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Happy 1st electric guitar ever day!


surfpup

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Nice job with the link. George Beauchamp is a hero of mine.

 

Its a little at odds with what I had read from Rickenbacker. They said the patent took 6 years to grant. The US Patent Office had a 'musical instrument dept' and an 'electrical dept' and couldnt decide who was responsible.

 

 

Beauchamp sent desperate letters to the patent office complaining that more than 20 competitors had copied his design. He had invented the guitar & pickup in 1931.

 

In anticipation of lawsuits, one competitor filled their pickups with tar to make disassembly difficult. While Gibson supposedly only sold pickups as an after market extra during the period (no pickup fitted to guitar).

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