“Every rock music fan has heard the war, every rock guitarist has fought in the battles.”
Starting with their conception and design in the early 1950s, Solidbodies: The 50-Year Guitar War focuses on the five decade competition of sounds between the two guitars that have been heard on more popular recordings than any other instruments during the rock era. The documentary features players, historians, instrument dealers and collectors expressing their views on the competitive influences of the Stratocaster and the Les Paul. The soundtrack and performance segments feature guitar solos played on those two instruments with styles of music highly representative of the time periods that are discussed in the documentary.
Among those contributing commentary are Joe Bonamassa, named Best Blues Guitarist by Guitar Player Magazine’s readership in their 2008 Reader’s Choice Awards; Derek Trucks, famed slide guitar virtuoso who leads his own group and played with Eric Clapton’s band during his 2006-2007 world tour; Henry Garza, guitarist and singer with the Grammy Award winning Los Lonely Boys; Gary Hoey, internationally acclaimed guitarist who has composed for ESPN’s Summer X Games; George Gruhn, the owner of Gruhn Guitars who is considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on vintage guitars; and Richard R. Smith, the author of “Fender: The Sound Heard ‘Round The World” which is often viewed as the definitive book about Fender guitars and Leo Fender.