Up for sale is a early 1930s Rickenbacker "Rickenbacher" A-25 Long Scale Frying Pan. This instrument came out of a local collection here in Washington and is a really cool and fun part of guitar history. The tuners have been changed (originals included with one broken button), there is a piece of metal on the face of the body that appears aftermarket as well as a weird sandblasted style material on the back of the body that is also not original. The pickup is nice and strong and this little guitar sounds great! No case with this one. Some cool history of the Frying Pan can be found below. Weight: 5lbs. 5oz.
The Rickenbacker Electro A-25, nicknamed the "Frying Pan" is the first electric lap steel guitar, also widely considered to be the first commercially successful electric guitar. Developed in 1931/1932, it received its patent in August 1937.[1] A previous attempt, the Stromberg company‘s transducer-based "Stromberg Electro", was introduced in 1928. It used a "vibration-transfer rod" from the instrument's sounding board attached to magnets inside the guitar, and was not successful.[2] George Beauchamp created the "Fry-Pan" in 1931, and it was subsequently manufactured by Electro String Instrument Corporation under the name Electro, later named Rickenbacker. The instrument gained its nickname because its circular body and long neck make it resemble a frying pan.
It was designed to capitalize 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 designed by Paul Barth with George Beauchamp. Beauchamp and machinist Adolph Rickenbacker began selling the guitar in 1932, but Beauchamp was not awarded a patent[3] for his idea until 1937, which allowed other guitar companies to produce electric guitars in the same period.
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