o.w. appleton - the original "inventor" of the les paul

[casey campbell]

this dude was pretty smart.  check this fret saw out!

behold the awesomeness:

apparently this dude also invented the aluminum neck guitar with stereo outputs:

the two sections on the back were for it to mount on a pre-made stand.  yea, crazy, but i love it...

"and O.W. Appleton creates the "APP" guitar, the first electric sold-body to resemble a present-day electric guitar. He shows it to Gibson. They reject the concept of a solid-body, traditionally-held, guitar."  this was in 1941.  here's the guitar he showed them:

[Mark Pollock]

I love that the frets would have a consistent depth with that saw.

[casey campbell]

Yes. Exactly. Very smart. My question is how did he push the neck straight on that?

[Frank Ford]

An interesting rig - it appears to be a home-brew setup where the neck/fingerboard would have been held over the blades instead of run under as with the traditional gang saw. 

[casey campbell]

Right!  He must've had some type of jig that hung over the table in which he could keep the neck centered?

[Frank Ford]

Actually, I suspect the board or neck would be held flat and slide across the blades rather than suspended, otherwise I don't see need or use for the cylindrical wood shroud/guard/depth stop arrangement.

[casey campbell]

True

[Robbie Collins]

That fret saw is an interesting piece of engineering but sure looks like an accident waiting to happen.

[Mark Pollock]

I'm thinking that the resistance muct be pretty impressive. There must have been some other piece to press the board down and align it. 

[Frank Ford]

Don't discount the probability that it's the leftover from a failed experiment - maybe it was never really used.

[Mark Pollock]

If I spent the time to make something like that, I would keep using it until I had hacked all my fingers off!

[Ned Knepp]

Yeah, I was looking at the saw and thinking that it could bring a new meaning to "grooves in my fingertips". 

[Thomas James]

Thanks for posting.

http://www.owappleton.com/

I was wondering if that saw is missing some type of jig, or was inverted during use?