Santa Ana, California, a part of the Greater Los Angeles Area

George Beauchamp, Paul Barth, and Adolph Rickenbacker 

Woods, metal strings, ebony, metal
1938
Strings – Lutes – Guitars

1938 Rickenbacker A-22 Frying-Pan Silver Lap Guitar Serial #B 169 with Rickenbacker Electro Amplifier # C 1251. 

The early lap steel guitars made with the Rickenbacher name, which later changed it’s spelling to Rickenbacker, with a “K”, were made from aluminum.  It is known informally as the “fry pan”, due to its shape.  Like the best of all pre-war Rickenbachers, the fry pan has a 1 1/2″ wide “horse-shoe” pickup, which is considered to be one of the best sounding pickups of any made to date.  The earliest examples of the “fry pan” have a volume control only.  A tone control was added later, which is seen here.

Guitarist George Beauchamp  (March 18, 1899 – March 30, 1941)  invented the world’s first commercially viable electric guitar, which – along with its ‘horseshoe’ pickup – sparked a revolution in guitar design and sounds.  Around 1932, George formed the Ro-Pat-In company with his fellow National String Instrument Corporation associate Paul Barth, to take his new invention to market with a focus on electric Spanish guitars and lap steels. George next contracted with toolmaker Adolph Rickenbacker for help with capital, manufacturing, and distribution, who mass produced the Frying Pan as “The Rickenbacker A-22 under the company’ new name “Electro String.”  The firm eventually settled on the more familiar “Rickenbacker” name. 

Since then, Rickenbacker has remained one of the most popular brands of some of the world’s finest electric guitars.

Resource:  Behold the First Electric Guitar: The 1931 “Frying Pan” | Open Culture