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15-409: The first company was formed by George Beauchamp , a vaudeville steel guitar player and house painter, and inventor John Dopyera , a violinist and luthier . Dopyera had seen an amplified Stroh stick violin nearby with a small flat diaphragm and long attached horn. He used that initial idea, but with a large spun conical inverted speaker, to create his patented multiple resonator designs. Dopyera

30-585: A loudspeaker , producing a much louder sound. After discovering that his system produced copious amounts of unwanted feedback from sympathetic vibration of the guitar's body, Beauchamp reasoned that acoustic properties were actually undesirable in an electric instrument. Beauchamp had previously promoted the development of John Dopyera's resonator guitar , and co-founded the National String Instrument Corporation . With National's Paul Barth and Harry Watson, Beauchamp had

45-802: The Dobro Manufacturing Company to produce a competing single resonator design, with the resonator cone inverted. John Dopyera continued to hold stock in National. The Dobro design was both cheaper to produce and louder than the tricone. National soon introduced their own single resonator design, the "biscuit", which Dopyera claimed to have designed before leaving, though the patent was registered by Beauchamp. National also continued to produce tricone designs, which some players preferred. In their 1930 catalog, National list eight key associates, including Adolph Rickenbacker , George Beauchamp, Harry Watson, Paul Barth , and Jack Levy. In 1932,

60-516: The " Frying Pan " is the first electric lap steel guitar , also widely considered the first commercially successful electric guitar. Developed in 1931/1932, it received its patent in August 1937. A previous attempt, the Stromberg company ‘s transducer-based "Stromberg Electro", was introduced in 1928. It used a "vibration-transfer rod" from the instrument's sounding board attached to magnets inside

75-407: The "frying pan" – is widely regarded as the first mass-produced electric guitar. Production of the instrument began in 1932. In 1937, Beauchamp secured a United States patent for his version of the electric guitar. Beauchamp married Myrtle Johnston in 1917. They had two children, Frances and Nolan. He died of a heart attack in 1941 while deep sea fishing near Los Angeles. Catalogues from

90-553: The 1920s, he experimented with the creation of electric lap steel guitars, electric guitars , electric bass guitars , electric violins , and instrument amplifiers . In 1931, he joined with Paul Barth and Adolph Rickenbacker to form the Ro-Pat-In Corporation to produce and sell electrified string instruments. The most notable of these, the Rickenbacher A-22 (and A-25) lapsteel guitar – known as

105-498: The 1930s, Hawaiian music enjoyed widespread popularity in the United States. However, Hawaiian music featured the guitar as the main melodic instrument, and the volume of acoustic guitars was insufficient for large audiences. Beauchamp, an enthusiast and player of Hawaiian music, mounted a magnetic pickup on his acoustic resonator steel guitar to produce an electrical signal that was electronically amplified to drive

120-661: The Dopyera brothers secured a controlling interest in both National and Dobro, and merged the companies to form the "National Dobro Corporation". The National brand and trademark are particularly associated with two of the three basic resonator designs: Terms such as National or National pattern are often used to distinguish these patterns from the Dobro design. Artists associated with National guitars include: George Beauchamp George Delmetia Beauchamp ( / ˈ b iː tʃ ə m / ; March 18, 1899 – March 30, 1941)

135-550: The Electro String Instrument Corporation show a range of electric instruments. In 1932, Beauchamp's Ro-Pat-In company marketed the electric lap steel guitar. The electric guitar was supposedly marketed the same year; early catalogues showing the instrument are not dated. This United States musical biography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Frying Pan (guitar) The Rickenbacker Electro A-22 , nicknamed

150-422: The guitar, and was not successful. George Beauchamp created the "Fry-Pan" in 1931, and it was subsequently manufactured by Electro String Instrument Corporation under the name Electro, later named Rickenbacker. The instrument gained its nickname because its circular body and long neck make it resemble a frying pan . It was designed to capitalize on the popularity of Hawaiian music in the 1930s. The instrument

165-449: The need for a guitar loud enough to play a melody over brass and other wind instruments. In 1927, National produced the first resonator instruments and sold them under their National brand. They had metal bodies and a tricone resonator system, with three aluminium cones joined by a T-shaped aluminium spider. Brother Rudolph Dopyera, who previously worked with Weissenborne, hand built the original tri-cone models with diamond holes, prior to

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180-554: The second production stamped metal bodies by engineer Adolph Rickenbacher. They built metal resophonic mandolins, tenor guitars and ukuleles, some of which were ornately engraved with rose, lily of the valley and chrysanthemum designs. Wooden-bodied Triolian and Trojan single resonator models eventually followed once the Dopyera brothers departed, based on inexpensive plywood student guitar bodies supplied by Kay , Harmony , and other established instrument manufacturers. In 1928, Dopyera left National, and with four of his brothers formed

195-586: Was an American inventor of musical instruments. He is known for designing the first electrically amplified guitar to be marketed commercially. He was also a founder of National Stringed Instrument Corporation and Rickenbacker (originally Rickenbacher) guitars. He was born in Coleman County, Texas on March 18, 1899. Beauchamp performed in vaudeville , playing the violin and the lap steel guitar , before he settled in Los Angeles, California. During

210-432: Was assisted with his nephews Paul and Carl Barth spinning the first aluminum diaphragms on wooden bucks. They first experimented with their novel ampli-phonic design in a large walnut console instrument. Soon afterwards the first German silver Hawaiian guitar was built by John and Rudolph Dopyera. This guitar, #101, was later modified with a mahogany Spanish neck for regular guitar playing. Beauchamp had suggested to Dopyera

225-411: Was made of cast aluminum , and featured a pickup that incorporated a pair of horseshoe magnets that arched over the strings designed by Paul Barth with George Beauchamp. Beauchamp and machinist Adolph Rickenbacker began selling the guitar in 1932, but Beauchamp was not awarded a patent for his idea until 1937, which allowed other guitar companies to produce electric guitars in the same period. In

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