went to a lecture about early electric guitars...

[stewart]

...given by a PhD whose thesis was about the development of the elctric guitar, and i learned a few things, namely:

the rickenbacker 'frying pan' (1931) was absolutely the first electric guitar (i think this is pretty common knowledge now). there had been previous attempts at electrifying guitars, but the frying pan was the first with a pickup which converted the vibrations of strings in a magnetic field to an electrical signal. previous attempts amplified soundboards or acoustic chambers (which is essentially like sticking a mic in front of an acoustic guitar).

the guy who invented the pickup was called beauchamp, and was one of the two guys who started the company National. he also invented (along with his partner) the resonator.

the theory that electric guitars came about because guitarists couldn't be heard in bands is bullshit. it was purely driven by novelty, usually by hobbyists.

the 1/4" jack plug was used because it was there (they were commonly used in telephone switchboards), and it worked. there is no reason for it to still be used nowadays other than the fact that it's always been used. 'better' systems could be developed, but they probably wouldn't catch on, because guitarists are all crybaby whiners who can't face anything outwith their narrow comfort zone

(that last bit is mine)

anyway, the guy seemed to really know his stuff, he was an american named matthew w hill if anyone wants to track down his thesis.

[laterallateral]

In case I can save some people a few clicks.

[Freddy V-C]

This sounds pretty rad and interesting. Cheers Stewart, will look him up!

[laterallateral]

[Bacchus]

Interesting, but I don't know how you'd research this stuff except for internetting hard.

[paul_]

Picked up a couple pairs of C. Brandes/Weyland Radio crystal radio headphones from the late '20s recently, the earpiece transducer elements of which are little blade-magnet pickups, arranged/wired like humbuckers... they literally just look like scaled-down Bill Lawrences and are built identically to guitar pickups (just wired to act as speakers against a metal diaphram).
That got me thinking about how we define when/by whom pickups were invented and so on (i.e. Seth Lover "invented" the humbucker in the sense that he was an electrician tasked by Gibson to make a hum-cancelling guitar pickup and he did the first thing anyone else would've done), and how guitar pickups were basically standard stuff before electric guitars (field-electrician experience from WWII would suffice), it was just a matter of building one the right size to work on a string spread.

[stewart]

Interesting, but I don't know how you'd research this stuff except for internetting hard.

One example was the story that the frying pan was made from a fence post taken from the rear of the rickenbacker factory. He went there did some research and found no evidence of there ever having been a wooden fence. He wanted to take a sample of the guitar (it's said to be made from 'hemlock wood') but they wouldn't let him. He concludes it's more likely to be plain old maple.

[Doog]

guitarists are all crybaby whiners who can't face anything outwith their narrow comfort zone[/font]

Stew Is Love

[NickS]

Picked up a couple pairs of C. Brandes/Weyland Radio crystal radio headphones from the late '20s recently, the earpiece transducer elements of which are little blade-magnet pickups, arranged/wired like humbuckers... they literally just look like scaled-down Bill Lawrences and are built identically to guitar pickups (just wired to act as speakers against a metal diaphram).

Very interesting. Presumably there is a permanent magnet creating a bias, and applying a signal to the coils increases or reduces the pull of the permanent magnet on the diaphragm. If the permanent magnet wasn't there the diaphragm would be pulled on both polarity swings of the signal, causing a frequency doubling effect.

[Fakir Mustache]

I don't know about the original post. Can you please tell me why the first electric guitar has to the first solidbody or the first one with magnetic pickups, when an electric guitar built earlier, in acoustic style with a pickup more like a piezo cannot be considered an electric guitar?
Electric Guitar History

[stewart]

Because that would be amplifying the soundboard of the guitar rather than just the string vibrating in a magnetic field. That's why when you sing into a microphone you don't have an electric mouth.

[Fakir Mustache]

try sticking a transducer to your cheek.

[paul_]

I don't know about the original post. Can you please tell me why the first electric guitar has to the first solidbody or the first one with magnetic pickups, when an electric guitar built earlier, in acoustic style with a pickup more like a piezo cannot be considered an electric guitar?

That's mere semantics though. Those were early attempts to electrify the acoustic guitar, not the earliest "electric guitars" by design. Their electrics were an afterthought, whereas the solidbodies were useless as anything else. A solidbody with magnetic pickups is also the more common type of "electric guitar" because it eliminates many of the problems electrifying an acoustic did/does (such as the top vibrating at a different rate to the string oscillation causing the pickup to feedback). A good 60 years on, Encyclopedia Britannica's Just For Kidz edition and everything on up from there has my back on this one; "electric guitar" is a picture of a Strat.

Magnetic pickups are what we use now and semi-hollows/thinlines are really just dressed-up solidbodies, so I think it's pretty obvious why they're not discussing a Flying Victrola or whatever. Howard Hughes's bicycle with the hoover motor on it isn't a coveted early motorbike or anything.