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The "Frying Pan" was the first electric guitar ever produced. The instrument was created in 1931 by George Beauchamp, and subsequently manufactured by Rickenbacker Electro. The Frying Pan is so called because of its shape: it has a flat, circular body, and the neck represents the "handle;" it is also known by its official model number, A-22. It was a lap steel guitar designed to cash in on the popularity of Hawaiian music during the 1930s. It was made of cast aluminum, and featured a pickup incorporating a pair of horseshoe magnets that arched over the strings. Beauchamp and machinist Adolph Rickenbacker began selling the Frying Pan in 1932; however, Beauchamp was not awarded a patent for his idea until 1937, a fact that allowed other guitar companies to produce electric guitars during the same period.

During the 1930s, Hawaiian music was enjoying widespread popularity in the United States. Hawaiian music featured the guitar as the main melodic instrument, and acoustic guitars were simply not capable of producing the volume required. Beauchamp, an enthusiast and maker of Hawaiian music, used a magnetic induction coil similar to that found in a telephone receiver to amplify his steel guitar. After discovering that his system produced copius amounts of unwanted feedback caused by induced sympathetic vibration of the guitar's body, Beauchamp reasoned that acoustic properties were actually undesireable in an electric instrument.

Beauchamp had been involved in the development of the Dobro and was a co-founder of National String Instrument Corporation. Through these businesses, he was acquainted with Rickenbacker, who owned the machine company that manufactured the aluminum resonators and brass bodies for the instruments. With Rickenbacker's help, Beauchamp designed a lap steel guitar with a solid aluminum body and neck. The instruments were produced from 1932 to 1939.

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/electricguitar/ http://www.rickenbacker.com/history_early.asp

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