Early - mid '30's Rickenbacher Ken Roberts model. This is the second electric spanish guitar. Or maybe not; there are several others known to exist, half a dozen anyway, so this then is one of the very small handful of these that were made, this quite possibly being the first of those, not long after the prototype in 1932. To be accurate, the brand name on the prototype was different, though it derives from the names of some of the same folks that became the Rickenbacher company, and it also wasn't as catchy a name; neither of which is nearly as important or interesting as the departure that these few guitars represent, from any previous concepts or attempts to electrify the guitar, and all that were to follow. To be fair, the significance of this guitar isn't nearly that of the prototype, which definitively marked a water shed moment in the direction and influence of the guitar on nearly all popular music forms. Then again, it is half the price..