Electric guitar
Guitarra eléctrica
- Date
- 1931 (comercializada en 1932) · confidence high
- Place
- Los Angeles, California, United States
- Credited to
- George Beauchamp, with Adolph Rickenbacker and Paul Barth
- Field
- Tools
What it is
Beauchamp designed the 'Frying Pan', an aluminium lap steel guitar with an electromagnetic pickup, marketed in 1932 by Ro-Pat-In (later Rickenbacker). It replaced the resonating body with electrical amplification of the string sound.
It was the first electric stringed instrument marketed in series production; solid-body guitars (Les Paul, Fender) came later, in the 1940s–1950s.
What it led to
- Electric sound and distortion as a musical language
- Electric blues, rock and roll and derived genres
- The industry of amplifiers and effects pedals