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50 free The Electric Guitar trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This electric guitar trivia quiz is about the instrument itself: how it works, who built the famous ones and what players did with them. It starts in the early 1930s with the cast-aluminium lap steel that was the first electric instrument on sale, the men who invented the electromagnetic pickup, and Gibson's first Electric Spanish model with its Charlie Christian pickup. Then it walks through the classic solid bodies and their dates: the Precision Bass, the Stratocaster's contours, the ES-335 semi-hollow, the SG, the Flying V and Explorer in Korina, and the double-neck Jimmy Page played. The second half is hardware and legend. What a humbucker actually cancels, who designed the first one, the Bigsby and the locking Floyd Rose, why Marshall built 100-watt amps, the Vox AC30's jangle, the fuzz box on Satisfaction, the accidental wah, the headless Steinberger, and the stories behind Lucille, Brian May's fireplace guitar, Eddie Van Halen's $50 body and the crowd that shouted 'Judas' at Dylan. For the acoustic and classical side, and the general history, see our main guitar quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the electric guitar and its makers, models and gear, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
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Q 01In which year was the electric guitar invented?
1932
Jazz players adopted it to cut through big bands with single-note solos.
Q 02What does a pickup on an electric guitar do?
Converts string vibration into electrical signals
Coils wrapped around a magnet create a field that turns the vibration into a signal for a loudspeaker.
Q 03What was the 1931 'Frying Pan' lap steel, the first electric instrument sold, made of?
Cast aluminium
George Beauchamp designed it with Paul Barth; production began in Los Angeles in 1932.
Q 04Which two men are credited with inventing the electromagnetic pickup?
George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker
Their Ro-Pat-In Corporation was renamed the Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company in 1934.
Q 05What did the name of Gibson's first production model, the 1936 ES-150, refer to?
Its Spanish style and $150 price
The price included a matching amplifier.
Q 06The ES-150's bar pickup became known by which jazz guitarist's name?
Charlie Christian
Walt Fuller designed it; the guitar suffered from unequal loudness across the six strings.
Q 07The pickup's namesake jazz guitarist gained national fame in whose sextet from 1939?
Benny Goodman
The swing guitarist died of tuberculosis in 1942, aged 25.
Q 08Which instrument first offered a hand-operated vibrato, the 'Vibrola', as standard?
Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts
Doc Kauffman invented the device; fewer than 50 of the guitars were built between 1933 and 1937.
Q 09Which Gibson executive is credited with the design of the 1952 Les Paul?
Ted McCarty
As president he had brought Les Paul in as a consultant to meet market demand.
Q 10Why does a solid body avoid the wolf tones and feedback of an amplified acoustic?
It has no vibrating soundboard
The amplified sound reproduces the string vibration alone.
Q 11The Fender Stratocaster has been in continuous production since which year?
1954
It was designed between 1952 and 1954 with a contoured back for comfort.
Q 12Which guitarist is credited with the Stratocaster's resurgence in the late 1960s?
Jimi Hendrix
The Strat is the model most associated with him in the studio and on stage.
Q 13How is Fender's Precision Bass, made since 1951, configured?
Four strings and 20 frets
The solid-body 'P-Bass' has a single pickup and a maple neck.
Q 21From whom did Van Halen buy the Frankenstein's northern ash body around January 1977?
Wayne Charvel
Charvel distributed Boogie Bodies and Schecter parts; the guitar now wears a Floyd Rose tremolo.
Q 22Where was the Frankenstein guitar shown in the 2019 'Play It Loud' exhibition?
The Met in New York
A copy is kept in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Q 23Brian May built his Red Special with his father using wood from what?
A fireplace
The neck came from a mantelpiece around a century old, which is why the guitar is nicknamed the Fireplace.
Q 14What kind of body does the Gibson ES-335, introduced in 1958, have?
Semi-hollow
Chuck Berry was a notable user of the ES series.
Q 15What do the letters SG stand for on the Gibson model introduced in 1961?
Solid Guitar
Its double-cutaway body is thinner than a Les Paul's and the neck joint was moved out by three frets.
Q 16The Flying V and Explorer of 1958 were first built from which distinctive wood?
Korina
It was Gibson's trade name for limba; the futuristic shapes flopped at first and were revived by later players.
Q 17Which bluesman helped popularise the Flying V years after it first left production?
Albert King
Rock guitarists Lonnie Mack and Dave Davies were also drawn to the shape.
Q 18Who designed Gibson's humbucking pickup in 1955?
Seth Lover
He worked under Gibson's president; the early units are prized as PAFs.
Q 19What problem was the humbucker designed to overcome?
Mains hum
Two coils wired in opposition cancel the interference a single coil picks up.
Q 20Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstein guitar put which pickup into a Stratocaster-style body?
A Gibson PAF humbucker
He wanted Gibson tone with the Strat's shape and tremolo bar; the ash body cost him $50 because of a knot in the wood.
Q 24What does Brian May use as a plectrum, wearing grooves into the Red Special's pickups?
A sixpence coin
The guitar was begun in 1963 and finished in October 1964.
Q 25Why did B.B. King give all his guitars the same woman's name?
Two men fought over her and started a dance-hall fire
He ran back into the burning Arkansas dance hall for his $30 Gibson and named it as a reminder never to be so foolish again.
Q 26In which town's dance hall did the 1949 fire that led to the naming of Lucille break out?
Twist, Arkansas
The hall was heated by a barrel of burning kerosene that got knocked over during a brawl.
Q 27Which double-neck Gibson, introduced in 1958, was made iconic by Jimmy Page?
EDS-1275
John McLaughlin and Don Felder also played it.
Q 28Where did Bob Dylan play his first electric concert in 1965?
Newport Folk Festival
He played one song from Bringing It All Back Home and two from Highway 61 Revisited.
Q 29In which city did an audience member famously shout 'Judas!' at the electric Dylan?
Manchester
The 1966 British tour drew the most acrimonious crowds; the moment is preserved on film.
Q 30Who invented the first commercially successful guitar vibrato tailpiece?
Paul Bigsby
His patent was filed in 1952 and issued in 1953; Gibson later sold licensed units under its Vibrola name.