THE BIRTH OF LOUD.

• Author: Riggs, Mike
• Position: BOOK - Ian S. Port's "The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n'Roll" - Brief article - Book review

It is easy to take the electric guitar for granted. The instrument, which powered decades of postwar popular music, has never been more affordable or so well-made.

But what if history had unfolded a little differently? In The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n'Roll, Ian S. Port tells an origin story of America's two major guitar companies that almost didn't happen.

Fender, a one-eyed radio repairman who couldn't actually play the instruments he wanted to make, nearly went bankrupt before creating the prototype of what we now know as the Telecaster, played by everyone from Jimmy Page to Keith Richards. Jazz guitarist Les Paul, meanwhile, nearly lost his picking arm...