Dick Denney Inducted in 2007 A trained electronics engineer, in 1955 he built a 15-watt amplifier and tried to sell it to Tom Jennings, who sold organs and Univox accordions with amps. Instead of placing an order to buy more amps, Jennings hired him. They adapted the name to Vox and as Chief Engineer from 1957 to '67 he was responsible for the legendary AC15, which begat the AC10 and AC30.
John D'Angelico Inducted in 2006 His New Yorker and Excel models were at once influenced by the Big Apple's Art Deco aesthetic and hugely influential to every archtop builder of the 20th century. Instruments of exceedingly high quality, today his designs are considered the pinnacle of the form (especially for playing chord melodies) despite having been developed in the 1930s!
John and Rudy Dopyera Inducted in 2005 Violin and cabinet makers who, in the early 1920s, started manufacturing banjos, they were one day approached by vaudeville guitarist George Beauchamp, whose acoustic guitar couldn't be heard over the orchestra. Thus was born the National/Dobro concept of placing aluminum resonators in a guitar body - and the guitar was reinvented.
Hartley Peavey Inducted in 2004 His innovations proved it was possible to produce good-quality, inexpensive, guitars and amps in the U.S. They made the company bearing his name one of the largest instrument builders in the world.
Lloyd Loar Inducted in 2003 An acoustic engineer for Gibson from 1919 to 1924, he conducted visionary experiments with electric instruments as soon as amplification was invented. He also developed Gibson's Style 5 Master Model instruments; the F-5 is considered the ultimate mandolin design, the L-5 led the way for large-bodied archtops. His signature on an instrument's label puts its value amongst the elite.
Paul Bigsby Inducted in 2002 Best known for his line of vibrato tailpieces, arguably his most important innovation was a thin-bodied, cutaway, solidbody electric guitar he built for Merle Travis, ca. 1947. It had many of the features that later became standard on more prominent guitars.
Adolf Rickenbacker Inducted in 1999 In the 1920s he was machining parts for National's new resonator guitars, which led to being approached by George Beauchamp with the idea to build the first electric. Their company, Ro-Pat-In, began building the Frying Pan lapsteel - the first truly successful electric guitar - in 1932, and received a patent for their "horseshoe" pickup in '37.
Jim Marshall Inducted in 1998 A lack of good public address and bass guitar amplification equipment in Britain prompted him to start building. Upon hearing the equipment, guitarists began approaching him to build an amp that could "dirty up" their tone, and the rest is history. All this from a drummer!
Seth Lover Inducted in 1997 In 1957, he set about to make a pickup that wouldn't produce the electromagnetic hum so pronounced in single-coils of the day. What he got was a pickup that produced higher volume. Ten years later, distortion was the rage in rock and roll, and humbuckers were the pickup of choice.
C.F. Martin, Sr. Inducted in 1996 A German emigrant and one of America's first guitar builders. His company is now more than 160 years old, still family-owned and operated, and produces some of the world's most renowned instruments.
Ted McCarty Inducted in 1995 President of Gibson for 16 years, he had a hand in many of Gibson's most famous designs, including the ES-335, Flying V, Les Paul, Explorer, and Firebird.
Les Paul Inducted in 1993 He is credited with many innovations, including tape delay, overdubbing, "sound on sound" and multi-track recording. Plus you probably have a guitar or two that bear his name on the headstock.
Orville Gibson Inducted in 1992 He revolutionized mandolin-building in the late 1800s and applied the concepts to guitars, as well. Oh, and some of the greatest guitars ever made bear his name.
Leo Fender Inducted in 1991 He gave us the Tele and the Strat, and the Precision Bass, but many point to his amps as his crowning technological achievement.
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