In the early 1930s, a Texas-born lap-steel guitarist named George Beauchamp made a significant change to the guitar-he added a magnetic device to the instrument that “picked up” vibrations from the metal strings and sent them to an amplifier. By the following year, 78 rpm records featuring Indigenous Hawaiian instruments outsold every other musical genre in the United States.Īs Hawaiian lap steel became more popular and audiences got bigger, it was increasingly difficult to hear the small acoustic instrument from larger stages. Lap-steel musicians played the acoustic guitar facing up while resting on their lap instead of facing out, plucking the strings while running a steel bar over the neck to create a sweeping sound that glides from one pitch to the next. More than 18 million people visited the fair in San Francisco that year to marvel at breakthroughs in aviation technology, stroll through California’s “Big Trees” inside the Southern Pacific Railroad exhibit, and experience Samoan dancing and sumo wrestling.Ī highlight of the exposition was the steel-guitar music being made by natives of the recently annexed Hawaiian islands. These listings are not for sale, but do represent the type of instruments and gear we like to carry here and purchase.A cast aluminum Rickenbacher A-22 guitar, also known as the “frying pan,” now on display as part of the National Guitar Museum exhibition at Carnegie Science Center.Įlectric guitars are most associated with rock music, but arguably the world’s first electric guitar was designed for Hawaiian “lap-steel” music.Īmericans first became mesmerized by the soft lilting tones of the Pacific islands when Hawaiian musicians performed at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915. This is the owner’s private collection of instruments and amps. Excellent condition with beige hardshell felt-lined case. One volume and one tone control with with white grip knobs made of bakelite. Kluson deluxe tuning keys with three on a plank on each side of headstock Beige fingerboard markers with numbers are painted onto a thin wooden fingerboard overlay which is painted the same dark pink/reddish brown color as the control plate. Single Gibson P-90 pickup with adjustable pole pieces which appeared on these models from 1954 to 1959. This roughly 23″ scale student model was Gibson’s most popular lap steel.
– Pickup and bridge cover/control plate assembly is dark pink to reddish brown in color and is made of hard lucite (plastic). Graduated three-bout body with beige textured finish over-all on body and headstock.
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