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The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll

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“A hot-rod joy ride through mid-20th-century American history” (The New York Times Book Review), this one-of-a-kind narrative masterfully recreates the 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 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 Paul—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, Paul was a brilliant but headstrong 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 1969 it was clear that these new electric instruments had launched music into a radical new age, empowering artists with a vibrancy and volume never before attainable. In “an excellent dual portrait” (The Wall Street Journal), Ian S. Port tells the full story in The Birth of Loud, offering “spot-on human characterizations, and erotic paeans to the bodies of guitars” (The Atlantic). “The story of these instruments is the story of America in the postwar era: loud, cocky, brash, aggressively new” (The Washington Post). Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner


Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 19, 2019


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 352 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501141732


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 37


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.38 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #43,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #8 in Music Business (Books) #18 in The Beatles #29 in Guitars (Books)


#8 in Music Business (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • What an amazing read!
Format: Paperback
The book combines the histories of multiple subjects, and topics, in an easy to read format. The author does an impressive job of keeping things flowing and never gets bogged down in minutia. Leo Fender, Les Paul and their creations are presented warts and all. It humanizes them and manages to keep an even bias towards both. Along the way some of the big, and lesser known, artists are woven into the tapestry of the story. A worthy read for any guitar player, historian or music afficiando. 5-stars. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2026 by Christopher Adams
    • Great Anecdotal History
Format: Hardcover
Since the late sixties, I've owned four Fender Stratocasters. I played them through at least three different Fender Amps, too, and loved them all. I played a Les Paul, but, as many people in this book mention, it's very heavy. I did have an SG and liked it except that by the time I bought it, Gibson's vaunted workmanship was deteriorating. The book gives an overview of the music scene from the late 40's to about 1970 when most of the advances were made, and the personal anecdotes make it a fun read. The style is more workmanlike than lyrical, but Port's research is impressive. I didn't know that Fender was deeply involved in making pedal steel guitars for the country music performers long before he started experimenting with a solid-body standard guitar. His wife's job as a telephone operator actually kept the struggling business afloat until the Telecaster began to sell. I also didn't know that Paul Bigsby, Les Paul, and Leo Fender lived near each other and often hung out together, borrowing and building upon each other's ideas...until rivalry and jealousy made them accuse each other of stealing. Port himself points out that it's impossible to give one person, or even a small group credit for all the advances, but these men, along with many musicians who had specific demands for their performing gear, did most of the work. That said, the portraits painted of Fender and Paul show two men I'm glad I never really knew. Paul comes across as a selfish egomaniac (he and Colleen Summers, AKA Mary Ford, carried on a open affair for years, and Paul drove her to alcoholism with his drive to be a star). Fender was a brilliant but unschooled obsessive who drove his staff frantic because he kept tweaking his ideas so they couldn't market the products they advertised. The list of musicians who used both guitars would fill most of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I didn't know Buddy Holly tried a Les Paul first, but abandoned it for a Stratocaster because of its extreme weight. I was shocked to learn that the biggest year for Les Pauls (1959) only totaled about 650 sales. Eric Clapton popularized the guitar in the mid-sixties, but he was playing a Stratocaster by the time I saw him with Cream in 1968. The Gibson's humbucker pick-ups were better for players who wanted distortion, but Fender's single-coils could give a treble that could function as dental floss. The Gibson attracted jazz players and the Fender was popular with country musicians because of the tonal differences, but without both of them, who knows what popular music would have become from the mid-50s on? My biggest complaint about the book is the lack of pictures. The picture section is only 8 pages. Those pictures show several of the early (often NON-playing) members of Fender's team, but barely scratch the surface of important musicians whose stories are mentioned. The epilogue does a good job of putting everything in perspective. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2019 by Litteacher
    • Caught by Surprise
Format: Paperback
I normally read a lot of historical non fiction, any interesting story line that makes me want to keep turning the pages. For over 50 years now , one of my other hobbies/passions has been guitar ( electric and acoustic ). That musical devotion began-haltingly and self taught-in the late 1960’s. So my “ timeline” in learning to play Gibson and Fender guitars and amps is similar to the events in this book. I was worried that is would be either a fluffy, light review of a lot of things I already knew, or a dry scholastic piece, or some combination of both. Turns out it is an incredibly well researched bit of musical history, put together in a way that moves the story line along beautifully, whether you know what happened next or not! If you happen to have ever handled the hardware that Les Paul or Leo Fender brought forth in those days, it adds an entirety new flavor to the delicious contents as the “Gear” evolved into what we use today. An easy, fun read, a surprising page turner, and a new permanent addition to my book shelf. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2025 by Arlene
    • Fun read
Format: Kindle
I enjoyed this book even though I was familiar with most of this material. It was well written and a good summation of the story.
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2024 by Kindle Customer
    • Bet you never knew this!!
Format: Hardcover
This is not history. This is an adventure! Ian Port tells a story that never stops and never slows down. The development of the modern electric guitar is the development of our modern pop culture, pure and simple. And this is what good writing is made of: keen insight, an expert eye for the most telling details, revelatory anecdotes by the bushel, and the capacity to never take sides, to never slant the telling of events. Anyone who lived through the 1950s and 1960s will see their own experience reflected in the two men who became icons of electrified music. Port manages to show how their creations were twisted out of their hands by the next generation, how the instruments grew into icons all their own and changed the course of music to the present day. This book is as thorough as a guitar nerd would wish, but it never wallows in facts. The story moves at a rapid clip and the author is consistent in his nods to every important character, every breakthrough media appearance, and the effect they had on young music fans. Thanks to the internet, his reader can actually watch the very same appearances on e.g. Ed Sullivan or Ready Steady Go! to see for themselves what the hubbub was all about. Port's relative youth gives him an advantage here; he has the requisite distance to observe what is actually going on. And he is a very keen observer. This book is so good, I'm not just going to read it again ... I'm going to BUY it again!! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2019 by Rico X Ludovici
    • A guitar player? Then buy this book!
Format: Hardcover
A friend (that’s an amazing guitar player) recommended this book so I ordered it. Really a great read if you play guitar. And a good read if you’re not. Not a lot of photos but most I’d never seen before. I thought I knew about Fender, Gibson and Rickenbacker guitars - nope! Learned a lot of new (to me) information. Hard to put the book down once started. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2025 by Jack
    • A Delight To Read for All Music Lovers
Format: Hardcover
I play in a rock band and have played many of the instruments Port discusses in "The Birth of Loud," and can tell you that his descriptions of the instruments that Leo Fender and Les Paul designed are spot on. Perhaps more impressive is that Port described them in a way that those who know very little about guitars can easily understand how each instrument changed the sound of rock and other styles of music. This book was clearly written for music lovers of all stripes - not just guitar-heads like me. Port also obviously conducted a great deal of research into not only Leo Fender and Les Paul, but also those they worked with, and the great many musicians who played these instruments. These figures come alive, like characters in a great novel, to propel the story forward. I already knew much of the story Port was telling, but found myself ravenously tearing through this book to learn as much as I could about what made Leo Fender and Les Paul tick. Finally, I want to emphasize a point that Port made, that the instruments Leo Fender and Les Paul created are still relevant today. Although there are certainly a great number of guitars on the market from any number of excellent guitar manufacturers, the Leo Fender and Les Paul designs are still in the hands of many of the musicians I come into contact with. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Get this book now. You're in for a real treat. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2019 by Alexander G. Murray
    • Compelling read -- not just for guitar geeks!
Format: Hardcover
You don't have to be a guitar geek to love this book -- or even a hard-core rock fan. This is a thoroughly engaging ride through the through the 20th Century, from the dusty 20's to the mud of Woodstock, on a wave of music, passion, discovery, triumph, heartbreak and almost unfathomably well-researched visceral detail. It's not just Fender and Paul --though their stories pull you from one chapter to the next -- it's also pioneering women guitarists and bassists that I'd never heard of before, and I'll bet you haven't either. And it's a tale of imagination and invention and their intersection with -- and sometimes collision with -- barriers of technology and economics and race and gender. And it's not just the story he tells as he follows the trail of the progress and influence of the electric guitar on our music and our society, it's the beauty of the writing. Sometimes painstakingly detailed, sometimes lyrical, sometimes jarring, and sometimes ... just magical ... throwing you up against a sentence that forces you to stop, and behold it, and roll it around in your mind, and say "wow -- yes." ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2019 by Tina Smith

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