Roger C. Field

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Roger C. Field

Roger C. Field (born July 31, 1945), is an inventor with over 100 patents, an industrial designer and a well known guitarist. He is best known as the inventor of the Foldaxe folding electric guitar featured in guitarist Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins

Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins was an influential American guitarist and record producer.His picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul, brought him admirers both within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally....
' book "Me and My Guitars." He has also been written about in Playboy Magazine in ten countries (also in Penthouse Magazine four times in Europe) and is in four different Who's Who

Who's Who

Who's Who or Who is Who is the name of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biography information on a particular group of people....
books in Europe including one for the entire EU.

d was born in London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, England

England

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Roger C. Field'

Start a new discussion about 'Roger C. Field'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Chet Atkins

Who's Who

Early life

Field was born in London

London

England

The King's School, Canterbury

The King's School is an United Kingdom independent school situated in Canterbury, Kent. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group....
from 1958-1960, then Aiglon College

Aiglon College

Aiglon College is a private English-style boarding school in Switzerland, registered as a not-for-profit charitable institution, with an international student intake ....
in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
. In 1968 he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree from the California College of the Arts

California College of the Arts

Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts is a regionally accredited, independent school of art and design in Oakland, California and San Francisco, California, California, USA....
). In 1969, he filmed the college in 16mm (titled "To Be An Artist") which included poet Michael McClure

Michael McClure

Michael McClure is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets who read at the famous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums....
, an English professor at CCAC at the time. The film was later shown on TV. Field then moved to Munich

Munich

Munich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. Munich is located on the River Isar north of the Northern Limestone Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg....
to work on the newly formed Airbus

Airbus

Airbus Soci?t? par actions simplifi?e is an Aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Toulouse, France, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
project, contributing significantly to the interior design of the aircraft.

Foldaxe

It was during his design of passenger seats for the Airbus

Airbus

Airbus Soci?t? par actions simplifi?e is an Aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Toulouse, France, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
that Field had the idea in 1975 for a folding electric guitar which he named "Foldaxe," for transporting as hand luggage under an aircraft seat. (Field flew on the Concorde

Concorde

The A?rospatiale-BAC Concorde aircraft is a supersonic passenger airliner or supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of A?rospatiale and British Aircraft Corporation....
from New York to Paris on September 30, 1987 with one of his folding guitars as hand luggage, becoming the first person to play the guitar through the sound barrier).

Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins

Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins was an influential American guitarist and record producer.His picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul, brought him admirers both within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally....
bet Field in 1975 while visiting Atkins in Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
that he could not design a folding guitar without the string tension changing and going out of tune. Field solved this problem by designing a unique mechanism hidden in the guitar which, once the guitar has been tuned, keeps the string tension constant when folding and unfolding it so that it is always ready to play when unfolded. A friend of Atkins for 35 years, Field can also be credited with the teaming of Atkins and singer Suzy Bogguss

Suzy Bogguss

Suzy Bogguss is an United States country music singer. In the 1980s and 90s she released one platinum and three gold albums and charted six top ten singles, winning the Academy of Country Music's award for Top New Female Vocalist and the Country Music Association's Horizon Award....
on TV and recordings by suggesting to Atkins in 1991 while they were in Issoudun

Issoudun

Issoudun is a Communes of France in the Indre Departments of France in central France. It is also referred to as Issoundun, which is the ancient name....
in France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, that Atkins record and perform with a female singer "with a sexy voice" (Field had Les Paul

Les Paul

Les Paul is an American jazz guitarist and inventor. He is a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which "made the sound of rock and roll possible." His many recording innovations include overdubbing, Delay such as "sound on sound" and Delay , Phaser , and multitrack recording....
and Mary Ford

Mary Ford

Mary Ford , vocalist and guitarist, was one-half of the popular husband-and-wife musical team, Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits; in 1951 alone, they sold six million records....
in mind). Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins

Les Paul

Jane Pauley

Margaret Jane Pauley is an United States television journalist, and has been involved in news reporting since 1975. She is most known for her 13 year tenure on NBC's Today program and later 12 years of Dateline NBC, and has acknowledged publicly her struggle with mental health and bipolar disorder....
's "The Today Show" and Atkins demonstrated it on "Entertainment This Week," (now titled "Entertainment Tonight

Entertainment Tonight

Entertainment Tonight is a daily television entertainment news show that is Television syndication by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world....
"). The Foldaxe won the Designer's Choice Award sponsored by I.D. (magazine)

I.D. (magazine)

I.D. is a magazine covering the art, business and culture of design. It is published eight times a year by F+W Publications Inc..I.D. was founded in 1954 as Industrial Design....
in 1980 for the entire USA. Industrial design icon Raymond Loewy

Raymond Loewy

Raymond Fernand Loewy was one of the best known industrial designers of the 20th century. Born in France, he spent most of his professional career in the United States where he influenced countless aspects of North American culture....
sent Field a letter congratulating him on the design of the Foldaxe.

It has been played and held by famous musicians and personalities who have been photographed with it, such as Keith Richards

Keith Richards

Keith Richards is an England guitarist, songwriter, singer, record producer and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist, Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm guitar playing....
, Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an England rock musician best known as the lead vocalist of the The Rolling Stones. As well as a songwriter, he is an actor, and record producer and film producer....
, Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton Order of the British Empire is an English blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. He is "probably most famous for his mastery of the Stratocaster guitar." Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, of Cream , and as a solo performer, being the only person to...
, Hank Marvin

Hank Marvin

Hank Brian Marvin is an England guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows. The group, which primarily performed instrumentals, was formed as a backing band for singer Cliff Richard....
, Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney Member of the Order of the British Empire is a multiple Grammy Award-winning England singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record producer, film producer, Painting, and Animal rights....
and David Copperfield

David Copperfield (illusionist)

David Copperfield is an American Magic and illusionist best known for his combination of illusions and storytelling....
to name just a few.

Musician

Field is known as a guitar stylist and has played the guitar with Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins

Merle Travis

Merle Robert Travis was an United States country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the exploitation of coal miners....
and other famous players, also becoming a friend of jazz guitar legend Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an United States jazz guitarist. He is generally considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, and Pat Metheny....
in San Francisco in 1967 who assisted Field with his guitar playing. Marcel Dadi

Marcel Dadi

Marcel Dadi was a Tunisia-born Jewish France guitarist known for his finger-picking style which faithfully recreated the instrumental styles of American guitarists such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and Jerry Reed....
, the French guitar legend, composed and recorded the tune "Roger Chesterfield" for him on one of his records. Field was the instigator in 2001 of the reunion of The Shadows

The Shadows

Nick-named: the Shads, The Shadows are the most successful United Kingdom instrumental and vocal group from the 1950s to the 2000s with an aggregate total of at least 64 UK hit singles....
, with Jet Harris

Jet Harris

Jet Harris was the bassist of The Shadows until April 1962 and had subsequent success as a soloist and as a duo with drummer Tony Meehan ....
even addressing Field's intention to do so in a newspaper article, after meeting with Field and Bruce Welch

Bruce Welch

Bruce Welch Order of the British Empire, is an England guitarist, songwriter, record producer and singer, best known as a member of The Shadows....
in Holland.

Miscellaneous

Field is currently engaged in marketing a new professional 35mm movie camera concept which he invented for cinema, for which he received a US patent, . Field's interest in professional movie camera design began in 1967 during the filming of "Petulia

Petulia

Petulia is a United Kingdom drama film directed by Richard Lester. The screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus is based on the novel Me and the Arch Kook Petulia by John Haase....
" (released in 1968) in San Francisco, when he first became acquainted with Richard Lester

Richard Lester

Richard Lester is an American-born British-based film director famous for his work with The Beatles in the 1960s....
who supports this project.

Field has attempted to influence the dental industry with and other patents issued to him for a dental handpiece reducing the risk of cross-contamination.

Field corrected and perfected the design of the Gretsch

Gretsch

Gretsch is a United States musical instrument manufacturer currently being distributed by guitar company Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and drum craft company Kaman Music....
6122-1959 Chet Atkins Country Gentleman reissue guitar for Fred Gretsch, president of the Gretsch company, a personal friend.

Field was Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and Politics of the United States, currently serving as the List of Governors of California Governor of California of the state of California....
's friend and English coach in Munich in 1968.

Field is related to actor/producer Henry Winkler

Henry Winkler

Henry Franklin Winkler is an American actor, film director, Film producer, and author.Winkler is best known for his role as Fonzie on the 1970s American sitcom, Happy Days....
("The Fonz") and Dr. Leo Baeck

Leo Baeck

Leo Baeck was an 20th century Germany-Poland-Jewish Rabbi, scholar, and a leader of Progressive Judaism....
.

External links

with photo of Hank Marvin
Hank Marvin

Hank Brian Marvin is an England guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows. The group, which primarily performed instrumentals, was formed as a backing band for singer Cliff Richard....
of The Shadows
The Shadows

Nick-named: the Shads, The Shadows are the most successful United Kingdom instrumental and vocal group from the 1950s to the 2000s with an aggregate total of at least 64 UK hit singles....
and Roger C. Field holding Foldaxe
article about Field having reunited The Shadows
article