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[albitz]

The great Les Paul who designed the Gibson guitar which bore his name has died aged 94,He didnt know it at the time but his invention changed the course of popular music beyond recognition.
Many of the "rock gods" from the 60,s until the present day couldnt have produced what they did if it hadnt been for the Gibson Les Paul.


P.S. he also invented multi-track recording,which was a bit significant in the history of 20th century music.

[Lizzie_Zoom]

I must admit I have never heard of him

But RIP for obviously a very clever man

[Del Boy]

R.I.P, I knew he was aguitar man thats it though 

[albitz]

He pioneered(although couldnt be credited eith actually inventing ) the electric guitar and in the 50,s had his finally honed version accepted by Gibson,who put his name on the truss rod cover on the headstock - hence the Gibson Les Paul.
It was popular among guitarists in the 50,s but died a death for a while until a very young Eric Clapton discovered that if he turned up the volume to max. on his amp he could get a distorted sound for chords and a screaming/wailing sound for lead solo,s.That is pretty much where the classic rock/blues guitar sound came from.Although Clapton later switched to Fenders the list of famous guitarists who have played a Les Paul is almost endless,but Jimmy Page is possibly the most noteworthy.The sound of Led Zeppelin just wouldnt really have been possible without the Les Paul.He started  with a Fender Telecaster at the beginning of Zep,but quickly changed the the Les Paul,and the rest,as they say,is history.

[Lizzie_Zoom]

He pioneered(although couldnt be credited eith actually inventing ) the electric guitar and in the 50,s had his finally honed version accepted by Gibson,who put his name at the top of the headstock - hence the Gibson Les Paul.
It was popular among guitarists in the 50,s but died a death for a while until a very young Eric Clapton discovered that if he turned up the volume to max. on his amp he could get a distorted sound for chords and a screaming/wailing sound for lead solo,s.That is pretty much where the classic rock/blues guitar sound came from.Although Clapton later switched to Fenders the list of famous guitarists who have played a Les Paul is almost endless,but Jimmy Page is possibly the most noteworthy.The sound of Led Zeppelin just wouldnt really have been possible without the Les Paul.He started  with a Fender Telecaster at the beginning of Zep,but quickly changed the the Les Paul,and the rest,as they say,is history.

Great info Albs; thanks!!

[albitz]

The Les Paul.
http://www.kellyindustries.com/guitars/gibson_lp_jimmy_page.html

[LaserLance]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb5_DEhmDAM&feature=related[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByGsHTlKmWk&feature=related[/media]
Heres a little taster of the great man

[Dishevelled Den]

Some great information there 8-) 8-)

[Darth Loo-knee]

I love the sound of a Les Paul he certainly knew how to make a guitar

If you have a Les Paul now it may get just a little more expensive if they aren't anyway

[jereboam]

A truly great man - I think I heard he was still performing regularly in clubs until very recently. 

There was a documentary on the BBC about the history of the guitar last year and he featured prominently.  With luck this may give them a good opportunity to repeat it - don't miss it.

[albitz]

I love the sound of a Les Paul he certainly knew how to make a guitar

If you have a Les Paul now it may get just a little more expensive if they aren't anyway

A new one is around £1500 depending on model/spec etc,old ones from the 50,s/60,s can fetch tens of thousands .One very famous Les paul was reputedly sold for around $1,000,000 a couple of years ago by its owner,a certain Mr. Gary Moore.

[mars]

I love the sound of a Les Paul he certainly knew how to make a guitar

If you have a Les Paul now it may get just a little more expensive if they aren't anyway

A new one is around £1500 depending on model/spec etc,old ones from the 50,s/60,s can fetch tens of thousands .One very famous Les paul was reputedly sold for around $1,000,000 a couple of years ago by its owner,a certain Mr. Gary Moore.

A few years ago I had some guitar lessons for a few months and the bloke teaching me had a Les Paul and told me he had paid £1500 for it. I had a go on it and it played really good. (The Rolls Royce of guitars).
 

[albitz]

Putting my anorak back on.....The guitar that sold for loads of dosh by Gary Moore had quite a history.
Clapton had his Les Paul stolen(it was never found) so he gave the case to a young fella who had got himself a Les Paul but didnt have a case.The young fellas name was Peter Green,who after serving as a replacement for Clapton in John Mayalls Bluesbreakers went on to form Fleetwood Mac.His Les Paul had a unique sound and it was later discovered that someone had wired the pickups "wrong" which was why it sounded the way it did,so the guitar became famous in its own right because of this.
A few years later Peter Green had a very serious mental break down and gave up playing guitar (it took him over 20 years to recover sufficiently to pick one up again)when he gave up he presented the guitar to a young teenager from Belfast who was obviously a virtuoso guitarist even then,he graciously told the lad that he felt he could make better use of it.
The lads name was Gary Moore,who used the guitar as his main instrument for many years,and recoreded almost all of his albums using it.
When the guitar started to become too worn for stage use etc,he let the Gibson tech boys have it on loan so that they could build him a replica,which they did.He resisted selling the guitar for a long time but eventually he had an offer he couldnt refuse so he sold it to a secret buyer.

Anorak off (until we have a chat about Clapton &his strats sometime.

[albitz]

THAT guitar. 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O_YMLDvvnw[/media]

[albitz]

The famous Les Paul sustain, 2.35-2.55  8-) 8-)
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NjqnwuVsOc[/media]