Beginning with the first electrified instruments of the 1930s, the book traces two competing ideals for the sound of the instrument: one with a focus on tonal purity that has been favored by artists such as Les Paul, Chet Atkins, and Wes Montgomery; the other centering in a more distorted sound used by Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and others, to challenge popular notions of acceptable and unacceptabl