NMM 13574.  Hollow body electric guitar by Vivi-Tone Company, Detroit, Michigan, ca. 1936-1939.
Serial number 623. Tony and Bonnie Vinatieri Acquisitions Fund, 2008.

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In 1936, Lloyd Loar ceased to work for the Vivi-Tone Company and began a consulting relationship with Holton, for whom he began development of the Electronic Harpsichord in that year. Vivi-Tone continued operations, but moved from Kalamazoo to Detroit. During that same year, they advertised a new Acousti-Lectric bridge, much simpler in design and construction than the company's previous, built-in pickups. The unit could also be purchased separately to electrify a customer's existing acoustic instrument. While the company implied in its advertising that the bridge was patented, the claim was false, and presumably the patent application was abandoned or never submitted. This Vivi-Tone guitar is one of the latest numbered instruments currently known, a "Hi Fret Guitar" of the type developed during Loar's tenure at the company.

Inscriptions:  Printed on paper label, the instrument and serial number written in pencil: VIVI-TONE Guitar / No. 623 / Manufactured under one or more of / the following patents: / 1,992,317 2,025,875 / 1,995,316 2,046,331 / 1,995,317 2,046,332 / 2,020,842 2,046,333 / 2,020,557 / Manufactured By / THE VIVI TONE COMPANY / 6321 Gratiot Detroit, Mich. Spray painted in black ink on head, the word "Tone" vertically aligned: VIVI- / TONE Stamp on tuner plates: GROVER Stamp on end of tailpiece: GROVER / PAT.APPL’D FOR [sic]

Soundboard:  two-piece spruce: medium grain.

Back: two-piece spruce: medium grain broadening toward the flanks; slightly arched; two f-holes; recessed 11 mm from edge of ribs.

Ribs: 6-ply maple plywood with fibrous veneer on inside and outside.

Bridge: maple with mahogany veneer on each face, hollowed to contain coils and magnet, the vibrations transferred to pickup through nickel-plated brass, height-adjustable saddle.

Tailpiece: nickel-plated, trapeze style, the string holder with ridged surface, screwed to lower rib with three nickel-plated steel, dome-headed screws.

Endpin: white plastic; extends through tailpiece.

Soundholes: two holes on top; two f-holes on back.

Pick guard: imitation tortoise-shell plastic raised on wood brace affixed to top with two steel, dome-headed screws.

Lacquer: dark orange-brown sunburst.

Head: mahogany with mahogany center stripe, veneered with white celluloid on front face; integral with neck.

Pegs: six nickel-plated steel, worm-gear machine tuners by Grover with convex head surfaces and decoratively cut plate outline.

Neck: mahogany with mahogany center stripe; integral with head.

Fingerboard: suspended over top; ebony bound in white celluloid; 20 nickel-silver high frets; single abalone dots behind 5th, 7th, 9th, and 15th frets; double mother-of-pearl dots behind 12th fret.

Nut: ebony.

Heel cap: white celluloid.

Binding: white celluloid.

Pick-up Connection at Bridge

Pickup: Strings rest on saddle, through which the vibrations are transferred to a bar-armature. The bar armature is mounted so that it is suspended slightly above two rods extending from the ends of a strong bar magnet, probably ALNICO. Each pole piece is enclosed in a coil.

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