I guess i never realized that Les Paul literally invented the solid-body electric guitar:

A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called "The Log," a four-by-four piece of wood strung with steel strings.

"I went into a nightclub and played it. Of course, everybody had me labeled as a nut." He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a traditional guitar shape.

Update: Reading more about this, it seems Leo Fender and Adolph Rickenbacher also independently came up with their own solid body inventions, so it's not quite as linear as i first thought.