History of The Gibson Les Paul Electric Guitar
By Max on Jan 31, 2008 in Guitars
After the impressive Telecaster was released by Fender in 1951, marking the birth of electric guitars for the public, what’s known as a superior product had already been under way. As it goes, the legend of the Les Paul Guitar begins with Les Paul, a well respected and talented jazz guitarist. His vision began in the 1940’s and followed him throughout his career.
Les, who is also known for his creativity in the musical innovations in his instruments, introduced his electric guitar prototype to Gibson in 1945. The prototype had a solid body and was called The Log but Gibson didn’t approve it. The meeting of Les Paul and the Gibson company, however, began a consulting relationship which led to the release of the Gibson Les Paul Jr. electric guitar, Gold Top.
Upon first release of the guitar in 1954, there were two models. The first, which is the main model, is also known as the Gold Top. The body and neck are made of rich mahogany and the fretboard is made of rosewood. The wood is finished, giving it that infamous brass-wood look.
The second is the custom model which sports a black finish and some extra hardware. Other colors included vintage sunburst, cherry red, and yellow.
Both models sport one single-coil pick up and a wraparound bridge.
The guitar, which wound up being an ingenious combination of ideas from both Gibson and Les Paul, sparked argument over who was responsible for which features the guitar offered. Gibson claimed that they only wanted to use Les Paul’s name to boost sales of the product but Les Paul insisted that he was very much involved in the design and decision making, fitting his original prototype in 1945. But whatever arguments ensued over the guitar’s original maker, the quality of the instrument has never been questioned.
In the end, a beautiful, solid, curved guitar with excellent shape, superior sound and quality was born and became very successful. This guitar led a movement in the music industry and changed music forever. Perhaps not single handed, as it does have predecessors, but as countless, successful musicians will tell you, it is a superior product.
Artists like Slash, Gary Moore, Zakk Wylde, Billy Joe Armstrong (Green Day) and musicians like Paul McCartney and Chuck Berry use the Les Paul. And though it wasn’t released in the gold finish that Les Paul wanted for it, the guitar started a long history of valued products that continues today in the Gibson tradition.
