In 1942 Mr. Macedo, a musician from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, invented this instrument: the pau eletrico ("electric stick" in Portuguese). He used a neck from a cavaquinho (a ukulele-type instrument usually tuned DGBE or DGBD), but tuned the instrument like a mandolin. Having therefore developed a headless, solidbody stringed instrument before Ned Steinberger was born and while Leo Fender was repairing radios in Southern California, Mr. Macedo unfortunately never bothered to secure a patent.
     All was not lost, however, because Macedo's trio eletrico style of music caught on and became big stuff in Brazil; his instrument was developed into the guitarra baiana, the 5-string electric mandolin used by many trio eletrico players; and his son, Armandinho, became one of Brazil's foremost popular musicians.