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Gibson’s First Electric Guitars
In 1935 Gibson launched their new electric instrument the ES150, it was their first “Electric Spanish” guitar. The need for more volume had prompted some guitarists to even take up playing the banjo, especially as it was more effective in cutting through a loud band in the studio. Consequently despite the overwhelming popularity in the USA of high-action “lap steel” guitars quite a few makers started to test-market the avant-garde electric-acoustic guitar. Between 1919 and 1924 acoustic engineer Lloyd Loar, worked for Gibson and he experimented, through the use of various prototype pick-ups, which were designed to amplify the acoustic guitar sound. He unfortunately left Gibson to start his own Vivi-Tone company and his concept had dissolved until the 1930s. At that time the Rowe-DeArmond company began making the first magnetic pick-up, which was made commercially available. It was designed simply to clip onto a flattop acoustic guitar’s soundhole with its purpose being to amplify its natural sound. Gibson’s ES150, Electric Spanish” model indispensable element was an f-hole, arch-top guitar fitted with an unusually large pick-up. Set beneath the strings, was a single-fin pole-piece making contact with two solid magnets, which were encompassed within the guitar body. It was the fin and not the magnets that passed through the coil. The 1937 ES150 was inspired by Gibson’s inexpensive L50 acoustic. The bar pick-up was substituted around 1940, for a more standard looking unit with a rectangular shape. During the 1940s there were other Gibson ES models that followed - the single pick-up ES125, the twin pick-up ES300 and the ES350. The ES300 early Gibson electric guitar, dating from around 1941 featured a diagonally slanted pick-up, which was designed to emphasize the unit’s sensitivity to treble tones. Fender’s early solid electric guitars had popularized this feature almost ten years later. The ES300 was the first Gibson to also bear the distinguishing “crown” inlay, on the headstock, which became a classic brand characteristic feature. The ES300 was short lived however, after 1945 other versions with traditional pick-ups were introduced and the model remained in existence until 1952. |
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