Unusual Guitars

Stonefingers Concert Ministries

Reverend Richard "Stonefingers" Johnson

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Media Kit & Information

Unusual Guitars

The First Electric Guitar: A 1934 Rickenbacher Electro Lap Steel (The "Frying Pan")

This is the instrument Richard performs The Song of the Whale on. Only 2,700 "Frying Pans" were made back in the 1930’s, and only a few survive today in playable condition, but Stonefingers not only owns one, along with the original guitar cord and amplifier, but performs on it when he ministers.

Many have come to Christ over the years because they were curious enough about the guitar to come to the prison chapel or church when Richard was ministering. All they wanted was to see it, and hear this rare and historical instrument, but they received far more than they expected; a new life in Jesus Christ!

Here’s a brief history of the guitar:

Adolph Rickenbacher, the manufacturer of the first electric guitar and the founder of the Electro String Instrument Corporation, was born in Switzerland in 1886. He came to the United States as a child, and moved to Los Angeles in 1928. In the late 20's, the Rickenbacher Manufacturing Company began to make the metal bodies for National Steel Guitars. Through National, Rickenbacher met George Beauchamp and Paul Barth.

In 1931, Beauchamp, Barth, and Rickenbacher started the Ro-Pat-In Company, and in the following year began making the first cast aluminum versions of the lap steel guitar. The company became the Electro String Instrument Corporation in 1934. Richard’s lap steel (the model A-22) was manufactured in 1934. Between 1932 and 1939, @ 2,700 “Frying Pan” Lap Steels were made.

Stonefingers found his lap steel at a guitar store in Newburyport, Massachusetts back in the mid 1970’s. He paid $125.00 for it, discovering later that that was what they actually sold for in the 1930’s. After conversations with people at the Rickenbacker Guitar Company and the Smithsonian Institute, he learned that he was the only known private owner of one of these guitars. At that time, he was told that only three of these instruments still survived. Richard turned down a collector's six-figure offer for it shortly after he bought it.

Over the past twenty-five years, hundreds of these “Frying Pans” have turned up, and while they are no longer nearly as valuable as they were when he first found it, he's far from disappointed at the decrease in its value.

The Lord has used this instrument to heal many people, and even to bring hurting people to Christ...so what's a few thousand dollars?

Adolph Rickenbacher with his famous invention.

Late 1920's, Early 1930's National Duolian Steel Guitar...the "Dobro"

Richard's guitar (shown here) has been in the family since his uncle bought it after World War II. Richard got it from his uncle in 1968,and has been playing on it ever since.

When his uncle gave to him, he was told not to "sell it, pawn it, give it away, or let anyone take it away from you, 'cause if you do, I'll find out where you live." Richard's uncle was a big man with a short temper...so "Stonefingers" did what he was told.

Hawaiian guitar music had become popular between World War I and II, but in the days before electronic sound amplification, a way had to be found to make a guitar loud enough to be heard over the rest of the orchestra.

George Beauchamp and John Dopera found a way; they are credited with inventing the first resonator guitar back in the mid nineteen -twenties.

Many resonator guitars had more than one resonator, but guitars like Richard's had only one. This gave the instrument a rawer, but much louder sound. If you wanted to make some noise, a single-resonator National was your guitar of choice.

The resonator looks like an upside-down aluminum pie plate, but with a sloping, rather than a flat bottom. A round maple "biscuit" attached to the middle of the resonator served as a bridge for the guitar strings. When the guitar was played, the vibration of the resonator made a sound which the body of the guitar (metal, in the case of Richard's instrument) then amplified, thus producing the unique sound of the National Steel.

The National Guitar company was founded to manufacture and sell the new resonator guitars; the one Richard owns is one of the early ones, manufactured sometime between 1927 and 1935. In those days, his guitar sold for $35.00; today, it is worth thousands of dollars.

Even though the National Steel guitar was intended for hawaiian and jazz musicians, blues musicians quickly picked up on it. Nationals were louder than any other guitar on the market, and were perfect for playing in the noisy and rowdy juke joints of the day. It was probably the only guitar that could be heard over the clamor.

Blues musicians especially tended to favor metal bodied Nationals over wooden ones; the metal deflected bullets, and made the guitar heavy enough to be used as a weapon (without damaging the instrument) if a bar room brawl broke out.

Richard had some experience with this, back in the days before he met the Lord. He's glad that guns aren't allowed in prison, and that people don't usually bring them to church.

Jesus loves you!

Stonefingers Concert Ministries

PO Box 332, Jeffersonville, IN 47130

502.243.5443

For booking and other information, please e-mail rhjrev at yahoo dot com

Copyright © 2005-2008 Richard H. & Dawn M. Johnson

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