Rickenbacher Electro Frying Pan A-22, c.1934

The Rickenbacher A-22 Electro lap steel guitar, often called a “Frying Pan” due to its shape, was first manufactured in 1932 (this particular instrument was made circa 1934) and was one of the first commercially available electric guitars.  

Designed by George Beauchamp, with assistance from Paul Barth, Adolph Rickenbacher, and their newly formed Ro-Pat-In Corporation, the cast aluminum-bodied Frying Pan was designed for playing Hawaiian style, where the player rests the guitar on the lap and slides a steel bar over the strings. It featured a pickup consisting of a pair of horseshoe-shaped magnets that enclosed a wound wire coil and effectively surrounded the instrument’s strings.  

When this guitar was manufactured in 1934, “Rickenbacher” was added to the headstock logo along with their existing Electro brand name to reflect the influence of the company’s primary partner. The spelling of the name was later Americanized to “Rickenbacker,” which has been used ever since.  

Despite being the first electric guitar on the market, the Frying Pan did not initially sell well. The high price point, depressed economic conditions in the early 1930s, and fear that its accompanying amplifier would fail during a performance made the guitar a challenging sell. In addition, the metal-bodied instrument tended to expand under the heat of stage lights, causing the guitar to go out of tune. Regardless, Rickenbacker would continue to produce the Frying Pan until 1957, with a small break from 1950-54.