APP

Guitar instructor/inventor O.W. Appleton was another contributor of the electric solidbody guitar concept. In the early 1940s, Appleton built a carved top solidbody guitar that featured a single cutaway design, raised bridge/trapeze tailpiece, and single coil pickup. Appleton even went so far as to put a Gibson neck on his design, but received no interest from the Gibson company. Comparing an APP to the later 1952 Gibson Les Paul is somewhat akin to comparing a Bigsby guitar to a Fender's Telecaster model (it's deja vu all over again!).
Of course, Rickenbacker in Los Angeles had marketed the solid body lap steel since the 1930s; Lloyd Loar´s Vivi-Tone company had attempted to market an electric Spanish guitar. In 1941, guitar marvel Les Paul had begun work on The Log, a solid 4 in. x 4 in. neck-through design with pickups. Les Paul attached body wings from an Epiphone archtop guitar to the sides of the neck (the Log was constructed after hours at the original Epiphone facilities in New York). It is interesting now to look back and view how many people were working towards the invention of the solidbody electric guitar.
Guitars bearing the APP trademark appeared in the early 1960s. One such model appeared in Teisco Del Rey's column in Guitar Player magazine (June 1985), and featured an offset double cutaway body that was shaped like an inverted "V". Appleton later retired to Arizona, but the 1960s models are still a mystery. Source: Tom Wheeler, American Guitars.