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Topic: George Breed's pickup - revising history? |
Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 17 Oct 2018 2:53 am |
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Who invented the very first electric guitar pickup? A number of folks in the 20s and 30s were working on the problem of amplifying string instruments and more light has been shined on who they were over the last 20 years or so. If, as they say, history is written by the winners, sometimes the loser's contributions are lost or marginalized. Maybe not a pickup as we know it today but .... 1890?!
https://bibliolore.org/2011/12/11/george-breeds-electrified-guitar/
On Facebook, Matthew Hill said ...
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| I never finished reproducing the entire guitar, but I did managed to make a reproduction of the circuitry and recorded a little bit of the sound it made. It makes a quite interesting sound; a bit like a cross between a hurdy gurdy and scraping a pick along the side of a string. The electromagnet in the design is huge and heavy; about 20 lbs if I remember right. It's heavy enough that when mounted in a guitar it's actually capable a physically distorting the instrument. There's a lot more information on Breed and his patent in the article. |
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Barney Roach
From:
California, USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2018 3:31 pm
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What a great find Andy! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Love your books too! Barney |
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Mark Helm
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2018 8:32 pm NOT Les Paul :lol:
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Amazingly, A LOT of people think Les Paul invented the first pickup (even more think he invented the electric guitar-- in no small part due to Les' penchant for spreading dubious rumors about himself).
I think most folks credit George Delmetia Beauchamp, the Texas-born L.A. Hawaiian steel guitar wiz with fashioning the first working electromagnetic guitar pick-up. His name is not nearly as well-known as that of his business partner, Adolph Rickenbacher.
Cheers,
MH
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Remington Steelmaster S8 w/ custom Steeltronics pickup. Vox MV-50 amplifier + an 1940's Oahu cab w/ 8" American Vintage speaker. J. Mascis Fender Squire Jazzmaster, Hofner Club bass, Ibanez AVN4-VMS Artwood Vintage Series Concert Size Acoustic Guitar. 1920s/30s Supertone Hawaiian-themed parlor guitar. Silvertone parlor guitar. |
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Cartwright Thompson
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Posted 19 Oct 2018 5:12 am
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| What was he going to use for an amp? |
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Noah Miller
From:
Rocky Hill, CT
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Posted 19 Oct 2018 5:42 am
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| I don't know about this particular case, but a lot of early electric pioneers found a way to plug into a radio. Most early guitar amps were really just radio circuits with 1/4" connections instead of antennae. |
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Jon Zimmerman
From:
California, USA
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Posted 22 Oct 2018 7:15 pm
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In addition to what Noah said, an ancestor of the application-specific "pickup" was the broadcast MICROPHONE. It could pickup a whole room full of stringed instruments, to be transmitted over the broadcast airwaves.. thence to early radio sets in local towns/cities. Refinement and "downsizing" of mics to fit individual types of play took a bit longer for success. Materials (like heavy magnetic metals) were the toughest hurdles.. but eventually.. with so many folks experimenting, both here and abroad, the right combination was bound, and found, to bear up to Patent Attorney "crucibles".
Oh, and let's not forget the Military's appetite for transmitting information. "Now-Hear-This!" |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 23 Oct 2018 1:14 am
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Radio didn't exist in 1890, of course. One person surmised that the effect was closer to what happens in an e-bow where a magnetic drive field drives the string producing a sound like a bow on a violin or cello. But whatever this thing did, Breed deserves more credit, I think, for having this idea and trying too make it happen.
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com
Last edited by Andy Volk on 23 Oct 2018 11:03 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Jon Zimmerman
From:
California, USA
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Posted 23 Oct 2018 10:41 am
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Andy and Fobro's: A Wiki inquiry of a Canadian inventor name of Reginald Fessenden (why does THAT name seem familiar?) will inform what he managed to do on 23 Dec 1900. Developments, inventions, theory of electro magnetism was an ongoing enterprize all over the map. See also G. Marconi, Lee de Forest,, et al. We still make use of their OCD's to this day.
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