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First electric cigar box guitar ever?

Let me introduce to You Mr. Leopold Fijałkowski from Kielce, POLAND. Ingenious inventor of cosmic items like suspenders shock absorbers, bike on suspension, canned food actually made in bottle without the neck, eternal flytrap made with wire and sticky liquid. In 1906, in Kielce (south-east of Poland) Mr. Leopold engineered the first in Poland cigar box guitar made of wooden box and neck taken off of the Russian 7-string guitar.

Based on information provided by Mr. Leopold’s heirs, the instrument was electric from the beginning. But this is a risky thesis. In 1906 electricity was widely used for lighting but not for the acoustic purposes. The same year, in New York, the first loudspeaker was invented, but it’s unlikely that this technology was known in Kielce, Poland. Probably Radio inspired Mr. Leopold to build his electric instrument few years later.

Due to witnesses and local Kielce’s press, Mr. Leopold performed with his instrument which was described as “organ sound”. Hence we can presume that the instrument had installed sound modulator that is the first electric guitar effect unit ever. Unfortunately even though the instrument is still exists in collection of Kielce’s History Museum, there are no attempts to play the instrument and record the sound. It is because the bridge is missing. I suppose that the bridge was a stick protruding from the pickup gathering the strings vibrations as in an gramophone.

On the picture: complete instrument. Guitar is installed to the stand which also plays to role of the base for the pedal effect unit.

The first electric pickup in Poland up close. I would risk to say: the first in the world.

Control pedal

Mr. Leopold and his gear (1920 - 1930)

Source: www.cigarboxguitar.pl

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Comment by darryl kernaghan on November 13, 2014 at 9:58pm: wondering if the bridge had a ferrous 'exciter' where it entered the pup

Comment by Jim_N on November 13, 2014 at 6:07am: Wow... brilliant

Comment by William Scott on November 13, 2014 at 4:05am: Very cool , probably a bit scary to play

Comment by the anonymous pick on November 13, 2014 at 2:55am: :-D

Comment by the anonymous pick on November 13, 2014 at 2:55am: the longer i look at it the more sense it makes ..

Comment by Miku on November 13, 2014 at 2:45am: And the bridge.... I think the bridge was the stick protruding from the pickup as in and old gramophone

Comment by the anonymous pick on November 13, 2014 at 2:41am: maybe i'm seeing the pedal backwards and assume its a front wedge function .

because the wing nuts wouldnt line up with the base the other way .. and it does seem to have wear on the top rounded over front part hummm..

gonna have to scratch my head more . ;-)

anything that make ya think this hard has to be cool ;-)

Comment by Miku on November 13, 2014 at 2:24am: The base is installed wrong way - I know that. Museum is trying to find more about it but for sure this instrument was in use before the II WW - there are some posters about the concerts

Comment by the anonymous pick on November 13, 2014 at 2:06am: hummm. alot doesn't seem to ad up here . dates and electricity , as you already mentioned , and .

even the photo does not match . ie; the jack position / type , and the guitar body itself .

(altho , given, he could have made a few prototypes )

and the museum piece either has the bottom base installed (wrong ) backwards , or it was made for a south paw that played like Jimmy Hendrix ,yet strung as a right hander.

but the guitar and player in the photo is clearly right handed

also , it looks like pieces are missing , there is no bridge to speak of , and the inputs and any pickup function look as questionable as the excuse " there were no volunteers to play the instrument and record the sound."

a museum built , "prop" based on the limited / fragmented info they could find , would explain most , if not all of these issues .

but .. just my opinion .. it's still cool as hell . and awesome of you to share .