Roger C. Field
{{Short description|English inventor}}
{{Promotional|date=February 2021}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Roger C. Field
| image = Roger C. Field and his Foldax.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1945|07|31}}
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| other_names =
| known_for =
| education = California College of Arts and Crafts,
San Francisco State University
| occupation = Industrial designer, inventor, musician, filmmaker
| nationality = British
| awards = Designers' Choice Award for the United States (1980)
}}
Roger C. Field (born 31 July 1945) is an English designer and the inventor of the Foldaxe folding electric guitar, which won the Designers' Choice Award for the United States in 1980. He is also an inventor with over 100 patents, an industrial designer, and a guitarist. He has been written about in Playboy magazineArticles in Playboy in Slovakia (2/'02), Brazil (6/'02), Russia (10/'02), Ukraine (10/'02), France (4/'03), Czech Republic (4/'04), Slovenia (6/'04), Bulgaria (4/'05), Hungary (3/'06), Romania (4/'06), Ukraine (8/'06), Lithuania (6/'12), Romania (9/'12), Croatia (11/'12), Mongolia (12/'12), Venezuela (2/'13), Portugal (4/'13), Czech Republic (11/'13), Slovakia (11/'13), Slovenia (3/'14) and Greece (10/'14). Articles in Penthouse in Germany (10/'01 and 8/'07), the Netherlands (8/'03) and Greece (11/'07). Article in Esquire in Romania (Summer 2014). 21 times in 16 countries, in Penthouse magazine four times in Europe, and in Esquire. He is in four different Who's Who books in Europe, including one for the European Union.Wer ist Wer? (official German Who's Who), 1996/7- Verlag Beleke, Essen {{ISBN|3-7950-2019-0}}; Who's Who, 1998–, International Book and Publishing Company, Montreal, Canada; Who is Who in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 1998–, Hubner's Blaues Who is Who, Zug, Switzerland; Who is Who in der EU, 2003– Hubner's Blaues Who is Who, Zug, Switzerland {{ISBN|3-905729-00-8}}
Early life
Field was born in London, England. His father was the owner and managing director of Siegmund Robinow & Son Ltd., a company in London and Hamburg, which at that time manufactured exclusive garments. After attending Stagenhoe Park near Hitchin from 1953–1958; he attended The King's School, Canterbury, from 1958–1960; then Aiglon College in Switzerland from 1960–1963.
Field attended the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland, California, early in 1965, to major in industrial design and graduated with a bachelor's degree.{{Cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lgwnfQ7W0mUuDSn170Vj8ZCOACX9EbkmzcZljUnS4_Y/edit?usp=sharing%3Dtrue&usp=embed_facebook|title=Official CCA Alumni Directory - Roger Field|website=Docs.google.com|access-date=23 September 2023}} Field also completed courses in film and television at San Francisco State University.
In 1969, he filmed the California College of the Arts at the request of Harry X. Ford, the president of the college, in 16{{Nbsp}}mm (titled To Be An Artist),California College of the Arts (CCAC) "To be an Artist" film with Field's name in credits as director, etc. which included poet Michael McClure, an English professor at CCAC at the time. The film, which was financed by the college, was later shown on television.
Field, who was also an aviation enthusiast who had received a private pilot license with a multi-engine rating in California, then moved to Munich to work on the newly formed Airbus project, contributing to the interior design of the aircraft. While in Munich, Field developed drill units to try to reduce the risk of cross-contamination for the dental industry ({{US Patent|5,599,184}} and other patents).
Field is currently marketing his professional 35{{Nbsp}}mm film camera invention for cinema and television. The camera uses unperforated 35-mm film (which allows much wider exposed images), ({{US Patent|7,419,077}}). The camera could be used with Field's camera light screening unit (matte box), which has been manufactured for many years by the Chrosziel Filmtechnik company in Germany ({{US Patent|4,441,794}}).
Foldaxe
While designing passenger seats for the Airbus in 1975, Field had the idea for a folding electric guitar, which he named "Foldaxe" for being able to be transported as hand luggage under an aircraft seat. Guitarist Chet Atkins inspired Field in 1975 to design a folding guitar without the string tension changing and going out of tune.{{cite journal|last=Watson |first=Tom |title=Electric Guitar Design: When You Can't Hold 'Em, Fold 'Em |journal=Modern Guitars Magazine |date=April 2007 |url=http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/003082.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403131652/http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/003082.html |archive-date=3 April 2008 }} Field addresses it by designing a mechanism hidden in the guitar which, once the guitar has been tuned, keeps the string tension constant when folding and unfolding.
Atkins appeared with Les Paul on television with the Foldaxe on Jane Pauley's The Today Show and on Entertainment This Week.{{cite journal |last= Sievert |first= Jon |title= Roger Field's Foldaxe |journal= Guitar Player |date=January 1988 }} Field appeared several times on television shows with the Foldaxe. The Foldaxe was reviewed in Industrial Design magazine, winning the Designers' Choice Award sponsored by I. D. in 1980.{{Cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df2mt84z_5cpc5h5hj&revision=_latest&start=0&theme=blank&cwj=true|title=Designers' Choice Award Certificate|website=Docs.google.com|access-date=23 September 2023}} In 1980, industrial designer Raymond Loewy sent Field a letter congratulating him on the design of the Foldaxe.{{Cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df2mt84z_3gg6wx7ds&revision=_latest&start=0&theme=blank&cwj=true|title=Letter from Raymond Loewy to Field, 22 March 1980 regarding the Foldaxe|website=Docs.google.com|access-date=23 September 2023}} The Foldaxe was featured in Atkins's book Me and My Guitars.Atkins, Chet and Cochran, Russ. (2003). "Me and My Guitars". Milwaukee. Hal Leonard Corporation. {{ISBN|0-634-05565-8}}. They have been played by Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Lenny Breau, Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin, Hank Marvin, Paul McCartney, David Copperfield, James Burton and Albert Lee.
The interest in The Foldaxe by Hank Marvin, guitarist for the Shadows, led Field to be the instigator in 2001 of the reunion of the Shadows.[http://archive.wn.com/2004/07/16/1400/p/25/cff4acb4de1a5b.html World News Network article 16 July 2004] with photo of Hank Marvin of The Shadows and Roger C. Field holding Foldaxe{{cite journal |title= Munich Germany|journal= Classical Guitar Magazine – UK |date=June 2005|pages=39, 40}}{{cite journal|title=Roger Field & die Klappgitarre |journal=Gitarre & Bass Magazine |date=September 2004 |url=http://www1.gitarrebass.de/magazine/0409/klappgitarre.htm |page=88 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302033447/http://www1.gitarrebass.de/magazine/0409/klappgitarre.htm |archive-date=2 March 2012 }} Jet Harris of the Shadows addressed Field's intention to do so in the Otago Daily Times, after meeting with Field and Bruce Welch near Tilburg in the Netherlands.{{cite journal |title= Scoop, from out of left field |journal= Otago Daily Times |date=June 2001 }} Harris and Welch supported Field's efforts to influence Hank Marvin to return to the band.{{cite journal |title= Pal Returns Shadows to Fame |journal= Newcastle Evening Chronicle |date=May 2004 |url = http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-116113790.html }}{{cite journal |title= Geschichten von Arnie und den Shadows |journal= Wiesbadener Tagblatt |date=May 2009 |url = http://www.wiesbadener-tagblatt.de/region/wiesbaden/meldungen/img6828485.htm }}
Field developed a guitar technique he calls 'Tap-Picking', a technique of adding additional bass notes to guitar fingerpicking by tapping and pulling-off the bass strings with the left hand at times when the right hand thumbpick and fingers are on the treble strings and cannot play bass notes.{{cite journal |title= Tap-picking |journal= Music Test – France |date=May 1992}}{{cite journal |title= Tap-picking |journal= Zounds, das Musikmagazin – Germany |date=September 1992 |page= 89}}{{cite journal |title= Tap-picking |journal= Musikblatt – Germany |date=August–September 1992 |page= 89}}
In the text of his tablature booklet with the LP Dadi's Picking Lights Up Nashville, Volume 1, Marcel Dadi cited Field's playing ability as inspiration for the tune Roger Chesterfield.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://upge.wn.com/?action=search&template=cheetah-worldphotos%2Findex.txt&search_string=california+worries+about+budget+gap&language_id=1&photo_size=small&results_num=10&sort_type=nwf&corpus=current&search_type=head_all&x=30&y=14http://article.wn.com/view/2009/07/25/California_closes_budget_gap_worries_about_next/ World News Network article 25 July 2009] (The Guardian) with photo of Field in front of a poster of Arnold Schwarzenegger
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Category:California College of the Arts alumni
Category:English male guitarists
Category:British industrial designers