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The Violin is Dead
Long Live the Violin
ELECTRIC VIOLIN MAKERS OF THE PAST
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The following list gives links to the earliest makers of electric violins known (to the author) between the years 1928 and 1960.
They are set out alphabetically as exact dates for production of these electric violins are not known. The period detailed here starts from the earliest known reference in a published work to an instrument now generally deemed as being an electric violin. These are instruments that are now extremely scarce, in some cases their whereabouts unknown. The end date is the point from which the term electric violin first appears as a title for a patented invention, from here it appears to have become more generally accepted. Some references have been deliberately left out in this instance as no trace of an instrument, name or other detail is known. Finally, for consistency and hopefully clarity, examples of makers of electric instruments that are not known to have made violins and examples of devices used to electrify any violin, ie pickups, have been left to a future study.
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On 29 October 1965, the People section of Time Magazine quoted Classical Guitarist Andre Segovia, "Who ever has heard of an electric violin?".
The context is scathing - Segovia quoted describing the electric guitar as an "abomination" and The Beatles music as "horrible". On November 12, Kenneth W. Beckman President Invention, Inc. Washington, D.C. had a reply letter published by Time pointing out that there were "at least nine patents on electric violins". Naturally there were those who missed or skimmed, unmoved over this point completely. Beckman could have referenced at least eleven electric violin Patents, or at least sixteen taking into consideration the other electric musical instrument inventions applied to the violin up to then. In fact, he could have cited over a dozen more if he included inventions used to electrically pick up the sound of the violin.
The individuals that made Beckman's reply possible are the past makers of the first musical instruments that can conceivably be called electric violins. Since that exchange of words in Time, there have been as many inventions again at least for electric violins, and countless more for their associated technology. However, sparking real sustained and serious interest in electric violins in the Classical profession appears to have taken many more decades. Thankfully, the subject is becoming less of a surprising or novel/proposterous idea/thing to encounter and looks set to continue much in the same direction.
The market for electric violins is much stronger than it ever has been. These instruments are now manufactured on a scale never before achieved by the makers of the past. Electric violins have appeared in many, if not all major genres of music and an ever increasing number of people are to be found playing them. These things are indisputable and point to an unignorable fact. It seems that Violinists can not do without some kind of electric or electrified violin or device for their very real living and therefore survival.
The infamously fierce and physical altercations wrought about when Bob Dylan dared to switch his acoustic guitar for electric during tours in the Sixties are nothing compared with the sheer determination with which some in the past held on to the superiority of one violin over another. Many publications on Violin describe a "perfect" instrument; the "King of the orchestra", and something that can not be improved upon. In terms of there being anything like any information on Classical electric violinists or luthiers, it is worth wondering whether progress in the Violin Family has been actively blocked? This thought can be sustained as there is a wealth of publicised documentation surrounding the furore surrounding the rapid spread in popularity of, for example electric guitars but virtually nothing on the history and development of the electric violin. Even less on technique. And just about nothing in terms of teaching it. Conversely, it may be equally true that owing to this instrument emerging so gradually over a whole century, the scant information available on the subject meant that for quite a long time many did not even notice the electric violin had even arrived. This aspect of the evolution of a musical instrument is not uncommon. Sadly though, to some today it is still an instrument that is not acceptably associable to Classical music. In the light of the wealth of information discovered over the past two decades however, such an opinion has obviously been been formed from just a mere glance at the surface of this fascinatingly broad and exciting subject; and, more likely held without conscious knowledge of the gaping hole in their own understanding of Violin. Tragically for them, "it" (the hole) is the most important bit!
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