard, with the treble side slightly flatter all the way up the neck

2024

• Martin releases an innovative guitar that was a large departure from their usual offerings – the GPCE Inception Maple. The guitar features sustainable and domestic tonewoods with a spruce top, 3-piece maple and walnut back, maple inlays and binding, and walnut fingerboard and bridge, as well as skeletonized scalloped bracing and sonic channels in the guitar body to increase sustain and loudness.
• Guitar historian and Nashville guitar store owner George Gruhn designs an innovative acoustic guitar – the Gruhn Versitar. Gruhn attempted to bring something unique to the market in terms of sound, design, and playability. The guitar features a teardrop-shaped offset soundhole to reduce the number of top braces, a cutaway that gives access to 22 frets, a truss-rod that extends the entire length of the neck, and a bolt-on neck. Gruhn released two models – a more traditional full-depth guitar and a thinline model that is more suited towards live playing to reduce feedback
• Acoustic guitar pickup manufacturer L.R. Baggs introduces their first guitar – the AEG-1. The guitar was designed with the purpose of creating excellent guitar tone plugged in. Its slim body is uniquely designed to take the strain of the neck off of the back of the guitar. They have an internal bracing system that attaches to the rim of the guitar, which allows the top and back of the instrument to freely vibrate
• Furch Guitars designs their CNR active system for their acoustic instruments, which enables the string height of their acoustic guitars to never change. They accomplished this using a special neck-body joint with aluminum and carbon reinforcement and also a block of wood that expands and contracts with humidity and in doing so, adjusts the neck angle naturally to maintain a consistent string action

2025

• Taylor introduces the 814e Gold Label guitar which incorporates their new “Action Control Neck” featuring a new long-tenon neck joint with an adjustment mechanism that allows for the neck angle to be adjusted without removing the strings or the neck. 
• Swiss manufacturer MayTrem designs a new bridge/vibrato system that is fully customizable for each string – allowing for unique effects and bends. Each string can be set to bend up and down, only down, or not move at all, and can be set to bend to a specific interval.