Who was the very first electric steel guitarist?

[John Mulligan]

My guess is that he's tapping on the pickup to demonstrate how it works.

[Lynn Wheelwright]

Mark, do you have any pictures of the inside? Does it have the heavy cast 3 legged spider or is it one that has both the pickup and the cone?

Thanks

[Herb Steiner]

I think that was designated the Model 76. I have one that had the hole on the top for the volume control filled, and it became a "factory second" with a "2" stamped near the serial number.

Mine is a round neck, California slotted peghead, and ebony (I think) fretboard.

[Jerry Gleason]

Bob Dunn is widely credited (perhaps wrongly) with making the first electric steel guitar recordings with Milton Brown in the early thirties. He played an acoustic guitar set up for steel playing with a homemade pickup, which required him to carry a magnet to magnetize the strings. If he wasn't the first electric steel player, he was certainly the first jazz steel guitarist.

[Lynn Wheelwright]

Pretty sure the pickup Dunn used was a Volu-Tone made in So Calif. It did require the strings to be magnetized either by energizing the pickup turning it into an electro magnet of using a magnet to do the trick.

[Andy Volk]

Jerry, Lynn, you're both correct. Dunn was inspired to go electric when he saw a black blues player with a similar setup. Name, year and details unknown.

[Bill Hatcher]

loar is one of the giants for sure. i put him up there with anyone.....

http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/F ... r-201.aspx

[Bill Creller]

The subject of who was the first to build & record an electric steel is like who shot down the Red Baron, the Aussies, or Brown, a subject that will never really be settled.

[Steve Allison]

I think Bob Dunn stuck a phonograph needle in an acoustic guitar with a raised nut in 1929. I could be wrong, but like I tell my wife, I doubt it!

[Lynn Wheelwright]

The electric Harp guitar is not what it is represented to be. It was most likely retro fitted with the ViVi-Tone pickup in about 1933-34. The ViVi-Tone ads of 1933 offer the conversion of of your instrument to electric. I and a few others have continued to gather information on Loar and ViVi-Tone from published sources and personal correspondence. Through this info. we have learned that Loar became interested in the idea of electric instruments around 1927-8. His first electrified instruments came out a bit earlier than the 1933 published accounts. They were available by at least August of 1932. Alvino Rey had an early guitar that he put to use by late 1932. We have an article from the Portland, Ore. paper dated Jan. 18, 1933 that shows Alvino holding his ViVi-Tone guitar and says he plugs it directly into the radio station, an NBC affiliate's transmitter. Alvino told me he was playing electric guitar on his San Fran based NBC radio show by Nov of 1932. He had both the ViVi-Tone and his engraved electro fry pan by Dec of 1932. I would argue Alvino belongs at the top of the list of early electric players, promoters.

[John Troutman]

As for Dunn's first exposure to the steel guitar, he apparently first encountered it in 1917, when he saw a Hawaiian troupe performing in Kusa, Oklahoma. He later enrolled in Walter Kolomoku's correspondence course in order to learn how to play, and he began playing it professionally by 1927.

As for the first people to record with an electric steel (or electric guitar of any sort), Noelani's Hawaiians, as previously noted, recorded with one in February of 1933. The next people to record with an electric steel were also Native Hawaiians-- Eddie Bush recorded with one, as did Andy Iona's Islanders and Dick McIntire's Harmony Hawaiians. Then, in January of 1935, almost two years after Noelani's Hawaiians, Dunn took a stab at recording with the electric steel as well.

Rickenbacher and Beauchamp built their first prototype electric steel in 1931, and began selling them in 1932.

[Lynn Wheelwright]

Yes, the Ric ledgers indicate they began shipping in Aug of 1932. The first units, or at least the earliest we have found are marked eleKtro with a K instead of a C This is consistent with the Sept 1932 entry in the National board of director minutes which spells it twice as eleKtro. The logo is etched acid, to sandblast not engraved. To date 3 eleKrtos have been located. The earliest appears to be a cast aluminum prototype fry pan. It is a bit rough, and was originally set up with phone tip jacks like the prototype Ric electric spanish. The owner got it from an older gentleman who said he got it from the inventor. We believe the wood fry pan was built in early to mid 1932. It is reasonable to assume that it was not built in 1931 as it does not conform at all to the patent drawing submitted Jan. of 1932.

[John Troutman]

Lynn-- do you own those ledger books? Or are they in a library or a private collection somewhere? I'm so glad that someone has them-- I had no idea. Do you have any idea about what happened to Sol Hoʻopiʻi's fry pan? If anyone could track it down, you could!

John

[Lynn Wheelwright]

The ledgers are in the Rickenbacker files at the company head quarters. I was able to see and use some of the information they contain for the Vintage Guitar article I wrote on the Ro-Pat-In prototype electric spanish guitar a few years back . I worked in conjunction with Matthew Hill who is the curator for the Ric museum.

I would have no idea where Sol's frypan is, wish I did. But a few years back his B6 was offered. I think it may have ended up on Ebay for a bit.