Page 50 - Guitar Classics Magazine - The Les Paul Bible 2019

THE MAN BEHIND THE GUITAR

BY 1952, GIBSON HAD BEEN SHAKEN

OUT OF ITS COMPLACENCY BY
FENDER’S SUCCESS AND THE REST

IS HISTORY. LES COLLABORATED can hear its distinctive tone on Somebody Loves Me,
recorded in 1947. Unfortunately, the design proved
ON THE DESIGN AND TESTING problematic under hot stage lights.
Then out of the blue, Les got an unexpected
call. By 1952, Gibson had been shaken out of its
complacency by Fender’s success and the rest is
ABOVE Between 1950 and steel rail track was clearly not a viable option. Instead, history. Les collaborated on the design and tested
their divorce in 1954, Les Paul Les cut up an old Epiphone archtop body, attached various prototypes, some of which still exist.
and Mary Ford were major a Gibson neck to a four-inch square block of pine Even so, Gibson was remained reluctant to take
stars in the USA, with hit
and grafted on the body ‘wings’ with metal brackets. advice and, contrary to Les’s intentions, the Les Pauls
songs and a TV show
With two pickups that Les wound himself, it looked produced in 1952 and 1953 shipped with a shallow
like a total lash up… but it worked! neck angle and the strings on his own-design trapeze
OPPOSITE LEFT The Les
Paul Recording model Although Les demonstrated his musical tailpiece wrapped the wrong way around.
was Les’s ‘ultimate’ guitar craftsmanship with his meticulously produced
and featured his favoured recordings, he was savvy enough to realise his THE GARAGE YEARS
low-impedance pickups limitations as a luthier and he wasn’t about to But Les’ greatest and most lasting achievements were
start a guitar company. Instead, he approached made in studio recording and production. Expressing
OPPOSITE RIGHT Les Gibson in 1941 to try and sell them on the idea. his dissatisfaction with the sound of his own records
continued to play live well
into his 90s and regularly He was met with ridicule and the Gibson guys to Bing Crosby, Bing suggested building his own
played at the Iridium Jazz referred to Les as “that weirdo and his broomstick”. studio. Before long, Les had set up one in the garage
Club in New York City Les carried on using his famous Log on stage and of his house on North Curson Avenue, Hollywood.
in the studio through the 1940s, along with a headless Never one to put finesse before practicality, artists
solid aluminium guitar he designed and built, with were required to climb in through a window because
tuner keys protruding from the body. It looks like there was no door. He began experimenting with
a cross between a Klein and a Steinberger and you microphone placement, establishing the practice of

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