George Beauchamp

George Delmetia Beauchamp ( born March 18, 1899 at the Coleman County, Texas, † March 30, 1941 in Los Angeles, English pronunciation of the surname: " Beechum " ) was an American musician, music instrument maker and inventor and co-founder of the musical-instrument company National stringed Instrument Corporation and Rickenbacker. Beauchamp was one of the pioneers in the development of electric amplification of plucked instruments, particularly in the development of the electric guitar.

Life and work

In the 1920s, Beauchamp experimented with the gain of the acoustic volume of plucked and bowed string instruments. One of experiments was to be mounted on the body of a violin a forward bell. In addition, he was ( which later became the guitar company founded Dobro ) involved with the brothers Dopyera in the development of the resonator guitar. In 1929, Beauchamp received a U.S. patent for the design principle of a resonator guitar with only one instead of three horn ( english: single -cone ).

Already in 1925, Beauchamp had initially started in the company as National Self-taught with experiments for electrical amplification of the vibrations of the strings. After leaving the company, he continued his research in private and took evening courses in electrical engineering. After many unsuccessful attempts Beauchamp invented in 1931 the first mass-produced electromagnetic pickup for guitars. This consisted of a coil of copper wire around six pole pieces and two upright side facing horseshoe magnet, between which ran the steel strings of a lap steel guitar. Called for the pickup, due to its construction form Horseshoe Pickup ( "horseshoe pickup " ), Beauchamp requested in June 1934, a U.S. patent, which was granted to him on 10 August 1937. Also in 1931, Beauchamp had with his colleague Adolph Rickenbacher founded the company Ro - Pat- In, which was shortly afterwards renamed Electro String. The company marketed the jointly developed with Rickenbacker, and the guitar maker Paul Barth first electrically amplifiable Hawaiian guitar, wearing Beauchamps pickups - the guitar model that was later known as Rickenbacker Frying Pan.

George Beauchamp died on 30 March 1941 at the age of 42 years when sea fishing from a heart attack.