A riveting saga in the history of rock 'n' roll: the decades-long rivalry between the two men who innovated the electric guitar's amplified sound--Leo Fender and Les Paul--and their intense competition to convince rock stars like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton to play the instruments they built. "In the years after World War II, music was evolving from big-band jazz into the primordial elements of rock 'n' roll--and these louder styles demanded revolutionary instruments. When Leo Fender's tiny firm marketed the first solid-body electric guitar, the Esquire, musicians immediately saw its appeal. Not to be out-maneuvered, Gibson, the largest guitar manufacturer, raced to build a competitive product. The company designed an 'axe' that would make Fender's Esquire look cheap and convinced Les Pau l--whose endorsement Leo Fender had sought--to put his name on it. Thus was born the guitar world's most heated rivalry: Gibson versus Fender, Les versus Leo. While Fender was a quiet, half-blind, self-taught radio repairman from rural Orange County, Paul was a brilliant but egomaniacal pop star and guitarist who spent years toying with new musical technologies. Their contest turned into an arms race as the most inventive musicians of the 1950s and 1960s--including bluesman Muddy Waters, rocker Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton--adopted one maker's guitar or another. By the time Jimi Hendrix played 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at Woodstock in 1969 on his Fender Stratocaster, it was clear that electric instruments--Fender or Gibson--had launched music into a radical new age, empowering artists with a vibrancy and volume never before attainable."--Amazon.com.

"The electric guitar spelled money" -- "He's the reason you can hear us tonight" -- "That's not Les Paul" -- "I'm gonna do something about it" -- "You say you can make anything. Right?" -- "All hell broke loose" -- A "newfangled guitar" -- "Point it toward my belly button, so I can play" -- "We perform like we're singing in the bathtub" -- "If Leo misses the boat now I will never forgive him" -- "The time when it will be delivered is indefinite" -- "Guess I shouldn't have fought you so long about releasing this" -- "If you don't do something, Fender is going to rule the world" -- "Like a surging undertow" -- "Dim lights, thick smoke, and loud, loud music" -- "Les has actually made a new instrument!" -- "He doesn't like to get involved with things that are unpleasant" -- "Why don't you ask for the moon?" -- "Let's try this again" -- "We had no idea that 'Maybellene' was recorded by a niggra man" -- "Two donkeys on each end of a rope, pulling in opposite directions" -- "If we're going over well, our guitars weigh less than a feather" -- "I realized it was all over for musicians like me" -- "Why do you have to play so loud?" -- "You won't part with yours either" -- "I just don't understand him at all" -- "Where you going, Leo?" -- "Prone to loose talk" -- "That man just done wiped you up" -- "I can't believe I have to play this shit" -- "It's a Rickenbacker" -- "I'd broken my cardinal rule" -- "He is clearly not growth-minded" -- "Which is worth more?" -- "I thought Dylan was abandoning us" -- "Give God what he wants" -- "It is a giant step" -- "I don't have my own guitar" -- "From completely different angles" -- "Here was the real thing" -- "The guitars nowadays play just as good" -- "You finally heard what that song was about.".