Adolph Rickenbacker became a shareholder in National and, with the assistance of his Rickenbacker Manufacturing Company, National boosted production to fifty guitars a day. By the time he met George Beauchamp and began manufacturing metal bodies for the "Nationals" being produced by the National String Instruments Corporation, Rickenbacker was a highly skilled production engineer and machinist. In 1925, Rickenbacker and two partners formed the Rickenbacker Manufacturing Company and incorporated it in 1927. Sometime after moving to Los Angeles in 1918, he changed his surname to "Rickenbacker". Īdolph Rickenbacher was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1887 and emigrated to the United States to live with relatives after the death of his parents. The company made Spanish and Hawaiian style tri-cone guitars as well as four-string tenor guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles. On January 26, 1928, the National String Instrument Corporation opened, with a new factory located near a metal-stamping shop owned by Adolph Rickenbacher and staffed by experienced and competent craftsmen. Thereafter, Dopyera and his brothers made the tri-cone guitars in their Los Angeles shop, under the brand name National. After further refinements, Dopyera applied for a patent on the so-called tri-cone guitar on April 9, 1927.
These efforts produced an instrument that so pleased Beauchamp that he told Dopyera that they should go into business to manufacture them. Their next collaboration involved experiments with mounting three conical aluminum resonators into the body of the guitar beneath the bridge. He approached inventor and violin-maker John Dopyera, who made a prototype that was, by all accounts, a failure. He first conceived of a guitar fitted with a phonograph-like amplifying horn. George Beauchamp was a vaudeville performer, violinist, and steel guitarist who, like many acoustic guitarists in the pre-electric-guitar 1920s, was looking for some way to make his instrument cut through an orchestra. During the early 1940s, Rickenbacker amps were sometimes repaired by Leo Fender, whose repair shop evolved into the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company.
RICKENBACKER 325 RUBY PROFESSIONAL
Lansing of the Lansing Manufacturing Company designed the speaker in the Rickenbacker professional model. Shortly thereafter, design engineer Ralph Robertson further developed the amplifiers, and by the 1940s at least four different Rickenbacker models were available. A Los Angeles radio manufacturer named Van Nest designed the first Electro String production-model amplifier.
Įlectro String also sold amplifiers to go with their guitars. By the time they ceased producing the "frying pan" model in 1939, they had made several thousand units. They had a single pickup with two magnetized steel covers, shaped like "horseshoes," that arched over the strings. They are the first known solid-bodied electric guitars, though they were a lap-steel type. The early instruments were nicknamed "frying-pans" because of their long necks and small circular bodies. Early examples bear the brand name 'Electro'. They chose the brand name 'Rickenbacher' (later changing the spelling to 'Rickenbacker'). Beauchamp had designed these instruments, assisted by Paul Barth and Harry Watson, at National String Instrument Corporation. Players who have used Rickenbacker basses include Paul McCartney of the Beatles, Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Cliff Burton of Metallica, Roger Glover and Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple, Paul Wilson of Snow Patrol, Bruce Foxton of the Jam, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, Chris Squire of Yes, Geddy Lee of Rush, Al Cisneros of Sleep and Om, Paul D'Amour of Tool, and Rick James and Kevin Parker of Tame Impala.Īdolph Rickenbacher and George Beauchamp founded the company in 1931 as the Ro-Pat-In Corporation (Elect Ro-Patent- Instruments) to sell electric Hawaiian guitars. Players of the six-string include John Lennon of the Beatles, John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Paul Weller of the Jam, John Kay of Steppenwolf, Peter Buck of R.E.M., Johnny Marr of the Smiths, and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles. Rickenbacker twelve-string guitars were favoured by George Harrison of the Beatles, Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Pete Townshend of the Who, and Tom Petty.
The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range of electric guitars and basses. Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. Electric, acoustic, lap and console steel guitars, basses, amplifiers, electric violins, electric mandolins, electric banjos