Kamis, 09 Juli 2009

The Gibson Les Paul Guitar Story

By Gareth Owen
In 1950, there was a big boom in the world of music when the Fender Telecaster (electric guitar) was introduced in the market. Another breed of guitars led the world of music after this with Gibson Les Paul. As the name suggests Gibson is the leading musical instrument manufacturer and Les Paul was one of the most respected guitarists in history. Les Paul has been known for his innovation in musical instruments and it was for this reason that the president of Gibson Company, Ted McCarthy, got Les Paul to be a consultant for Gibson.

Les Paul made a solid body prototype, which was known as The Log. Les Paul had approached Gibson in the year 1945 with this prototype but this idea was refused, but then again in 1951 Les Paul and Gibson worked together and Les Paul’s innovative idea gave birth to a marvel that rocked the music world. The line of models for the Gibson hollow-body electric guitars provided ideas to create Gibson Les Paul, which differed from Fender in having a more curved body and a glued-in neck.

There are different controversies regarding the role of Les Paul in Gibson. One of the controversies is that the president of Gibson Corporation approached Les Paul and asked him for the right to print his name on the headstock of the guitar so that they could increase the sales of that specific model and name it Gibson Les Paul.

It was also claimed by McCarthy that they only had discussions with Les Paul regarding the tailpiece and fitting of a maple cap over the mahogany body for increased density and sustain. Les Paul also wanted the new model to have a gold finish but the Gibson gave flame and tiger maple finishes for it to compete with the Fender.

The Les Paul guitar started out with two models, the regular model, which was then nicknamed as the Goldtop and the other was the custom model in which up gradation of the hardware was offered with a black finish. There was a constant improvement seen in the pickup, body and hardware patterns that truly pulled lots of guitarists towards it.

There are different features that distinguish the Gibson Les Paul from the rest of the brands. Gibson Les Paul is known for mounting of its strings, which are always mounted on top of the guitar body and not through the guitar body as was seen in the Fender’s models. Gibson Les Paul has offered a wide range of decorative models, customized hardware, and electric pickup options. The humbucking pickup completely eliminated the 60-cycle humming that previously beset the amplified guitars.

Gibson Les Paul has gone through an evolutionary process over the years and has brought on unique models to gear up with state of the art advanced technology and style. The line of Gibson Les Paul models are Goldtop (1952-1957), Custom (1954-1960), Gibson Les Paul Junior (1954-1960), Gibson Les Paul TV (1955-1960), Gibson Les Paul Special (1955-1960), Gibson Les Paul Standard (1958-1960), Gibson Les Paul SG 1961, Gibson Les Paul Deluxe 1968, Gibson Les Paul Studio 1983, as well as the modern Gibson Les Paul guitars.

It was in the 1960 that the icons in the world of guitarists such as Mike Bloomfield, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page as well as Eric Clapton acknowledged the professional capability of Gibson Les Paul’s late 50s guitars because they had the thicker and more sustaining tone of Gibson’s humbucking pickups. This innovation just gave Gibson Les Paul the unique standing in electric guitars and then there were a lot of companies that followed the lead of Gibson in making the humbucking pickups. Following these icons, a lot of other bands and artists made Gibson Les Paul their choice and now a 1959 Les Paul can cost in a range of about $100,000 to $500,000.

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