I agree 100 % Supro, Les Paul was a great innovator in recording, and guitar playing, thanks for the input. I'm of a like mind being split between the 50's and 60's. thanx for the very valid opinion

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Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancin'

Have to be the 60's because of the originality and experimentation of the guitar which has never been matched and never will be. Hate to say it but most that could be done has been done and that was in the sixty's.

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OK if you wanna talk innovative....

Muddy Waters.

He basically invented the modern rock band. Prior to him most groups had horns and strings and were pretty much a small orchestra with at least a dozen (usually more) musicians on stage. Muddy invented the 4 and 5 man ensemble we now think of as normal. Not to mention his use of the electric guitar (Tele) as a lead instrument. Prior to him the guitar was used for chording as a rythym section instrument. Nobody played a solo on a guitar. Solos were performed on wind instruments like the sax or the clarinet.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

dang, i put the 50's because i really love that era but after reading the posts i should have picked the 60's. i think both were really great and did so much to advance guitar.

The 50's got the ball rolling and paved the way for some outstanding guitar players. I voted for the 60's because in my humble opinion that's when guitar was taken to a new level by musicians and guitar builders. I don't see any real great lead guitar work in a lot of todays music. JMHO

Literally everything went nuts in the 60's. Guitar evolved overnight it seamed into what it is today. Until then it was a bunch of country strumming or old men and women setting around trying to sound like Less Paul & Marry Ford.
----Danny,

firstly 1960s. then 1980s-van halen

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Sorry Danny,but I beg to differ when it comes to the fifties. Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Hubert Sumlin, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Gene Vincent and the Bluecaps, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Scotty Moore, and too numerous to mention rhythm and blues, country and western,rock and roll, riffs and techniques came from the fifties. Things might have gotten louder and faster in the sixties but the majority of what happened came out of the pioneering of the fifties. There are of course obvious iconic artists like Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles once they stopped touring, but a lot of Jimi's playing was his take on Muddy,Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins.

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Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancin'