From the early saturated guitar sounds of Chuck Berry to the golden tones of Eddie Van Halen, classic rock guitars are a study unto themselves in the evolution of popular music through the decades. Naturally, amplification and technology have a say in the sounds that developed from the 60s to the 90s, but cataloging the elements that virtuous players like Jimi Hendrix, Alex Lifeson and the aforementioned Van Halen brought to the party is just as important.
While Scotty Moore fueled the Elvis recordings and Chuck Berry gave us some early riff-rock, the Beatles and The Who made their way with Rickenbacker electricity and 100-watt Hiwatt amps, respectively. The Beatles led bands like Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and others to extract the Ricky-based sound that they pioneered at first (before finding their own way to early overdrive sounds in the studio).
The Who continued to augment their guitar sounds with Pete Townsend spinning his Les Paul through loads of amps live and in the studio. Bands like Cream would find Eric Clapton and solo artists like Jimi Hendrix, Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck turning on hyper-amplified rigs of their own to create signature sounds on pieces like ‘Sunshine of Your Love’, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. ‘and’ Communication failure ‘. From there, the metallic thunder of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Rush were only a step away.
When the 70s saw stomp-boxes fueling the rock and metal sounds of Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore, the wah-inflected tone of Michael Schenker, and the insanely cool sound of Edward Van Halen, guitarists began to redefine what it was. it meant having a golden hue and reaching the elusive ‘guitar god’ status. But the 80s, while rich in achievable sound and effect boxes, proved that composition and sound were still the key, as a thousand bands began to imitate the pioneers who had gone before without taste, but without the tone, the taste. or the compositional capacity that the bands had made. like Zeppelin and Van Halen great.
As in all eras, there were still outstanding artists with great sounds like U2’s The Edge, Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and Steve Clark, Journey’s Neal Schon, and of course Alex Lifeson and Eddie Van Halen. Guitar sounds would continue to evolve over time, and if you spend even half an hour on a classic rock radio station, you’ll hear an incredible cross-section of guitar sounds and styles that illustrate growth in technology and skill. over decades.