Guitar News - Travis Bean Guitar Maker Dies at 63


In a Burbank shop in the 1970s, Travis Bean reinvented the electric guitar.

To enhance string vibration, he suggested making the instrument’s neck and headstock out of solid aluminum instead of wood. The resulting guitars, manufactured for only five years, remain prized for their tone and durability.

Among those who have strummed them are Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead — whose Travis Bean guitar was auctioned for $312,000 in 2007 — and many of the Rolling Stones.

Mr. Bean died of cancer July 10 in Burbank, Calif. He was 63.

“He came along when there was not much of anything in terms of fresh ideas when it came to making guitars,” Jim Washburn, a music writer who has curated guitar exhibits, told the Los Angeles Times. “Then he revolutionized things a bit. He made a pretty good mark, for making them for such a short period of time.”
(Courtesy of Travis Bean Guitars) - Travis Bean, who revolutionized the electric guitar, died July 10 of cancer in Burbank, Calif. He was 63.

Guitar Player magazine has compared Mr. Bean to maverick automaker John DeLorean because both “pushed the envelope by doing something radically different with a familiar product.”


Manufactured from 1974 to 1979, Travis Bean guitars were also known for their exotic hardwood bodies and a price tag that could top $1,000.

When company investors called for prices to be lowered, Mr. Bean decided to stop production instead of compromising quality, according to the magazine.


He was born Aug. 21, 1947, in San Fernando and was adopted by Raymond and Betty Bean, who named their only child Clifford Travis Bean. His father worked for Shell Oil.

Mr. Bean was a woodworker with a penchant for redesigning objects when he turned toward the guitar.

Survivors include his wife, Rita; a son, Darren Miller; a daughter, Dawn Norvel; and four grandchildren.

By Valerie J. Nelson, Published: July 18 — Los Angeles Times
Travis Bean, trailblazing electric-guitar maker, dies at 63 - The Washington Post

Comments

Songs - Videos

Those Who Wait3 Angelina2 Beautiful2 Borsalino2 Fields of Gold2 Fingers In Flight2 Lady Madonna2 One Mint Julep2 Sunny Side Up2 The Water is Wide2 Vaseline Machine Gun2 A Morning In Norkia1 A Simple Gift1 AC/DC Medly: Riff Raff - Let There Be Rock1 Airproofing Two1 Alone in my Prison1 Always With Me Always With You1 Amazing Grace1 Arms of Mary1 Beautiful Fields1 Bella Soave1 Blue of Blue1 Brand New Wings1 Busted Bicycle1 Chichi no Shozo1 Collage-a-Reed1 Countrywide1 Crosscurrent1 Dabster1 Dangerous Mood1 Dans Keff Avec1 Day Tripper1 Distorted Love1 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood1 Emerald Groove1 Everyone's A Hero1 Freight Train1 Frühling Sommer Herbs1 Ghost of Blind Willie Johnson1 Guitar Drifting1 Hazel Comes Home1 Hear the Wind Howl1 Home1 I Saw the Light1 I Will1 I'm Home1 In a Constant State of Flux1 Je Te Veux1 June Bug1 Just Us1 Just the Same1 Kiss from a Rose1 Knight of the Wind1 Live Your Life1 Live at Five1 Livin On A Prayer1 Mad World1 Make You Feel My Love1 Mombasa1 Money For Nothing1 Nine Pound Hammer1 Ocean1 Old Fashioned Love Song1 One of Us1 Part Two1 Pet Food1 Pipeline1 Prime1 Rylynn1 Saltwater1 Satori1 Say it ain't so1 Secret Agent Man1 Secret Story1 Since We Met1 Skippy1 Sound Of Silence1 Spring Summer and Fall1 Stevies Blues1 Summertime1 Swingy Boogie1 Tall Fiddler1 Tears for Jerusalem1 Tears in Heaven1 Ten Million Slaves1 Tender Surrender1 The Bug1 The Robin1 The Train and the Gate1 The Wind and the Wheat1 Time1 Time 21 To B Or Not To B1 Undecided1 Unforgotten1 Up Tempo1 Waltzing Matilda1 We're the Great1 Yakitori1
Show more
buy jeans, silver tab jeans, levi jeans

Contact

Contact
Locations of visitors to this page

All the contents of this site, (design and technical device) are intellectual property of JD (unless stated otherwise). Every use or copy without an explicit permission is forbidden. Copyright Disclaimer
©2010-2020
Thank you for looking all the way down here. There is much more to see.