Page 16 - Guitar Classics Magazine - The Les Paul Bible 2019

THE ORAL HISTORY OF THE LES PAUL

ABOVE Catalogues showing acquired a Burst; Ted McCarty, who joined Gibson owning] Chicago Musical Instrument company, and
Gibson’s Les Paul signature in 1948 and became its president two years later; they laughed at it.
line emphasise just how big Jimmy Page, who got a Les Paul Custom around 1964 “I moved to California, went in the army, went
a draw the endorsee was in and, in Led Zeppelin, bought a Burst from Joe Walsh with Bing Crosby, kept playing my log, and Leo
the 1950s
in 1969; and Les Paul himself – who, with Mary Ford, Fender came in my backyard, and Merle Travis
FACING PAGE TOP Les Paul had scored a US No. 1 hit with How High The Moon saw it, so did every other guitar player, every other
and his wife Mary Ford at a in 1951. manufacturer, they all saw it. The vibrola, I started
press reception at the Savoy on that in the 30s and then found out that a guy had
Hotel in London, for the 1952
unveiling of the Les Paul LES WANTS A LOG already invented a vibrola, but it was dead, it was
signature model. Note the Les Paul extinct, it died in its tracks. So I said: ‘I’ll make my
DeArmond Dynasonics under “I’d been trying to make a guitar that sustained and own vibrola,’ so I made my own and Bigsby came
the neck P-90 pickup covers that reproduced the sound of the string with nothing in my backyard, with Fender.”
added. No distortion, no change in the response from
FACING PAGE BOTTOM
Jimmy Page in 1975, the year what the string was doing. I wanted the string to do GIBSON WANTS A SOLIDBODY
he bought a backup Burst to its thing. No top vibrating, no added enhancement, Ted McCarty
deputise for the ‘Number One’ advantageous or disadvantageous. I wanted to make “Trade shows in the late 40s were in Chicago in June
Les Paul Standard that was sure it just gave you the string as the string was and in New York in January or so. We would take
his mainstay
excited: you plucked the string, and that’s what you prototypes to the show, show them, they’d get a
got. That was my whole idea way back in the early reaction from the dealers – because this was a dealer
30s. I worked on it, worked on it, stufing rags in show, you had to be a dealer to get in – and according
guitars, then inally plugging them up completely, to the reaction, we’d go back to the factory and the
making one-inch tops on them. Then inally saying: salesmen would say this is a good seller, this is a
‘Look, I’m just gonna go on a log.’ good seller, but I couldn’t do much with this one.
“I approached Gibson in 1941. They laughed at Okay, you’ve got it. That’s how we chose the line,
the idea, they called me the kid with the broomstick you might say.
with the pickups on it. The factory was in Kalamazoo, “We realised that Leo Fender was gaining popularity
Michigan, but the ofices were in Chicago, and that’s in the West with his Spanish solidbody. He didn’t get
where I went. The log was what I took to them. anywhere in New York or this part of the country, it
I actually built it at Epiphone. I knew the people was strictly in the West. I watched him and watched
there, and I could have the factory every Sunday, him and I said: ‘We’ve got to get into that business.
there was nobody there but the watchman. We’re giving him a free run, he’s the only one making
“So every Sunday I went and I worked there, from that kind of guitar.’ Had that real shrill sound, which
1939 to ’41. Epiphone says, what in the hell is this? the country and western boys liked. It was becoming
I says it’s a log, it’s a solidbody guitar, and they says, popular. So we talked it over and decided, let’s make
well why? And I says, well… but I was aiming at one. Now, Les Paul was known to me, Les Paul was a
Gibson, I wasn’t aiming at Epi. I knew Epi was about bit of an innovator, but he played Epiphone. And I had
to go under. Gibson was the biggest in the business been trying to get him to play Gibson, oh, for a couple
and that’s where I wanted to go. I took it to Chicago of years. He was not going to get shaken away from
to Maurice Berlin, the president of CMI, the [Gibson Epiphone, he was loyal to them. He had made some

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