Van Shipley was the first electric guitarist in India. The name Van Shipley is Methodist, he is from Lucknow UP. He designed his own electric eight string steel guitar in the 1940's. The reason he did this was that he'd studied Indian classical music under Ustad Alaudin Khan, the leading classical musician in India, who was also a contemporary of Ravi Shankar. He also studied the violin with a German teacher.

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