Les Paul Electric Guitars
The Les Paul Gibson guitars first came onto the scene over half a century ago, in 1952. At this point, electric guitars were fast becoming all the rage. But the instrument was not an immediate success and the Les Paul Gibson was not the first electric on the scene, neither was it the first successful one, but it did end up being quite the success story.
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Electric guitars had been experimented with for quite some time without ever reaching commercial success. This was of course until Leo Fender put out the Fender Telecaster.
This was a guitar that could be mass produced, it looked flashy and it had a sturdy, solid construction. Gibson had previously had its hand on the innovation, the solid wood body electric guitar, and had turned down the idea when they could have been the first on the scene.
Les Paul had been experimenting with electric guitars himself for a long period of time. In the 1940s he had created the solid body electric guitar, something he dubbed the log. The log got its nickname for obvious reasons, it was a solid piece of wood.
In the mid 1940s Les Paul took this concept to Gibson and Gibson laughed him out of the building. It would be just 6 years later in 1951 when Gibson realized they were being left behind and needed a solid body guitar that could compete and surpass Fender.
Gibson called on Les Paul to help design their new guitars, what would go on to be the Les Paul Gibsons. However, the story at this point diverges and the truth can be hard to sort through. Some accounts say that Les Paul had nothing to do with the design and creation of the Les Paul Gibson. It was for all intents and purposes an endorsement deal to put his name on the model and help move guitars.
However, other versions of the story say that Les Paul had the final say on all of the important design decisions. This account fails to reconcile the fact that Paul was unhappy with some of the design elements that got implemented in the release. The truth certainly lies in between and it seems that Les Paul played a central role with his ideas and input but was left out of some of the final decisions.
Regardless of how they got there, the Les Paul Gibson was released in 1952. While this is after the Fender Telecaster, it was before the Fender Stratocaster which would be the enormously popular world of music changer.
The first two models of the Gibson Les Paul guitar lines were the Gold Top and the Custom. The Gold Top was the standard line and several years later an upgraded version called the Custom was released.
The humbucking pickups of the Les Paul Gibson guitars made them a favorite amongst many of the best guitar players in the world. This of course made Gibson Les Paul guitars famous and spread their popularity in turn.
Since then, the Gibson Les Paul has gone through many different models and lines but maintains its signature style, sound and feel. You always know a Les Paul Gibson when you see one, and you certainly know it when you hear one.
