Early Era

Rickenbacker's story begins before the company had that name. In 1931, George Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacher (the tool-and-die manufacturer who provided the financing), and Paul Barth — the same Paul Barth who later designed guitars for Magnatone and employed both Roger Rossmeisl and Semie Moseley at Rickenbacker — co-founded the Ro-Pat-In Corporation in Los Angeles. Their instrument was the Frying Pan: a cast aluminum lap steel with a horseshoe magnet pickup that amplified string vibration electromagnetically. It was the first commercially produced electric guitar.

The company became Electro String Instrument Corporation, then simply Rickenbacker — the Rickenbacher name anglicized over time. Through the 1930s and 1940s it focused on lap steels, Hawaiian-style instruments, and amplifiers, with occasional forays into Spanish electric guitars and multi-neck instruments. These were years of genuine invention but limited commercial scale. By the early 1950s, with lap steel popularity declining, the company was ready for new direction. F.C. Hall's purchase in 1954 and Roger Rossmeisl's arrival the same year produced the guitars the name is now known for.

The pre-1954 instruments — particularly the Frying Pan and the early Electric Spanish models — are among the rarest and most historically significant electric instruments in existence. Most survive in private collections and are virtually unknown outside serious collector circles. The examples documented here are as close to the origin of the electric guitar as a collection can get.