The Les-er Known Legend: The Les Paul Gibson

The Gibson Les Paul was revolutionary and changed music history with its solid body construction and unique sound. While it may not have been the first solid body electric guitar in production, the story of how it came to be is definitely one for the history books.

THE MAN BEHIND THE SOUND

It’s impossible to tell the story without first discussing the incredible legend himself - Les Paul. Born on June 9, 1915 in Waukesha, WI, Lester William Polsfuss was always tinkering with musical instruments to try to improve either sound or function.

In his early years, Les’ mother received a comment from one of his teachers stating, “Your boy, Lester, will never learn music.” Despite this, Les taught himself how to play the harmonica, guitar, and banjo; his first guitar was a Sears Roebuck Troubadour. He figured out how to amplify and electrify his guitar, as well as invented a flippable harmonica holder that he used to allow him to play the harmonica and guitar at the same time.

In Search of a New Sound

Around the age of 13, Les noticed that when he played his acoustic guitar, the box was vibrating as well as the strings. But, he didn’t want to hear the box - just the strings. He also wanted to find a way to amplify the sound in a better way than just a microphone. In an attempt to do this, Les took the arm off of his father’s record player, pushed the needle into the soundboard of the guitar, taped it into place, and plugged that into his dad’s radio. That produced a lot of feedback, but gave Les the idea to fill the guitar body with Plaster of Paris to create a solid body. While that totally

destroyed his guitar, he did not stop on his mission to create the sound he wanted out of a guitar.

Next, he looked for a more dense material to try to eliminate feedback. Conveniently, Les’ family lived across the street from railroad tracks, so he used that to his advantage. Using a two-foot piece of rail and the microphone from his mother’s telephone, he strung a guitar string across the rail. Thus, the first pickup was created. Les was quoted stating, “You could go out to eat and come back and the note would still be playing.” What Les was describing is what is now referred to as sustain.

THE LOG

In 1938, Les moved to New York City, where the “Log” would be invented. Prior to the creation of the Log, he experimented with his hollow body electric guitar by installing two pickups onto it. Around that same time, he played an electric guitar on Waring’s national radio show at a time when no one else had played an electric guitar on the radio before.

While Les was living in New York City, he gained access to the Epiphone factory on Sundays when the factory was closed (he knew the right people to make that happen). He used a 2x4 solid piece of wood, put the Epiphone neck on it, strung guitar strings on it, and put his pickup on it. After all the parts were put together, the Log made the sound that Les had been longing for!

In 1941, Les Paul took the Log to Gibson, where he was laughed at and mocked by executives, calling him, “the guy with the broomstick.” However, he didn’t let that stop him. He also wanted to see how an audience would react to his new creation, performing at venues such as “The Chic” in NYC. To his surprise, the audience didn’t really react very much - possibly because it didn’t look like a typical guitar. True to who he was, he went back to the Epiphone factory to change that. Using an inexpensive Epiphone sawed in half, Les put “wings” on each side of the Log to make it look like an actual guitar.

With the added cosmetic pieces, he returned to playing at the clubs in New York City to see how audiences would react to his new sound. This time, the Log was a huge hit!

FENDER and PAUL

In 1943, Les moved to Los Angeles where he met and became friends with none other than the legendary Leo Fender. Les, Leo, and Paul Bigsby all agreed that solid body electric guitars were the future of music, even though Les continued to get shot down by Gibson. Leo, however, was so serious about Les’ idea that he even proposed going into business together to create and produce the “Fender Paul Guitar.”

Because he felt he had already established a relationship with Gibson, Les turned Leo down. Somehow, Les knew that Gibson would eventually take him and his Log seriously. While Leo understood how Les felt, he did tell Les that he would continue working on putting a solid body electric guitar into production. In fact, when Leo Fender had a finished product (the Telecaster), he gave one of his guitars to Les.

Still on his mission to put his own design into production, Les then took Leo

Fender’s guitar and his Log back to Gibson, stating, “If you don’t do something, Fender’s going to rule the world.” That is when the executives of Gibson FINALLY started to take Les Paul seriously. It wasn’t until 1952 - ten years after creating the Log that the first Gibson Les Paul solid body electric guitars went into production.

Later on, Les added a second pickup (now called a humbucker) because he couldn’t stand the 60 cycle hum. He had worked on stacked humbuckers in the 1940s, so that was not a new concept to him.

THE LEGACY

The creation of the Gibson Les Paul was only one of the numerous accomplishments throughout Les Paul’s life. As well as being one of the greatest guitarists of all time, he was also a singer/songwriter and received many awards for his music and for his part in musical innovations. To this day, Les Paul is the only person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame AND the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Not only did Les help revolutionize the solid body electric guitar, he also had his hands in the evolution of recording techniques - even going as far as converting the garage of his Hollywood home into a cutting-edge recording studio in 1945, where he recorded the stars. While all of his awards and achievements are very impressive, they didn’t come easy to Les. As previously stated, he received negative comments from music teachers who thought he would never learn music. Another major setback for Les occurred in 1941 when he suffered extreme electric shock, which caused severe burns

to his hands. Then, in 1948, Les and Mary Ford (who he would later marry) got into a terrible car accident during a winter storm. There was major damage to his right elbow. Despite doctors’ recommendations to amputate his arm, Les persuaded them to set his elbow at a slight angle so that he could still play guitar. He would never be able to move that elbow ever again.

All of this just proves how dedicated and passionate he was to his music.

After living such an incredible life, Les Paul passed away on August 12, 2009 from complications with pneumonia, according to Rolling Stone Magazine. He passed away in White Plains, NY, but is buried in his hometown of Waukesha, WI in the Prairie Home Cemetery next to his mother. Les Paul may have passed away, but musicians will be playing his guitars for generations to come - he left behind one hell of a legacy.