[Dixielandjazz] Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 56, Issue 2

[Don Kirkman]

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 18:19:23 -0500, Larry Walton Entertainment - St.
Louis wrote:


>Wasn't the electric pickup invented by Les Paul sometime in the late 30's or 
>early 40's.  I didn't think that they were even available until after the 
>war sometime.  I suppose they could have miked them before that but I didn't 
>think it was possible to own an electric guitar before the war.

>Maybe someone else has a slant on the early electric guitars.  The first 
>electric I ever heard was a steel guitar about 1950.  I was only 10 or 11 
>then.

One of the few I've heard live was before I graduated from high school
in 1946, so it was probably 1944 or 1945.  I've always remembered it as
a Wayne King band one night stand in California's San Joaquin Valley,
which was pretty rural in those days.  I may be misremembering which
band it was, though; we were getting two or three a year coming through
back then.  I assume it was a steel guitar, since it was laid out
horizontally in front of the guitarist.
-- 
Don Kirkman