GETTING INTO GEAR
WE TEND TO celebrate performers in these pages, but innovations in gear have been the principle drivers in the development and evolution of music. Prior to the 18th century, the harpsichord was the instrument most used by composers in Europe, but its volume range and articulation were limited. Around 1700, Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the pianoforte. Cristofori put his instrument’s selling point in its name, which means soft-loud. The new colors offered by the pianoforte completely changed music composition by giving composers and performers new means of expression. Pianos could be built large enough to be heard within an ensemble, allowing orchestras and concert halls to become larger. The concept of music, and piano’s role in it, were forever altered.
The guitar underwent a similar evolution in the 1930s when the pickup and amplification allowed it to be heard over the competing instruments of the orchestra. As with the pianoforte, it allowed new ways of artistic expression, and in the hands of artists like Charlie Christian and artist-inventors like Les Paul, the electric guitar became a lead instrument. The 50 years that followed were a veritable blur of invention and musical evolution, as innovations in guitar, amps and effects opened fresh avenues of expression and guitar overtook piano’s role in popular music.
What’s evident is that innovations in music matter only as much as musicians put them to use. As we note in this issue, the talk box has been around since the late 1930s and was used on several hit country records. But it didn’t mean a thing to electric guitarists until Joe Walsh squawked with one all over his 1973 blues-rock hit, “Rocky Mountain Way.” In that respect, the artists are as vital to music’s development as the innovators. In this issue, we celebrate 25 of them — including a few who are themselves gear innovators.
Coincidentally, as we were creating this issue, the music world lost one of its legendary amp builders when Howard Alexander Dumble passed away on January 16, according to the Stanislaus County Coroner’s office. Alexander grew up in Bakersfield, California, and took an interest in guitar and electronic equipment early in his life. It was those twin passions that served as the foundation for his extraordinary career. Blessed with a keen ear, he began building guitar amps in the early to mid 1960s, fine-tuning their performance to the instruments, pedals and playing style of the artists who enthusiastically embraced them, including David Lindley, Lowell George, Bonnie Raitt, Larry Carlton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford and slide master Sonny Landreth, who pays respects to his friend in this issue.