George Breed and his Electrified Guitar of 1890

"The electrification of musical instruments is almost certainly the most important organological innovation of the last 100 years. In 1890, a United States Naval Officer named George Breed patented a design for an electrified guitar which, although not the very first example of an electrified instrument, predates any other documented American electrical musical instrument and appears to be the very first application of electricity to a fretted string instrument...... "