The electric guitar hasn't been around that long. It is only 70 years old, but it had gone through many changes during it's first 20 or so years. The first electric guitar was manufactured by Adolph Rickenbacker in the 1930s. The original electric guitars had pick-ups that used tungsten. Pickups convert the vibration from the plucked guitar string into electrical current, which is fed into an amplifier that produces the sound.

Melvin Ragin, aka Melvin "Wah-Wah" Watson is one of the funkiest guitarists around. He is the master in the use a guitar effect known as the "wah-wah pedal". You can hear his work in the Tempatation's "Papa Is A Rolling Stone" or "Masterpiece" as well in other hits by other Motown dignitaries as the Jackson 5, The Supremes, Gladys Knight & The Pips and the Four Tops.  His most recent work is with Alicia Keys' 2005 release,  "Unplugged".