While amplified guitars were around as far back as the 1920s, it was the early K&F designs made by Clayton ‘Doc’ Kauffman and Leo Fender, followed by Fender’s original ‘Woody’ series of combos in 1946, that paved the way for the guitar amplifier as we know it today. Back then, all amplifiers used electron valves (known in the USA as vacuum tubes) – because if you wanted to amplify a signal, there was no other option. The arrival of rock ’n’ roll in the late 1950s produced an explosion in popularity for electric guitars and amplifiers, coinciding with the peak years of valve production.
During this time, Mullard’s famous Blackburn factory employed over 6,000 people turning out over six million valves a year, but Sony’s 1957 TR-63 transistor radio signalled the beginning of the end for most valve-powered products. Over the next two decades, valve factories gradually closed down as manufacturing switched to transistors.
Guitar amplification joined in the solid-state revolution, but it’s true to say that most guitarists still preferred the sweeter tones of valves. And while solidstate continued to improve, there was a missing link waiting to be discovered – and in 1997, it arrived in the kidney bean shape of the Line 6 POD.