Aside from his solo hit recordings such as Lover(1948), Nola(1950), Josephine(1951), and Whispering(1951) and his hit recordings with his wife Mary Ford which include Tennessee Waltz(1950-1951), How High The Moon(1951), Tiger Rag(1951-1952), Bye Bye Blues(1952-1953), and Vaya Con Dios(1953), his technological inventions shape the sounds we now take for granted. Sound created by the Echo-Plex, Reverb, the technique known as multi-track recording, and of course the solid body electric guitar. It’s impossible to imagine where we would be without these musical tools.

The Gibson Les Paul is the Rolls Royce of electric guitars, it is to American music what the Louisville Slugger is to American sports. Every rock star and every rock star wannabe has ogled over a Les Paul at some point or another, they are beautiful instruments. It is said that he taught himself how to play guitar in order to demonstrate his electronic theories. Long before Gibson put his name on the guitar, Les Paul had already pioneered the concept of the solid body electric. He didn’t like the fact that people in the rear of the crowd couldn’t hear him so he created an electric guitar and amplifier using a radio and a record player needle that he shoved into the fretboard. “I wanted the string to vibrate and nothing else. I wanted the guitar to sustain longer and have different sounds than the acoustical box.”

Les Paul continued playing for live audiences well into his 90′s, his weekly shows at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York were always special, he was the guitar god of the guitar gods, the original guitar hero and when asked about his long career and his profound influence on modern music his response was “I don’t think I’m very successful, I just constantly try to improve.”

What a life. What an amazing list of achievements, a legacy that made our lives better.

Visit Les Paul Electric Guitars for the full story.

The first Les Paul electric guitars came out in 1952. They were the Goldtops. Two p-90 single coil pickups, Les Paul’s trapeze bridge and tailpiece and the mahogany body/maple top combination with the glued and fitted neck, these were the Rolls Royce to Fenders Tin Lizzy. They were expensive too. The second wave of Les Paul guitars was in 1954. The Gibson Les Paul Custom was an entirely black guitar nicknamed the Black Beauty. This version was later made with three pickups.

In 1954 Gibson released the Les Paul Junior as a beginner’s guitar though it’s design held its own in professional use as well. The Junior sported a single P-90 pickup, the usual volume and tone controls, and bridge.

In 1955 Gibson launched the Les Paul TV which was essentially a Junior with a “natural” finish, a translucent mustard yellow thin enough to see through to the wood grain. The idea was to reduce the glare that white guitars had on early black and white TV. The Les Paul Special was released in 1955 as well featuring two soapbar P-90 single coil pickups, finished in a TV Yellow variation (but not called a TV model).

In 1957, Gibson introduced the humbucker pickup, kind of like two single coils except one is flipped around, the result is a beefier sound and a cancellation of the 60 cycle hum associated with single coil pickups.

In 1958 Gibson developed a new double-cutaway body shape for the Junior and TV. The Junior also got a new cherry red finish and the TV got a new yellowish finish. Gibson also changed the top finish on the regular Les Paul model from the gold color used since 1952 to the Sunburst finish already being used on their arch top acoustic and hollow body electrics. These were later referred to as Les Paul Standards to differentiate them from the earlier Goldtop. The hardware was the same as the ’57 Goldtop featuring the new humbucker pickups.

In 1959, the Les Paul Special was given the same new double-cutaway body, however, when the new design was applied to the two-pickup Special, the cavity for the neck pickup overlapped with the neck-to-body joint. This weakened the joint to the point that the neck could break after only moderate handling. The problem was soon resolved when Gibson’s designers moved the neck pickup farther down from the neck to produce a stronger joint.

In 1960, Gibson experienced a decline in electric guitar sales due to their high prices and strong competition from the Stratocaster. So, Gibson modified the Les Paul line and 1961 the Les Paul was thinner and much lighter, with two sharply pointed cut-aways and a vibrato system. This redesign was done without Les Paul’s knowledge and when he saw the guitar he asked Gibson to remove his name from the instrument and parted ways with the company. Gibson however had a surplus stock of “Les Paul” logos and truss rod covers and continued to use the Les Paul name until 1963 after which the guitar’s name was changed to SG, which stands for Solid Guitar. In addition to the SG line, Gibson continued to issue the less expensive Jr’s and Specials with the newer body style. These were the standard Gibson electric models until the reintroduction of the Les Paul Standard Goldtop and the Les Paul Custom in 1968.

In 1964, Keith Richards obtained a 1959 sunburst Les Paul with a Bigsby tailpiece. It was one of his main instruments for several years. In 1966, Eric Clapton also started using a Les Paul (particularly the 1958-1960 Standard sunburst models). Other notables such as Peter Green, Mike Bloomfield, Mick Taylor and Jimmy Page began using Les Pauls too. These 1950s models had the original humbuckers known as “Patent Applied For” (PAF) pickups. These PAFs were designed by Seth Lover while working for Gibson in 1955 (U.S. Patent 2,896,491). This innovation became the standard for Gibson and soon, everyone else started making copycat humbuckers, altering the design slightly to avoid infringing Gibson’s patent. Gretsch had the Filtertron pickups, Fender got on the bandwagon in 1972 with their Wide Range pickup. The big pickup companies like DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan appeared after Gibson’s patent had expired.

Now days a 1959 Les Paul in good condition can cost between $200,000 and $750,000, even by the mid 1960s prices for Les Pauls had begun to increase. With this value in mind, and with increased pressure from the public, Gibson re-introduced the single cutaway Les Paul in 1968.

Over the years the Gibson Guitar Company has gone through ownership changes and subsequently so did the Les Paul electric guitars, most notably, the change to the neck volute or angle of tilt on the headstock. Les Paul electric guitars had a reputation of breaking at neck joint. A straighter volute strengthened the neck where it joined the headstock. The neck woods were changed from mahogany to a three-piece maple design to give it more strength as well. Also, the body was changed from a one piece mahogany with a maple top into multiple slabs of mahogany with multiple pieced maple tops.

In the 70s, Gibson also began experimenting with new models such as the Les Paul Recording. The Recording featured low-impedance pickups, many switches and buttons, and a highly specialized cable for matching impedance to the amplifier. We also saw the Les Paul body shape incorporated into other Gibson models such as the S-1, the Sonex, the L6-S, and other experimental models.

In the mid 1980s, Gibson changed ownership and began manufacturing a range of Les Pauls. The 1980s also saw the end to several design characteristics that were classic to Les Paul electrics, including the volute and maple neck. Today the guitar is available in an array of choices, ranging from models equipped with digital electronics like the Robot to classic re-issue models built to match the look and specifications of the earliest production runs from 1952 to 1960.

What’s your favorite?

Visit Les Paul Electric Guitars for the full story.

Visit Les Paul Electric Guitars for the full story.

Gibson 2 pickup schematic

Gibson 2 Pickup Schematic
This is the standard circuit used by Gibson since the 1950s – it is used in the Les Paul, SG, Firebird, Flying V, Explorer as well as most thinline and full depth semi-acoustics.In the 1980s Gibson started to use 300k audio taper pots. These tend to make the neck pickup in particular, sound flabby and lifeless. If your guitar is one of these models give it a new lease of life by fitting 500k pots, which are available in standard and long shaft models to fit certain Les Paul models with encased electronics.

59 Les Paul

’59 Les Paul
The holy grail of guitar electronics. Pictured here is an original wiring harness from a 1959 Les Paul Standard – CTS pots (500k audio taper), Switchcraft selector switch and jack socket, Bumblebee 0.02mf capacitors, and shielded cloth wire. They do not make them like this anymore. When combined with an old PAF humbucker, the subtleties in response and tone are noticeable to the select few, the elite.

3 pickup Les Paul schematic

Gibson Les Paul Custom – Standard 3 Pickup Schematic
This is the standard circuit for the 3 Pickup Les Paul and SG Custom used by Gibson since the 1950s. The toggle switch selects the bridge pickup in the down position, the neck pickup in the up position and the middle position selects the bridge and middle pickups together. The middle pickup is out of phase with the bridge pickup which gives a thin hollow sound.

3 pick up modified schematic

Gibson Les Paul Custom – Modified 3 Pickup Schematic
This is a modified circuit for the 3 Pickup Gibson or Epiphone Les Paul and SG Custom. Here the toggle switch selects either the bridge pickup, the neck pickup or both, like a 2 pickup guitar. Then a separate volume control for the middle pickup is added to allow the middle pickup to be used in any combination with the other two pickups or on its own. The trade off is the loss of one tone pot but very few guitarists use the tone pots independently. The remaining tone pot acts as a master tone pot for all three pickups.

Visit Les Paul Electric Guitars for the full story.

Visit Les Paul Electric Guitars for the full story.

I’m not convinced. The standard western system of music, that is, an octave divided into 12 notes, is erroneous to begin with. Standard A is 440 Cycles Per Second. An octive below is 220 Cycles Per Second. A difference of 220 CPS. 220 divided by 12 equals 18.3333333333 an infinite repeating decimal. You can’t tune a guitar and have all the stings be in tune with each other because an octave doesn’t divide evenly into 12 parts.

Guitarists usually experience this phenomenon on the G string. If you tune the guitar with a tuner and play an open G chord you will have to adjust the G string slightly in order for the chord to sound perfect. This is especially noticeable with an electric guitar cranked through a distortion box, the harmonic resonance is very prevelant. Once the G chord is perfect and you play an E major in open position, the G# is off, that is, the G string is off a bit. You have to get it right in the middle. Anyways, the Gibson Les Paul Robot is pretty cool and the self tuning feature is very convenient though I still have to do slight manual adjustments depending on the tune I’m playing.

Visit Les Paul Electric Guitars for the full story.