PRS should make a Tribute to OW Appleton

[SonicBlue]

If PRS contacted the family of OW Appleton and offered to collab on an "App Guitar" Inspired run of PRS single cuts, I would absolutely buy one. The man was a legend who has received almost no credit for his innovations.

The App guitar inspired the Les Paul and the App2 had an aluminum neck 20 years before Travis Bean or Gary Kramer did it in the 70's.

A PRS Singlecut inspired by either of these would be amazing.

O. W. Appleton Home Page

OW Appleton, designer of the solid body electric guitar.

owappleton.com

Original App Guitar, which clearly inspired the first Gibson Les Paul

App2 Guitar - An Aluminum neck 20 years before Travis Bean or Gary Kramer did it.

The APP 2 Guitar

OW Appleton, designer of the solid body electric guitar.

owappleton.com

 

[dogrocketp]

When were these two made/sold?

 

[SonicBlue]

When were these two made/sold?

Original App guitar in 1941.
App2 in mid-50's.

 

[László]

There's an interesting thing about the 'who invented something first' issue - sometimes there are folks who come to these discoveries independently.

I'm reminded of Sir Frank Whittle, who invented the practical jet engine in the 1930s in the UK. His German counterpart, Hans von Ohain had invented the first jet engine that was actually flown a short while later.

The two men met in the 1960s when both lived in the US, and came to the stunning realization that each had come to their discoveries independently of the other. In fact, they became good friends.

It is also true that the actual invention of the turbojet came in 1921, but the design wasn't feasible.

People reach conclusions about this stuff, sometimes correctly, sometimes not.

One thing I learned by reading too much history is that historians rarely concede that someone, for example, could have invented the chariot in the Steppes, and another could have invented it in the Hittite Empire independently, at around the same time. Instead we read, "The chariot was probably invented in the steppes where it spread to the Hittites (or whomever)."

Humans are pretty ingenious. Sometimes they work independently and reach the same results.

It becomes dictum that civilization began in Mesopotamia until we read that it was actually in the Indus Valley in India, and then someone finds a place in Turkey that actually began 3,000 years earlier.

Did one lead to the other, or were they independent? Beats me.

The headstock and truss rod cover are shaped an awful lot like Charlie Christian's 1940 Gibson; the pickup looks similar. The tailpiece is pretty generic for the era. But if the dude was the first to use a solid body, Kudos!

 

[aphantomvaper]

There's an interesting thing about the 'who invented something first' issue - sometimes there are folks who come to these discoveries independently.

I'm reminded of Sir Frank Whittle, who invented the practical jet engine in the 1930s in the UK. His German counterpart, Hans von Ohain had invented the first jet engine that was actually flown a short while later.

The two men met in the 1960s when both lived in the US, and came to the stunning realization that each had come to their discoveries independently of the other. In fact, they became good friends.

It is also true that the actual invention of the turbojet came in 1921, but the design wasn't feasible.

People reach conclusions about this stuff, sometimes correctly, sometimes not.

One thing I learned by reading too much history is that historians rarely concede that someone, for example, could have invented the chariot in the Steppes, and another could have invented it in the Hittite Empire independently, at around the same time. Instead we read, "The chariot was probably invented in the steppes where it spread to the Hittites (or whomever)."

Humans are pretty ingenious. Sometimes they work independently and reach the same results.

It becomes dictum that civilization began in Mesopotamia until we read that it was actually in the Indus Valley in India, and then someone finds a place in Turkey that actually began 3,000 years earlier.

Did one lead to the other, or were they independent? Beats me.

The headstock and truss rod cover are shaped an awful lot like Charlie Christian's 1940 Gibson; the pickup looks similar. The tailpiece is pretty generic for the era. But if the dude was the first to use a solid body, Kudos!

It was a Gibson neck he got from the Gibson factory. The body was the innovative part. That's prob the reason for similarity.

That is a good write up, Laz!!