Electric Guitar in 1890!

[Alan Taylor]

http://bibliolore.org/2011/12/11/george-breeds-electrified-guitar/

[Didier]

The was no electronic amplifiction yet at this times, so I guess that this system only brought sustain.

Didier

[ecca]

Interesting.
Where did the electrical drive come from ?

[jimuc]

Interesting.
Where did the electrical drive come from ?

An electric eel ?? or for Shads stuff a Stingray

[JimN]

The description is interesting.

Strictly, what we usually call "electric guitar" is misnamed. The correct term would be "electronic guitar".

The Victorian invention really does merit the term "electric", in the same way as "electric motor" or "electric light".

[JetBlack]

Very interesting concept. A man way ahead of his time.

I couldn't resist looking at the "related topic" of air guitarists and was amazed to read the following:-

Women air guitarists appropriate and disrupt rock culture’s consensus, undermining and subverting its gendered performance. This gender bending emphasizes women’s critique of rock culture’s masculinist attitude while asserting female power through the nonthreatening manipulation of an imaginary phallic symbol.

I shall pretend I understand what all that drivel means, lol

[ecca]

So... was this an AC electromagnet driving the strings ?
I can't seem to make much sense out of the description.

[RayL]

Strictly, what we usually call "electric guitar" is misnamed. The correct term would be "electronic guitar". The Victorian invention really does merit the term "electric", in the same way as "electric motor" or "electric light".

Hmmm. Discussing definitions is often tricky. An electric motor works by converting electricity into movement. A dynamo works by converting movement into electricity - which is what a standard guitar pickup does. What we call an 'electric guitar' can be as simple as a pickup (a coil around a magnet) under metal strings - no 'electronics' are needed in the guitar itself.

Obviously, electronics are needed to convert the tiny electrical signals from the pickup into electrical signals big enough to drive a loudspeaker, which converts electricity back into movement (to push air around)

So I'm suggesting that an amplifier would certainly be classed as 'electronic', but the guitar would still be 'electric' - it is in the same category as a dynamo.

Ray

[ecca]

Not in 1890 it wasn't.

[ecca]

How ingenious !
in looking at the patent the AC drive to the magnets is made by dragging a platinum point along a rough cut file thus making and breaking a crude circuit.
It must have sparked like buggery !
Here's the patent.... http://www.google.com/patents?id=7ZhdAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Breed+guitar&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#v=onepage&q=Breed%20guitar&f=false