Rickenbacker Electro Spanish Solid Body Electric Guitar (1935)
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Item #3336
Rickenbacker Electro Spanish Model Solid Body Electric Guitar, c. 1935, made in Los Angeles, California, black bakelite body and neck, original black hard shell case.
This is one of the most historically interesting American guitars ever built, the first commercially important electric Spanish guitar. Introduced in 1935 at the same time as the famed Bakelite Electro Hawaiian Guitar, the Electro Spanish Guitar was not nearly as successful and only in limited production for a few years. Rickenbacker offered several wooden-bodied Spanish electrics during the same era but this is their most radical, earliest, and purest attempt at a fully electric Spanish guitar, issued before there was a market for such an instrument.
It was followed several years later by the even more radical Vibrola Spanish, essentially the same guitar with an internal motorized vibrato device. "Doc" Kauffman was the inventor of this system, and interestingly the Fender Broadcaster designed a few years after Kauffman's partnership with Fender carries on several features of the Electro-Spanish guitar, including the bolt-on neck (considered an easily replaceable part), the through-body stringing, and the bridge-mounted steel-guitar position pickup. The Electro-Spanish can be seen as the progenitor of the California family of solid-body guitars to come.
This particular guitar is the earliest variation, with the single octagonal volume knob and output jack on the bass side. The molded black Bakelite body has five cavities covered by decorative chrome plates and an aluminum bridge. The strings run through the body and emerge from a molded block just behind the bridge.
The horseshoe magnet pickup wraps over the strings and has the famed pre-war 1-1/2" wide magnets, and the mounting bracket is marked "PatPend" on the treble side. Patent number 1881229 is molded in raised letters on the body below the bridge. The round detachable neck joins the body at the 14th fret, has 23 integral molded fret ridges and an integral nut, and is bolted in by two large screws. Tuners are original chrome-plated strip Grovers with metal buttons. The metal nameplate screwed to the headstock is stamped with the old-style spelling "Rickenbacher Electro, Los Angeles".
The Electro-Spanish is considerably rarer than the more familiar Hawaiian variation, which uses some of the same components but a different body and neck. Few players today have ever even handled one. While some of the design features now seem awkward (especially the molded Bakelite frets and the short steel-guitar like scale length), the astounding thing about this little guitar is how good it sounds. The heavy Bakelite body and horseshoe magnet pickup combine to produce an extremely powerful singing tone familiar to steel guitarists who still prize the Bakelite Hawaiian guitar, but virtually unique in a Spanish guitar.
Although today primarily seen as a museum-grade collector's piece, this Electro-Spanish Guitar is also a wonderful musical instrument, albeit an eccentric one. This example includes an extremely rare original rectangular case.
Overall length is 32 1/2 in. (82.6 cm.), 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 22 1/2 in. (572 mm.). Width of nut is 1 3/4 in. (44 mm.). Overall Excellent Condition.
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This is one of the most historically interesting American guitars ever built, the first commercially important electric Spanish guitar. Introduced in 1935 at the same time as the famed Bakelite Electro Hawaiian Guitar, the Electro Spanish Guitar was not nearly as successful and only in limited production for a few years. Rickenbacker offered several wooden-bodied Spanish electrics during the same era but this is their most radical, earliest, and purest attempt at a fully electric Spanish guitar, issued before there was a market for such an instrument.
It was followed several years later by the even more radical Vibrola Spanish, essentially the same guitar with an internal motorized vibrato device. "Doc" Kauffman was the inventor of this system, and interestingly the Fender Broadcaster designed a few years after Kauffman's partnership with Fender carries on several features of the Electro-Spanish guitar, including the bolt-on neck (considered an easily replaceable part), the through-body stringing, and the bridge-mounted steel-guitar position pickup. The Electro-Spanish can be seen as the progenitor of the California family of solid-body guitars to come.
This particular guitar is the earliest variation, with the single octagonal volume knob and output jack on the bass side. The molded black Bakelite body has five cavities covered by decorative chrome plates and an aluminum bridge. The strings run through the body and emerge from a molded block just behind the bridge.
The horseshoe magnet pickup wraps over the strings and has the famed pre-war 1-1/2" wide magnets, and the mounting bracket is marked "PatPend" on the treble side. Patent number 1881229 is molded in raised letters on the body below the bridge. The round detachable neck joins the body at the 14th fret, has 23 integral molded fret ridges and an integral nut, and is bolted in by two large screws. Tuners are original chrome-plated strip Grovers with metal buttons. The metal nameplate screwed to the headstock is stamped with the old-style spelling "Rickenbacher Electro, Los Angeles".
The Electro-Spanish is considerably rarer than the more familiar Hawaiian variation, which uses some of the same components but a different body and neck. Few players today have ever even handled one. While some of the design features now seem awkward (especially the molded Bakelite frets and the short steel-guitar like scale length), the astounding thing about this little guitar is how good it sounds. The heavy Bakelite body and horseshoe magnet pickup combine to produce an extremely powerful singing tone familiar to steel guitarists who still prize the Bakelite Hawaiian guitar, but virtually unique in a Spanish guitar.
Although today primarily seen as a museum-grade collector's piece, this Electro-Spanish Guitar is also a wonderful musical instrument, albeit an eccentric one. This example includes an extremely rare original rectangular case.
Overall length is 32 1/2 in. (82.6 cm.), 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 22 1/2 in. (572 mm.). Width of nut is 1 3/4 in. (44 mm.). Overall Excellent Condition.