george breed
The first documented
attempt at the electrification of a fretted stringed instrument was an 1890
guitar patent by U.S. Navy officer George Breed.
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the rickenbacker frying pan
Back in 1931, George Beauchamp wasn’t trying to change the world; he was
simply looking for a way to get his Hawaiian guitar heard above the much louder
drums, brass and wind instruments found in the dance bands of the day. His
solution was the electromagnetic pickup, the heart of the modern electric
guitar.
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bond guitars
In the mid-1980s a guitar manufacturing company was set up in the highlands of Scotland to produce an electric guitar of a design radically different from almost anything made before or since. The Bond "Electraglide"™, designed by Bournemouth luthier Andrew Bond, featured a ground-breaking combination of original as well as more conventional design features such as carbon-fibre construction, high-tech electronics, a digital display and a fingerboard that featured a height-adjustable nut and utilised saw-toothed shaped steps instead of conventional frets. Read More