John F. Abate has helped gamblers optimize their play for decades, printing guides for activities like horse racing and casino games through companies such as Success Publishers and Wintrack. When not busy with these businesses, John F. Abate likes to play the guitar.
The electric guitar plays a role in many genres of music, especially in America, and dates back to the period leading up to World War II. The 1920s popularized public dance, which drove the need for louder instruments, and by the end of the 1930s electronic amplification had won out as the most effective method of creating volume. Country and jazz guitarists began to adopt it, experimenting with the many ways amplification affected the sound of a guitar.
It wasn't until its adoption for rock and roll, however, that the guitar became a cultural icon. The distinct body shapes of solid-body guitars by manufacturers such as Fender and Gibson joined leather jackets, greased hair, and motorcycles as symbols of the rebellious rock-and-roller. As rock established itself as a genre with staying power, the electric guitar became a staple of American music overall, with sounds branching out from crisp and clean to purposefully distorted and heavy on feedback, extending to the diverse range of today's guitar sounds.
