I love books like this. Dave Hunter has a new book out, The Guitar Pick-Up Handbook, about one of the most important parts of our electric guitars. From Gibson.com, which today posted a lengthy excerpt:

As the electric movement began to show some legs, established guitar manufacturers — those who naturally approached the challenge from the perspective of the traditional, wood-bodied, acoustic instrument — pursued their own means of entering the race. The most prominent of these is Gibson, which released a cast-aluminum Electric Hawaiian lap-steel guitar in 1935, the E-150 (later EH-150, a model number it shared with its accompanying amplifier). The following year, the company debuted its Electric Spanish ES-150, which is widely acknowledged as the first production electric from a major guitar manufacturer.

Around the same time, however, the lesser-known Epiphone company introduced its own Electraphone (later Electar) range of non-cutaway archtop Spanish and lap-style Hawaiian electric guitars, which were fitted with horseshoe pickups acquired from Electro String [aka Rickenbacker]. By 1939, both Gretsch and Epiphone were marketing electric guitars with their own pickups, although the former’s Electromatic Spanish model was actually manufactured by Kay (formerly Stromberg-Voisinet) in Chicago. The pickups on Zephyr, Coronet and Century models from Epiphone were large, oval-shaped units, which later in the year were adapted to take adjustable pole pieces, making them the first such pickups available. Despite the innovation, Gibson was by this time clearly pulling ahead in the game; already recognized as the preeminent manufacturer of archtop guitars, its electrics were fast becoming the professional’s choice for amped-up requirements, too.

Hehe, “pickup” is one of those words that don’t make sense when you say it too many times…