Roger C. Field

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. 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. Harris and Welch supported Field's efforts to influence Hank Marvin to return to the band.

Atkins appeared with Les Paul on television with the Foldaxe on Jane Pauley's The Today Show and on Entertainment This Week. Field himself appeared several times on television shows with the Foldaxe, unfolding it and then playing it amplified. The Foldaxe was reviewed in Industrial Design magazine, winning the Designers' Choice Award sponsored by I. D. Magazine in 1980 for the entire USA. In 1980, noted industrial designer Raymond Loewy sent Field a letter congratulating him on the design of the 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 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. Field solved this problem by designing a unique mechanism hidden in the guitar which, once the guitar has been tuned, keeps the string tension constant when folding and unfolding it so that it is always ready to play when unfolded.

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 the Arts in Oakland, California early in 1965 to major in industrial design and graduated with a bachelor's degree. Field also completed courses in film & 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 16mm (titled To Be An Artist), 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.

Roger C. Field (born 31 July 1945) is best known as 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 magazine 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.