A musician who was to take a major role in jazz-guitar amplification, Eddie Durham (1906-87), played a resonator guitar in Bennie Moten's band from 1929, and recorded with one in Jimmie Lunceford's band on "Hittin' The Bottle" (1935). After taking up the electric guitar, he made historic recordings in New York in March 1938 with The Kansas City Five that feature loud electric solos in which his volume level easily matches Buck Clayton's trumpet. "Laughing at Life" features background electric chords played with staccato, and blues and Hawaiian-style slides. Two bright linear solo breaks have a bouncy rhythmic style with liquid runs and touches of partial chords. "Good Mornin' Blues" starts with single lines, moving into a skillful and attractive chord solo with partial voicings, and "I Know That You Know" has an infectious, nimble solo.

"Love Me or Leave Me" opens with broken chords and the tune is played as a chord melody before Durham plays a solo using a wide register with single notes, then adds broken chords and a chord solo. Subsequently, with tenorist Lester Young added to make The Kansas City Six, Durham's more flowing solo style can be heard on "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans," which shows the influence of Django Reinhardt. "Countless Blues" opens with the type of riffs that later made the guitar preeminent in other genres.

Oscar Aleman

One of the most brilliant and overlooked guitarists, Argentinian Oscar Aleman (1909-80) was based mainly in Paris in the 1930s and used a Style 1 National tricone. His unaccompanied pieces recorded in 1938, "Nobody's Sweetheart" and "Whispering," are exceptional. Virtuosic passages display his remarkable technique and fertile imagination.

Early electrics

Lloyd Loar, a visionary designer and engineer at Gibson, experimented with electric guitars in the 1920s at a time when it was felt they were not commercially viable. After Rickenbacker produced their electric lap steel in 1931, the company launched the world's first production electric guitars, the Electro Spanish models, in 1932.These had a single horseshoe magnet pickup, no rotary controls, and a fiat top with upper bout f-holes. The company expanded and developed the range, producing instruments such as the Ken Roberts model in 1935, which was named Rafter a studio guitarist. Gibson finally adapted their archtop L-50 model and launched their Own ES-150 electric model in 1936.