Audiovox 7-String Model Lap Steel Electric Guitar – Circa mid '30s

Who developed the 1st electric guitar pickups?

Audiovox 7-String Model Lap Steel Electric Guitar – Circa mid '30s

Made in Seattle, WA.  

Black Walnut body and neck. Large horseshoe magnet twin coil pickup. Likely the first humbucker, decades ahead of Seth Lover's better known PAF's that Gibson introduced in 1955.

Apparently a lesser known story in the history of electric guitars, the Audiovox brand has emerged from obscurity as the legacy of one of the earliest pioneers of musical amplification, Paul Tutmarc. While not as well-known as the contemporary early Rickenbacher Electro, Vivi-Tone or National/Dobro electrics, Tutmarc’s pickup design was likely the first. Indeed, it was used in the first patent granted for pickups. (See history below for details.) AudioVox instruments were in production at the same time and in some ways were more futuristic. Evidence shows that Tutmarc was the first to create a guitar-style electric bass, many years before the previously accredited Leo Fender. This early Audiovox steel was designed by Tutmarc in the mid-1930's and is a wonderful piece of electric guitar history. Tutmarc was a Seattle player and teacher of the Hawaiian guitar who was interested in the concept of amplifying his instrument around 1930. Partnering with Art Stimpson, they designed a working magnetic guitar pickup. With the help of local radio expert Bob Wisner, an accompanying amplifier was also created. Tutmarc soon began hand-building solidbody steel guitars using his pickup, but Stimpson favored selling the idea to an established company. Without consulting his partner Stimpson took the design to Dobro in Los Angeles, where it was patented as part of a proprietary guitar and became the basis for the first National and Dobro electric instruments. Tutmarc was likely displeased by this development, but continued to refine and market his own electric instruments, albeit only on a small local scale. This is an early production Audiovox 7-string Steel guitar, built with an advanced-looking sculptured body that superseded the octagonal shape of the earliest models. The earliest electric bass used this same body style. According to Tutmarc's son Bud, the woodworking and finishing on these first production steels was done by another Seattle resident, Emerald Baumsgard. Tutmarc himself fitted the electronics.

The body has a celluloid bound neck and edges with dot fret markers. The bridge and nut are metal, as is the coverplate on the face. There’s a single volume pot on the treble side. This is a very fine sounding steel guitar and an extremely rare and important instrument in the early development of the electric guitar. Overall length is 31” (78.7 cm.), 8 11/16” (22.1 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 5/8” (4.1 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 22 ½” (572 mm.). String width at nut is 2” (56 mm.) and 2 5/8” (67 mm) at the bridge. This one’s been thoroughly gone through, refinished & refurbished. New screw-on Amphenol connector. Comes with a new gig bag.

History: In the winter of 1930-1931 Paul Tutmarc began experimenting in his basement workshop with a fellow tinkerer on a secret project. Tutmarc's collaborator was Arthur "Art" J. Stimson, a jack-of-all-trades from Spokane, Washington, who'd worked as an auto mechanic and an aerial photographer. Together the two -- each inspired by the telephone's mechanism -- created a large mutant version of Ma Bell's dinky transducer. They attached an iron blade with copper wire coiled around it to a large horseshoe shaped magnet. When placed inside Tutmarc's flat-top Spanish-style guitar and plugged into a converted radio, the magnetic device picked-up the instrument's sound, amplified it, and surprised the partners with the beautiful tone it brought forth.

The partners soon realized the importance of their discovery, but they differed on the next step to take. Stimson wanted to sell or license the "pickup" to some big company, while Tutmarc thought it best to quietly seek protective registration for its design with the federal Office of Patents. Unfortunately after investing $300 with attorneys who initiated a patent search with the government, Tutmarc was ultimately advised that their pickup design was non-patentable because the telephone companies had already patented similar devices.

A disappointed Tutmarc put his electric guitar dreams on hold, while Stimson, apparently, headed off to Los Angeles where he said he was going to try to interest others in the idea.

One can imagine the shock then when Tutmarc -- a music teacher, shopkeeper, and dealer of instruments -- eventually took notice after a Los Angeles-based firm began selling their "Electro String Instruments" in August 1932. That company (eventually known as Rickenbacker International Corp.) was headed by a skilled engineer, Adolph Rickenbacher, whose machine shop had been fabricating metal parts for two of the town's successful guitar-making firms, the National String Instrument Corp. and the related Dobro Manufacturing Co. since about 1928.

Then, in the spring of 1933, the Dobro firm began marketing their All-Electric model of electrified Spanish-style guitar and Tutmarc must have wondered how these companies could be pushing products without patent protections. Little did he know that Dobro had actually filed (on April 7th, 1933) a patent application form -- not for the pickup alone, but in conjunction with the overall guitar design. What Tutmarc learned, in time, was that Dobro's patent application actually listed one "Art Stimson" as the assignor. Worse yet: Tutmarc's erstwhile partner had apparently peddled their pickup design to Dobro for the measly sum of $600.

The Audiovox Manufacturing Co.

Casting caution aside, Tutmarc finally forged ahead marketing his own brand of electric guitars. Though a bit late to the race now, Tutmarc became ever more determined to create a superior electric guitar and, through more experimentation, vastly improved his old design, effectively creating the world's first slanted split-polepiece magnetic "humbucking" pickup -- a design that Dobro, National, and other firms soon began emulating.

In 1934 Tutmarc relocated his shop to the Western Laboratories Building (806 Pine Street) -- conveniently located above the Birkel Electrical Supply Co., and just down the block from the grand Paramount Theater -- and soon formalized his guitar building enterprise as the Audiovox Manufacturing Company. Over time the Audiovox line of electric lap steel guitars earned a reputation amongst players for having powerful-yet-clean pickup sounds and Tutmarc established friendships with some of the era's top steel guitarists including: Sol "The King of the Hawaiian Guitar" Ho'opi'i, Dick Kaihue McIntire, and Frankie McPhalen.

Tutmarc himself was Audiovox's best promoter, and in addition to selling instruments to his students and working musicians, he consigned them to a few other regional music shops, and captivated listeners with daily "Free Concert Demonstrations" at his shop and at other downtown stores including the Sears, Roebuck & Co. department store and Myers Music store, and on his weekly KOMO radio show.

• In February 1935, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer discovered Tutmarc and ran a photograph showing him with his latest invention -- an electrified, cello-sized, solid-bodied bass instrument -- and noted that "People have always pitied the poor bass-fiddler ... who has to lug his big bull-fiddle home through the dark streets after the theatre closes. But he doesn't have to do it any more. Because Paul Tutmarc, Seattle music teacher and KOMO radio artist, has invented an electric bull-fiddle. One you can carry under your arm ... . The first electric bass-viol is only four feet tall, instead of six. It could be made a lot smaller, but Tutmarc didn't want to be too revolutionary right off the bat. Bass violinists are a conservative race, and have to be accustomed gradually to the idea, he says." - HistoryLink.org Essay 7479

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