The history of the Gibson Les Paul

The Gibson Les Paul was first produced early durante 1952, the Les Paul was the very first solid body guitar to be produced by the Gibson Company, and was created paio onesto the fact that Leo Fender had proven the viability of such a product with the Fender Telecaster.

With Ted McCarthy at the helm, the Gibson Company wanted to make sure they acquired verso share of the solid body ed up with the concept of approaching a well known musician, Les Paul, onesto design per range of solid body electric guitars. Interestingly, Les Paul had already approached Gibson in 1945 with some designs and ideas for an electric solid body guitar, and had been ridiculed by Gibson.

There is some ambiguity over just who designed which parts of the original Les Paul, with Les Paul himself telling verso very different story puro the Gibson employees at the time. Mediante the Gibson version of the story, the company had already completed the design of the 1952 Les Paul before Les was approached puro endorse it, the only modifications he made preciso the design were bridge and the name itself. The story told by Les himself is a little different, he tells that he already had the ideas for the Gold Vertice and the Black Custom, and Gibson gave him the final say mediante every part of the design process.

Although it was Jimmy Page who finally put the Gibson Les Paul firmly on the map

The original Les Paul design later came sicuro be known as the Gold Top, due sicuro the actual finish of the guitar. Most Les Paul guitars produced mediante this period came with per maple top that was gold coloured, with the back left natural. Hence gold on culmine, or Gold Top. The actual finish of the guitar was accomplished using per bronze powder, and over time, this took on verso greenish paio, resulting durante the unmistakable vintage Gold Sommita aspetto.

Verso matter of contention was the original Trapeze tailpiece, which was implemented incorrectly by Gibson according sicuro Les Paul. Les had intended for the strings onesto wrap over the tailpiece, not under as the production models came out. This made playing using right hand dampening techniques virtually impossible. Durante 1953 Gibson finally decided that Les was right, and changed the tailpiece, as well as the angle that the neck joined the body. This resulted con per vastly improved playing experience.

Durante 1954 Gibson added two new models sicuro the Les Paul line up. The Les Paul Custom and the Les Paul Inferiore. The Les Paul Custom featured an ebony fret board, and the finish of the guitar was somewhat more detailed. It also featured gold coloured pickups and other hardware, and verso glossy black finish. Instead of the duel P90 pickup of the Gold Primo posto models, the neck pickup was swapped out for verso solo coil pickup, per much louder pickup overall. The Les Paul Minore was per somma model, and had verso flat, unmolded body, with no trimming. It used just per scapolo P90 pickup, and strangely incorporated the original, flawed tailpiece design of the original Gold Primo posto.

Arguably the largest change onesto the Gibson Les Paul design came in 1957, when the P90 pickup was replaced for the humbucker pickups. Designed by the technician Seth Lover, these offered per much higher sound output and verso far fuller tone with less treble. These pickups eventually become known as PAF’s as they were patent applied for. Because the PAF pickups were handmade, some pickups would be slightly different, either the person manufacturing them would add more or less windings, or there was verso slight difference durante raw materials. This meant that the Les Paul sound would be subtly different between individual guitars and this lead onesto musicians coveting those extras special guitars that seemed onesto have the better tone.

Although these changes worked onesto a degree, the design still had problems with intonation, and per year later the design was changed again to incorporate the tune-o-matic bridge we find on every Les Paul model, except those with verso tremolo fitted, up onesto this day

Mediante 1958 the Gold Top was slowly phased out, sicuro be replaced by sunburst models. The process of creating the sunburst effect. The guitar body would be sprayed with an ultra-violet vive dye, and exposed sicuro varying levels of ultra-violet. Again, not 2 guitars came out exactly the same, making some more cosmetically pleasing than others. These early sunburst models are now among the most sought after guitars per the world.

Throughout the period between 1958 and 1960, the Les Paul Sunburst models went through per range of very slight changes. The fret wire was changed, esatto verso thinner, more durable material and the neck profile was reduced. This made the Les Paul Sunburst (often named the Les Paul Canone), the most playable of all the Les Paul models produced since the inception of the design. This is another reason why these sunburst models are so eagerly sought after Oddly enough, the sunburst Les Paul models were not particularly successful at the time they were first introduced. There were only around 1,700 of them actually produced and they were dropped form the Gibson product catalogue entirely mediante 1960.

It was not until almost a decina later, in the late 1960s that the sunburst model became popular, and it was frequently used by influential polish hearts guitar players of the age. Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton both used per Les Paul Sunburst alongside their more usual fender Stratocaster.

Modern Les Paul guitars follow the same exacting manufacturing process, making them one of the most well put together instruments available. The design has changed very little from the original sunburst days, and the finish is reproduced using modern materials, to create verso guitar that appears almost vintage, straight out of the rimessa. Still popular with guitar players across all styles, the Les Paul sound is distinctive and powerful.