Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr (May 2, 1929 ? November 5, 2005) was an American rock and roll guitarist, composer and occasional singer. Wray was noted for pioneering a new sound for electric guitars, as exemplified in his hit 1958 instrumental "Rumble", by Link Wray and his Ray Men, which pioneered an overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound, and was the first guitarist to use power chords to play a song's melody.