Fact #56012
When:
Short story:
Alvin McBurney is born in Oakland, California, USA. He will find fame as steel guitar player Alvino Rey, widely credited as the first man to amplify a guitar by use of electricity.Full article:
Alvino Rey : That came about around 1930, when I was at NBC in San Francisco. And I've always been an electronic nut and I've been a ham operator and studied electronics. In fact, that was going to be my ambition, to be an electronics engineer, and I just applied the amplification of that to the guitar and string instruments. That was . . . before it was ever done, I believe. As far as I know, it was the first application to a string instrument.
Well, it got out of hand with a lot of the big rock groups who make so much racket with it. I didn't intend it to be used with such volume. I used the idea just to be heard in a band, where the guitar - up until that time - was a soft, romantic background accompanying a singer. And after that, it became sort of an integral part of an orchestra.
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Well, it got out of hand with a lot of the big rock groups who make so much racket with it. I didn't intend it to be used with such volume. I used the idea just to be heard in a band, where the guitar - up until that time - was a soft, romantic background accompanying a singer. And after that, it became sort of an integral part of an orchestra.
(Source : not known)