Electric pedal-steel guitar
Maker
Gibson, Inc.
Maker
Gibson
Date1941
Place MadeKalamazoo, Michigan, United States, North America
ModelElectraharp
Serial No.E4141-6
SignedEngraved on a nickel-silver nameplate screwed onto cabinet near upper end of guitar’s neck mechanism (beside the pitch- changing mechanism): Gibson / [backwards lightning bolt] / ElectraharpMarkingsStamped into cabinet above nut: E4141-6
DescriptionThe Gibson Electraharp pedal mechanism was developed to allow quick tuning changes within songs and allowed the player to raise or lower the pitch separately on individual strings. The sumptuous figured maple and walnut case hid the pedals and the player's feet behind an elegant Art Deco façade. According to Gibson's 1942 catalog, the instrument took five years to develop and "not until every detail had been perfected was a working model shown." The Electraharp had been developed jointly by a Pratt and Whitney machinist, John Moore, and Alvino Rey, a well-known Gibson endorser. The Electraharp was Gibson's most expensive product in 1942, when it was sold for $477—$111.50 more than the most deluxe Super 400 arch-top guitar. The Electraharp was reintroduced after World War II mounted on steel legs, rather than built into a wooden cabinet, and with only four pedals. In 1949 it sold for a significantly reduced $395.
DimensionsCabinet: (without casters)
length: 925 mm
height: 675 mm
depth: 355 mm
ProvenancePurchased from Gruhn Guitars, Nashville, Tennessee, 1995.
Published ReferencesTony Bacon, s.v., “Gibson,” New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, II, p. 45.
George Gruhn, and Walter Carter. Electric Guitars and Basses: A Photographic History. San Francisco: GPI Books, 1994, p. 27.
Timothy D. Miller. The Origins and Development of the Pedal Steel Guitar. M.M. Thesis. Vermillion: University of South Dakota, 2007.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1995
Object number05918
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