Vivi-Tone Acoustic-Electric Guitar, c. 1934
overall1 (neck): 45 in. (114.3 cm)
overall2 (overall): 99 1/8 × 62 11/16 × 14 11/16 in. (251.715 × 159.258 × 37.338 cm)
overall3 (overall): 99 × 33 in. (251.461 × 83.82 cm)
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.
