Electric Hawaiian guitar
Alternate name(s)
- Electric lap-steel guitar
Date1934 ca.
Place MadeLos Angeles, California, United States, North America
ModelA-22 "Frying Pan"
Serial No.B232
SignedOn a metal nameplate screwed to upper end of front of headstock: RICKENBACHER / ELECTRO / RE [in flaming circle] / LOS ANGELESN.B. Rickenbacher, not Rickenbacker on this instrument. Gruhn notes (p.8) that “literature and advertising spelled Rickenbacker with a “k,” but headstock nameplate used the original spelling – Rickenbacher – until the 1950s.” Also, Adolph Rickenbacher (1892-1976) changed the “h” to a “k” to note his “distant kinship with WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker.” (Gruhn, p. 9) (see also, Bacon 1994, p. 12)
MarkingsStamped into upper end of headstock: B232
DescriptionRickenbacker’s early electric Hawaiian guitars were made from aluminum and earned the nickname “frying pans.” The NMM’s example is a slightly smaller model, known as the A-22, for the 22-inch string length.
Made of cast aluminum by the Aluminum Alloy Casting Company. Rickenbacker was responsible for the electric pickup – a pair of horseshoe-shaped magnets surrounding a coil of wire which itself surrounds 6 individual magnets (1 at each string). This pickup was designed by George Beauchamp, a partner of Rickenbacker, who filed his patent on June 2, 1934, but wasn’t granted it until August 10, 1937 (#2,089,171). The cast aluminum was given a “lacquer wash,", some of which can be seen on the fingerboard and overall of the back of the instrument, as a “gold” color.
Dimensionsoverall length: 730 mm (28.7 in)
length of neck: 415 mm (16.3 in)
diameter of body: 177 mm (7 in)
Published ReferencesTimothy D. Miller. The Origins and Development of the Pedal Steel Guitar. M.M. Thesis. Vermillion: University of South Dakota, 2007.
“Instrumental Innovations,” Wall Street Journal (December 7, 2007), p. W4.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1995
Object number05917
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