The "
frying pan" was the first
electric lap steel guitar ever produced.
George Beauchamp created the instrument in 1931, and it was subsequently manufactured by
Rickenbacker Electro. The instrument—officially the model A-22—earned its nickname because its circular body and long neck make it resemble a
frying pan.
It was designed to cash in on the popularity of
Hawaiian music in the 1930s. The instrument was made of cast
aluminum, and featured a
pickup that incorporated a pair of horseshoe
magnets that arched over the strings. Beauchamp and machinist
Adolph Rickenbacker began selling the Frying Pan in 1932, but Beauchamp was not awarded a patent
Google Patents, accessed June 14, 2011. for his idea until 1937, which allowed other guitar companies to produce electric guitars in the same period.
Development
In the 1930s, Hawaiian music enjoyed widespread popularity in the United States. However, Hawaiian music featured the guitar as the main
melodic instrument, and the volume of
acoustic guitars was insufficient for large audiences. Beauchamp, an enthusiast and player of Hawaiian music, mounted a
magnetic pickup on his
acoustic steel guitar to produce an
electrical signal that was electronically
amplified to drive a
loudspeaker, producing a much louder sound. After discovering that his system produced copious amounts of unwanted
feedback from
sympathetic vibration of the guitar's body, Beauchamp reasoned that
acoustic...
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