Old timers: What's the first amplified electronic musical instrument?

[jmaf]

Dear all, I'm writing a research paper on amplified electronic instruments in Portuguese. We have little material on this in our native language, especially material focused on guitar amplification. In fact we have a lot of guesswork and loose statements all over the place. I'm trying to pinpoint some history to exactly when it happened, with proper citations.

Here's a couple of questions for the old timers:

1) De Forest's audion/triode patent is from 1908. So we can safely assume there were no amplified electronic instruments before that. Correct?

2) IF the above assumption is correct, the earliest amplified instrument would be the Theremin, from 1928. Correct? Or would it be the hawaiian guitar? Or something else?

My quest is to find an electronic musical instrument patented or formally documented between the invention of the audion in 1908 and the Theremin in 1928. So far my research leads me to believe this latter one was the earliest known electronic musical instrument.

There is little formal register of this period, not even Gibson's history is well documented. For example,

3) Is the EH-150 the earliest known tube amplifier for guitar? What is the accepted earliest amplifier for electric guitar? Not withstanding the Rickenbacker frying pan, of course, but hawaiian guitar counts. Would it be some Valco or Supro? I can't find books on history of this period, it seems like that info has been passed on word of mouth? Got a pile of books here but Aspen Pittman only says the Gibson EH-150 is rare. Ken Fischer said "it's a very interesting amp using oddball tubes" and other than that I can't find info on the first ever guitar amplifier.

Any comments very much appreciated and will be respectively cited in my research. Thank you!

[woodyc]

Its an interesting question. Does it count if a guy played a trumpet thru a PA at a political rally? Does it count if a guitar player was miked for a live radio show? I think that kind of stuff must have happened a lot before the idea of a lap steel pickup surfaced.

[jmaf]

Its an interesting question. Does it count if a guy played a trumpet thru a PA at a political rally? Does it count if a guitar player was miked for a live radio show? I think that kind of stuff must have happened a lot before the idea of a lap steel pickup surfaced.

Those are interesting points which I guess require some further clarification of my question: I'm trying to focus on instruments which depend on amplification for any kind of performance, such as the Theremin or Electric Guitar.

In other words, instruments for which the amplifier is a part of the instrument.

Leo Fender worked in political rally PA before guitar amplification, but who was making guitar amplifiers or electric amplified instruments before that? We know Valco, Supro, Gibson and a couple of others(who sometimes bought from Valco and relabeled, correct?).

The Theremin is 100% electrical, the solid guitar is only very slightly acoustical or not at all, these are the kind of instruments and I'm looking for their earliest amplifiers(pre 1928 specifically).

[woodyc]

About guitar pickups specifically...

There were lots of patents for the basic ideas of microphones and pickups, but I think one of the first which was particular to a musical instrument was George Beauchamp (#2089171) which he applied for in 1934. He had been trying to get more volume out of guitars for at least a decade, and was involved in the development of the dobro.

In Lorene Ruymar's "The Hawaiian Steel Guitar" (which is a great resource) there are several interesting prior claims. One is that Lloyd Loar of Gibson was first with prototype electric instruments in 1924 or earlier. (I also saw this mentioned by Steven Errede in "Electronic Transducers for Musical Instruments, AES talk UIUC, Nov 29, 2005, and he had a picture of one of the instruments.) Another is that there was a commercial electric guitar in 1928 built by Hank Kuhrmeyer of Stromberg but it supposedly didn't work very well. Another is that Paul Tutmarc and Bob Wisner of Seattle independently developed a lap steel with a pickup around 1931.

[R.G.]

Don't know exactly what was first, but you should look into the history of electronic organs.

[eschertron]

google telharmonium. I'm not sure when it was invented (sometime around when Edison was playing with his version of the telephone), but it's an interesting sidenote to our electro-musical history, worth looking at regardless.

d'oh! RG posting just as I was writing this. Yes, it is the precursor to (or contemporary of?) Hammond's work.

[jmaf]

Thank you for the sources, woodyc, great tracks to follow there, will go after them all. I'm familiar with the Beauchamp patent, but had not had a look at Ruymar's book.

Professor RG, thank you. I've been researching the history of organs but it seems to me so far that most of them were not amplified. The Hammonds appear at around the same time as Beauchamp/Rickenbacker's frying pans(correct?) - AKA 6 or 7 years after the Theremin.

Hi eschertron, thank you for the feedback. The telharmonium was not amplified as far as I know, that juggernaut pumped the grannyphones directly from the output of each tone wheel's coil. This fact does not take anything away from it, it's indeed a marvel.

What I have so far:
- Oldest guitar amp known Gibson EH-150 (~ 1934 ?)
- Oldest amplified electronic musical instrument: Theremin (~ 1928)
- First amplified circuit: Lee De Forest US879532 from 1908

Anyone have anything older than these ?

[jmaf]

PS. By "Old Timers" I'm not implying any of you offering your precious help are as old as these circuits!

I mean Old Timers in the sense "I've seen too many Twin Reverbs on my bench" not as in "I had a beer with Nikola Tesla"

[Steve Conner]

The Ondes Martenot was also invented in 1928. A fascinating device

The 6L6 was introduced in 1936, and the 6V6 in 1937, making power amplifiers considerably louder and cheaper.