Guitar Slim "The Story Of My Life"

In May, 1954, people were not accustomed to so much gain in the guitar sound. Not by a long shot. Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones showed the world how it was done. 

It must have been a real "eureka!" moment. "Let's turn this thing all the way up and see what happens." I'll bet that some other guys had tried it, but backed off right away. Eddie, and a couple of other trailblazers, played that way for five or ten minutes and decided that it sounded pretty damn good. 

And the rest is history.