Vivi-Tone Acoustic-Electric Guitar, c. 1934

This circa 1934 Vivi-Tone hybrid electric-acoustic guitar features a spruce wood body, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, and was designed by innovative luthier Lloyd Loar. Originally a top designer and quality-control supervisor at Gibson, Loar left the company in 1924 when Gibson would not embrace his experimental, and often groundbreaking, ideas.  

Loar designed this Spanish-style guitar to be used either as an electric or acoustic instrument. For playing electric, the strings’ vibrations were transmitted by a metal bar that extended into the pickup’s magnetic field. He also set the pickup in a sliding drawer on the guitar for easy access and repair. To help amplify the guitar when played acoustic, Loar carved f-shaped sound holes in the guitar's back (as opposed to the front where they are typically placed), which was recessed inwards to help promote a bigger sound resonance.  

Loar's radical design ideas with Vivi-Tone guitars unfortunately had little commercial success, and by 1935 he had moved on to develop electric keyboards.