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Rickenbacker
Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. Rickenbacker is the first known maker of electric guitars, with a steel guitar in 1932, and produces a range of electric guitars and basses. History Founding Adolph Rickenbacher and George Beauchamp founded the company in 1931 as the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (ElectRo-Patent-Instruments) to sell electric Hawaiian guitars. Beauchamp designed his instruments in collaboration with Paul Barth and Harry Watson, who had been active in the National String Instrument Corporation. The Ro-Pat-In brand name would eventually transform into the 'Rickenbacher' brand, and ultimately the modern 'Rickenbacker’ was adopted. Early examples bear the brand name 'Electro'. The early instruments were nicknamed "frying-pans" because of their long necks and small circular bodies. They are the first known solid-bodied electric guitars, though they were a lap-steel type. They had a single ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adolph Rickenbacher
Adolph Rickenbacker (born Adolf Rickenbacher, April 1, 1887 – March 21, 1976) was an American production engineer and machinist who, together with George Beauchamp, created the first electric string instrument, and co-founded the Rickenbacker guitar company, also with Beauchamp. Rickenbacker was born in Basel, Switzerland as Adolf Rickenbacher. As a child in 1891, he immigrated to the United States with older relatives after his parents died, settling in Columbus Ohio and later southern California. He Anglicized both his own name, and that of his company's brand, to Rickenbacker to capitalize on the popularity of his second cousin, America's top scoring flying ace of the First World War, Eddie Rickenbacker, who due to the wave of anti-German sentiment caused by the war, had felt pressure to change the spelling of his surname in an effort to "take the Hun out of his name." Eddie was already well known as a racing driver at the time, and his change received wide publicity. " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into Electrical signal, electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities via amplifier settings or knobs on the guitar. Often, this is done through the use of Effects unit, effects such as reverb, Distortion (music), distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz, rock music, rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal guitar playing. Designs also exist combining attributes of electric and acoustic guitars: the Semi-acoustic guitar, semi-acoustic and Acoustic-electric guitar, acoustic-electric guitars. Inven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lap Steel Guitar
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional acoustic guitar, in which the performer's fingertips press the strings against frets, the pitch of a steel guitar is changed by pressing a polished steel bar against strings while plucking them with the opposite hand. The steel guitar's name is derived from this steel bar. Though the instrument does not have frets, it displays markers that resemble them. Lap steels may differ markedly from one another in external appearance, depending on whether they are acoustic or electric, but in either case, do not have pedals, distinguishing them from pedal steel guitars. The steel guitar was the first foreign musical instrument to gain a foothold in American pop music. It originated in the Hawaiian Kingdom about 1885, popularize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steel Guitar
A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar in that it is played without using frets; conceptually, it is somewhat akin to playing a guitar with one finger (the bar). Known for its portamento capabilities, gliding smoothly over every pitch between notes, the instrument can produce a sinuous crying sound and deep vibrato emulating the human singing voice. Typically, the strings are plucked (not strummed) by the fingers of the dominant hand, while the steel tone bar is pressed lightly against the strings and moved by the opposite hand. The idea of creating music with a slide of some type has been traced back to early African instruments, but the modern steel guitar was conceived and popularized in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaiians began playing a conventional guitar in a horizontal p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solid Body
Sound sample of solid-body electric guitar. A solid-body musical instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electromagnetic pickup system to directly detect the vibrations of the strings; these instruments are usually plugged into an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to be heard. Solid-body instruments are preferred in situations where acoustic feedback may otherwise be a problem and are inherently both less expensive to build and more rugged than acoustic electric instruments. Recognisable solid body instruments are the electric guitar and electric bass, developed in the 1930s. Common woods used in the construction of solid body instruments are ash, alder, maple, mahogany, korina, spruce, rosewood, and ebony. The first two make up the majority of solid body electric guitars. Solid body instruments have some of the same features as acoustic string instruments. Like a typical string instrument, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Beauchamp
George Delmetia Beauchamp (; March 18, 1899 – March 30, 1941) 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. Biography 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 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 the "frying pan" – is widely regarded as the fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National String Instrument Corporation
The National String Instrument Corporation was an American guitar company first formed to manufacture banjos and then the original resonator guitars. National also produced resonator ukuleles and resonator mandolins. The company merged with Dobro to form the "National Dobro Company", then becoming a brand of Valco until it closed in 1968. History Early years 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 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Mandolin
The electric mandolin is an instrument tuned and played as the mandolin and amplified in similar fashion to an electric guitar. As with electric guitars, electric mandolins take many forms. Most common is a carved-top eight-string instrument fitted with an electric Pickup (music technology), pickup in similar fashion to many archtop guitar, archtop semi-acoustic guitars. Solid body mandolins are common in 4-, 5-, and 8-string forms. Acoustic electric mandolins also exist in many forms. History Electric mandolins were built in the United States as early as the late 1920s. Among the first companies to produce them were Stromberg-Voisinet, Electro (which later became Rickenbacker), Vivi-Tone, and National String Instrument Corporation, National. Gibson (guitar company), Gibson and Vega Company, Vega introduced their electric mandolins in 1936. In the United States, luthier/inventor Paul Bigsby began building solid-body electric mandolins (technically, they consisted of a solid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass Guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer neck (music), neck and scale length (string instruments), scale length. The electric bass guitar most commonly has four strings, though five- and six-stringed models are also built. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has replaced the double bass in popular music due to its lighter weight, smaller size, most models' inclusion of Fret, frets for easier Intonation_(music), intonation, and electromagnetic pickups for amplification. Another reason the bass guitar replaced the double bass is because the double bass is "acoustically imperfect" like the viola. For a double bass to be acoustically perfect, its body size would have to be twice as that of a cello rendering it unplayable, so the double bass is made smaller to make it playable. The elect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
