The "discovery" of distortion is an example of the idea that inventors are sometimes the first person to tell someone else about something, instead of the first

The "discovery" of distortion is an example of the idea that inventors are sometimes the first person to tell someone else about something, instead of the first person to discover the thing. The electric guitar was invented in 1931. It then follows that guitars were being electrically amplified in 1931. Are we really to believe that it took 20-30 years for someone to turn up the gain higher than what would allow it to accurately amplify the input signal?