Who was the very first electric steel guitarist?

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 17 Feb 2014 2:50 pm

Andy Iona recorded in 1934. Paul Tutmarc was experimenting with electric instruments in the early 30s. Sol Hoopii went electric in '34 or '35. The first Rickenbacher frypans were made circa 1932. Ralph Kolsiana was gifted with frypan #004. But who was the first to commercially record on electric steel guitar?

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 17 Feb 2014 3:20 pm

The first electric steel guitar recording was made in Feb 1933 by the Noelani Hawaiian Orchestra. The player has not been identified.

Here is an old recording of the NHO--I'll have to check out the matrix and see if I can find a date. By the way, it was recorded in NYC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgmtqWA5Nwg

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 17 Feb 2014 4:54 pm

What, you mean the electric steel guitar is not a traditional Hawaiian instrument from centuries back? The way Hawaiian guitarists scorn pedals you would think that they were playing a traditional instrument.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 17 Feb 2014 5:14 pm

any pictures of the 'very first' solid body electric steel guitar?

David Knutson · Post by **David Knutson** » 17 Feb 2014 5:55 pm

Chris, there is a photo in Richard Smith's "Complete History of Rickenbacker Guitars" of Adolph Rickenbacker holding the very first Frypan. That must have been at least the first marketed solid body.

Todd Clinesmith · Post by **Todd Clinesmith** » 17 Feb 2014 8:42 pm

Very interesting topic Andy. And Mike Neer had a quick answer... with a youtube video even.

I think the fry pan was the first commercial electric instrument.

Not to stray away from this thread but it seems Mike did answer the question, unless someone else knows more.
An interesting bit of information is Loyd Loar did build the first electric documented prototype in 1923 It was a Harp Guitar . I have seen photos of the instrument and documentation from the owner.

Funny story.... I was at a musical gathering a few years back, and a pedal steel player ( who is a forum member) was playing with some blue grass musicians, and a few of the acoustic purists were starting to grumble an complain a bit, and in fun. One of them a began saying it was all Les Paul's fault that the electric guitar was invented. After a few times I said "actually it was Loyd Loar". His eyes bugged out a bit . What do you mean he exclaimed . I explained the story to him. I am not sure if it helped his acceptance of electric instruments or not, but it did teach him a bit about his hero Loyd Loar.

Todd

Jerome Hawkes · Post by **Jerome Hawkes** » 18 Feb 2014 1:47 am

and Lloyd Loar was fired from Gibson in 1924 because he was "wasting too much time and investment" on his ill fated attempts to develop an electric amplified guitar! i think he could sense the writing on the wall for the mandolin orchestra age slowly dying - the coming jazz age finally killed it off.
But yes, the instrument from this period does exist to validate him as "developing & attaching an electric amplified pickup to a guitar" at the least.
he was WAY ahead of the pack - designed and built all types of electric instruments in the early 30's but they never took off or found financing. Rickenbacher had CASH and they could manufacture and market them.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 18 Feb 2014 4:32 am

Thanks all. Naval Officer George Breed is probably the unsung great grandfather of the electric guitar.

http://bibliolore.org/2011/12/11/george ... ed-guitar/

Les Paul reported using his mom's phonograph as a kid to actually imbed the needle in his guitar top to amplify it and George Barnes said his brother Reggie had created a crude pickup for his guitar in the early 1930s. Eddie Durham is often credited with the first commercial recording of electric guitar but Barnes (playing with Big Bill Broonzy) actually recorded earlier. Loar's company tanked but he was certainly a visionary. A lot of people were simultaneously working toward the same goal in parallel ways. It's probably impossible to pinpoint who was the first to do it in their shop before informing the world.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 18 Feb 2014 4:44 am

When I was 8 years old, I got my first electric guitar at a yard sale for $3. It was a Japanese model with 3 pickups, flatwound strings--very cool.

Anyway, I had no amp, but I realized that a stereo needle amplified sound, so I tried hooking up different wires from the guitar to the needle. No dice. I think if a neighbor hadn't given me a little Sears tube amp, I would figured it out eventually.

So, in the meantime, I opted for the guitar headstock against the corner of the sheetrocked wall of my bedroom. Great bass response!

Jim Carter of New Zealand emailed me with some info on the Noelani Hawaiian Orchestra's first recorded use of electric steel:

"The noelani orchestra recorded Dreams of Aloha / Hawaiian Ripple / Alekoki / and Hawaiian Love on Feb 22, 1933. This information comes from Lorene Ruymar's book Hawaiian Musicians."

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 18 Feb 2014 6:52 am

Thanks to George Pieburn for reminding me about Gage Brewer ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It1Gb0wl9ug

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 18 Feb 2014 7:30 am

When I was about 12 years old I had a small Sears reel to reel recorder with a mic on a cord that plugged into the recorder. I discovered that if I put the mic into the soundhole of my acoustic guitar and pushed the play and pause buttons on the recorder my guitar would be amplified through the little speaker in the recorder. I had so much fun with my first 'amplified guitar'. The little speaker in that Sears recorder would scream with extreme overdrive and controlled feedback, but it sounded amazing to me at the time!

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 18 Feb 2014 7:33 am

The Smithsonian has an interesting article on the invention of the electric guitar. Adolph Rickenbacher and George Beauchamp collaborated on the "frying pan" guitar.

I understood Paul Tutmarc to be one of the first inventors of electric guitar.

And then there's Alvino Rey, who worked with Gibson on their first electric guitar in 1935 or so.

I think we can safely say that several people were working on this same issue (making the Hawaiian guitar loud enough to keep up with the orchestra) at the same time. That's what I understand the Dopyera brothers were doing with the DobroÂ® - trying to make a louder guitar. They just went about it acoustically rather than electrically.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 18 Feb 2014 7:53 am

When I was a kid, I wanted to amplify an acoustic guitar.
What I did was clamp a set of headphones, I used with my crystal radio set, onto the body of the guitar and plugged it into an amp. It worked great!
Besides transmitting a signal, headphones will also send a signal.

Todd Clinesmith · Post by **Todd Clinesmith** » 18 Feb 2014 8:07 am

Brad Bechtel wrote: I think we can safely say that several people were working on this same issue (making the Hawaiian guitar loud enough to keep up with the orchestra) at the same time. That's what I understand the Dopyera brothers were doing with the DobroÂ® - trying to make a louder guitar. They just went about it acoustically rather than electrically.

I would bet the race was on, to be the first. Kinda like getting a man on the moon.

Once the (spanish)guitar became successfully amplified, this probably led to the decline of the banjo.

Todd

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 18 Feb 2014 8:16 am

...this probably led to the decline of the banjo.

Well, that's one positive outcome!

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 18 Feb 2014 11:49 am

I know you have to be careful about feedback, but I would have thought that the obvious way to increase the sound of an acoustic guitar was to put a microphone inside it. Why didn't jazz bands think of that?

When I built my first lap steel back in 1963 I mounted an old aircraft microphone under the bridge, with the bridge actually resting on the body of the microphone. It worked to a certain extent, but the microphone was not designed for other than talking into, and there was a lot of distortion.

I should explain that my Dad was an electrician in the Fleet Air Arm division of the Royal Navy, and had a lot of spare electrical parts taken from scrapped aircraft, of which there were a lot after the Japanese had filled them with bullet holes.

Scott Thomas · Post by **Scott Thomas** » 18 Feb 2014 2:25 pm

Mike Neer wrote:The first electric steel guitar recording was made in Feb 1933 by the Noelani Hawaiian Orchestra. The player has not been identified.

Here is an old recording of the NHO--I'll have to check out the matrix and see if I can find a date. By the way, it was recorded in NYC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgmtqWA5Nwg

I have two of the four sides dated 2/22/33--"Dreams of Aloha", and 'Hawaiian Ripple" (both instrumentals) on a couple of comps. Interestingly, these were released on Gramophone,
http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/music/ ... +Orchestra

while the two other recordings from that date--"Alekoki" and "Hawaiian Love" were on Victor.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Noi-Lanes-Hawaii ... 1158315901

Note the band name spelling--"Noi Lane" as compared to "Noelani" on the later recording posted by Mike. Although so little is known about the group, I suspect Joseph Lopes had some connection since he is credited as composer on three out of the six recordings...the two instrumentals and "Hawaiian Love".
http://www.squareone.org/Hapa/h3.html

It also makes me wonder if the credit to "Vocal refrain by N. Lopez and trio" on Alekoki could stand for "Noelani Lopez", a stage name for Joseph Lopes himself? Pure conjecture on my part...

Peter Huggins · Post by **Peter Huggins** » 18 Feb 2014 7:13 pm

This does not predate the Noelani recordings, but Bob Dunn first recorded with Milton Brown and his Brownies on January 27, 1935.

Jim Bates · Post by **Jim Bates** » 18 Feb 2014 8:06 pm

I met Bert Lynn at his music store in Houston in the late '69 or '70. He had just received his dealership for Emmons pedal steel guitars, and asked me to come by the store and help set it up and tune it, which I did. We visited for several minutes about his early days of playing steel guitar, AND he showed me old news clippings about his inventing the first electric steel guitar. (I think I recently saw an article in the Forum mentioning this.)
If I remember correctly he said he built a special pickup to be added to his acoustic Hawaiian guitar.

Does anyone else confirm this?

Thanx,
Jim

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 19 Feb 2014 10:56 am

The way I understand it is, the 1st production electric guitar was the Rickenbacher fry pan, in 1931. The 1st solid body electric bass was Paul Tutmarc's bass in 1933.

A good article, The TRUE FACTS on the Invention
of the Electric Guitar AND Electric Bass by Bud Tutmarc, published by b0b:

http://www.b0b.com/infoedu/tutmarc1.html

Jack Aldrich · Post by **Jack Aldrich** » 19 Feb 2014 12:18 pm

chas smith wrote:The way I understand it is, the 1st production electric guitar was the Rickenbacher fry pan, in 1931. The 1st solid body electric bass was Paul Tutmarc's bass in 1933.

A good article, The TRUE FACTS on the Invention
of the Electric Guitar AND Electric Bass by Bud Tutmarc, published by b0b:

http://www.b0b.com/infoedu/tutmarc1.html

That bass is on display in the electric instrument room of the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle. It's worth the trip to Seattle to see that room and the video of great guitarists that runs all the time.

Carl Mesrobian · Post by **Carl Mesrobian** » 14 Jan 2015 12:05 pm

Bass players get all the chicks

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 14 Jan 2015 3:09 pm

I'll throw in a pretty cool "trump card" for this thread - photos of my squarenck pre-war Dobro, serial number 3694 that I bought back in 1976, when I was a young fellow of 22. I see Todd Clinesmith is in on this thread, I showed him this Dobro at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival in 2003.

Sources vary, but one popular reference lists this serial number as being a California-built guitar from 1933. I've seen another source that lists it as 1931. Ah, the good old "convoluted history of the Dobro."

Notice the two piece blade pickup just above the palm rest. This thing has a really heavy horseshoe magnet, I think the guitar weighs more than most Les Pauls. When I used to play it standing with a cheesy, skinny strap that looked like it belonged to Brother Oswald back in the day it made my shoulder sore in a short amount of time, and I think it might have made my right arm fall asleep from the cutoff in circulation during a long session.

After I bought it from a family in San Jose where it had belonged to a long-lost uncle and was in a case in their attic lying dormant, I brought it to the legendary Bay Area guitar shop, Lundberg's Fretted Instruments in Berzerkeley.

The late Jon Lundberg was pretty blown away when he saw it. He said, "hang on for a bit, I have something I want to show you." A couple minutes later he reappears from the back room with another one just like it! He said that as far as he knew, there were only five or six of these ever made - and here were two of them in the Bay Area!

Oh yeah, I've had the p'up rewired a couple times but it doesn't work very well. At the same Guitar Festival where Todd saw it, Rick Turner was checking it out and went into an entire spiel about it, most of which I can't remember - the man is a walking encyclopedia of guitar stuff.

I didn't know about Steve Toth's recent book about pre-war Dobros until it was about ready to be shipped to retailers. Had I known, this guitar should have been in the book. If he does a revised edition we need to get it in there for sure.

Sorry, if the bottom photo is sideways on your screen as it is on mine, I have no idea how to fix it right now.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 14 Jan 2015 4:11 pm

Carl Mesrobian wrote:Bass players get all the chicks

Really. She's mesmerized.
That bass is the coolest, and the speaker is electrostatic, man.

Carl Mesrobian · Post by **Carl Mesrobian** » 14 Jan 2015 4:27 pm

Looks like he's pointing at the pickup with a pen, and I love the twisted pair wire - shielding a la Alexander Graham Bell and still used today!

Definitely a cool bass