Les Paul

Revision as of 18:40, 15 May 2008

Les Paul

People are always surprised when they meet me and get to know that I am NOT a guitar and NOT dead yet...Les Paul

Lester William Polfus (born on June 9,1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin),better known as Les Paul is an American guitarist. He is known to be one of the most important figures in the development of modern electric guitars and recording techniques. Les Paul is also known as a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar, Multitrack Recording, and various reverb effects. Most people mistake him with his biggest invention: The Gibson Les Paul solidbody guitar.

Childhood

Paul started his musical career by the age of eight when he learned to play the harmonica. He went on with the piano and the banjo but he abandoned the banjo soon to learn how to play the guitar. At the age of thirteen Les Paul was already good enough to play his first gigs as a Country Music guitarist. He found enough time to become a marvellous Jazz guitarist (His style can be compared to Django Reinhardt) while he was experimenting with electronic parts. He had an obvious talent and dropped out of high school at the age of seventeen to pursue his career in music.

Early Career

He found a job playing guitar in a radio band in St. Louis, Missouri. He later moved to Chicago, where he mainly played jazz music for radio programs. He was able to secure a recording contract and released his first two albums in 1936. In 1938, he moved to New York, where he was given a position on Fred Waring's radio show, "Pennsylvanians". Les found the electric guitars of the time unfulfilling and began experimenting with his own designs in an attempt to improve the instrument.

First Attempt: The Log

Les Paul is famous for inventing the first solidbody guitar. His first attempt of building a solidbody is called The Log. The guitar was really nothing more than a simple wooden log, taken form a train rail, with an attached guitar neck, a simple hardtail bridge and pickups. Although it looked ugly, Les Paul solved the two biggest problems of 1930's electric guitars: The Feedback and the lack of Sustain. Due to the solid body of The Log it had less problems with the feedback level because it did not resonate as much as the semi-hollow electric guitars of that time. The Log also had a never before heard amount of sustain because the massive body of the guitar stored the energy of the ringing strings. Les Paul afterwards installed sawn-off body parts from an Epiphone Semi-Accoustic guitar for the sake of a better appearance. Despite of it's awkward appearance Les' audiences are impressed by it's sound and volume level.

Career

He moved to Hollywood in 1943, where he was allowed to play with Nat King Cole at the "Jazz at the Philharmonic" show in Los Angeles on July 2, 1944. In 1948, he was nearly killed in an automobile accident in Oklahoma. He was left with a shattered right arm and elbow, which made him unable to play guitar. He spent over a year recovering, but was able to have his arm casted such that he could still pick guitar, although not as easily.

In the 1950s, Les teamed up with his wife Mary to make several musical recordings. He used the technique of overdubbing, which was made possible by his recording inventions. In 1954, his technology was licensed by Ampex to creat the first eight track cassette recorder, which became known as the "Sel-Sync". The technology of multi-track recording is still used in modern recordings to great effect.

The Gibson Les Paul

Les Paul was the first one to built a solid body guitar so he had beaten his close friend Leo Fender, who was creating his own solidbody guitar at that time (The Famous Fender Stratocaster) and Adolp Rickenbacker, who marketed his solidbody in the 30's. In 1941, Paul had convinced Gibson to manufacture some of his guitar designs. His designs were solid-body with a unique shape.Though Gibson was not satisfied with Les Paul's guitar design. They agreed to built a few guitars from his plans but refused to put the name Gibson on the Headstock. The company was convinced that no one would ever buy Paul's designs and mocked him as The guy with the Broomstick-Guitar.

In 1952 Gibson approached Les Paul again to built his own line of Guitars, the famous Gibson Les Paul. It was a smart decision of the Gibson company because the Les Paul series became their best selling line of Guitars and the worlds most famous electric guitar along with the Fender Stratocaster . The Les Paul design did not change in 50 years, it became an instant classic.

Today Gibson produces more Les Paul models like the Standard, the Custom, the Studio aswell as some Signature Les Pauls for famous artists like Joe Perry, Slash, Zakk Wylde or Jimmy Page. The average Les Paul guitar features a massive mahagony body with a maple top, the neck is also mahagony and the fretboard is made of rosewood. The Guitar has an all arround binding and comes painted or with a flamed finish. The Les Paul series have a single cutaway, 22 medium sized frets and a glued in neck. Most Les Pauls are equipped with two humbucking Pickups and feature 2 vloume and 2 tone knobs aswell as a three-way pickup selector.

Late Career

His career began to slow down in the 1960s, but he continued working on small projects and designing guitars. In the late 70's Les started a new project with Chet Atkins and recorded the fabulous Country/Jazz LP's Lester and Chester and Guitar Monsters. In 1978, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He continues to perform on occasion and is still experimenting with guitars. The incredible thing about Les Paul is that he still did not retire! Until today the now 94 year old Les Paul plays weekly live performances with his band at the Iridium Jazz Club, on Broadway in New York City, despite the arthritis that has stilled all but two of the fingers on his left hand.

Musical Style