Les Paul, Rock Pioneer and creator of one of the worlds finest guitars!
This is the story of Les Paul. Electric guitar pioneer and visionary. Les Paul (born Lester William Polsfuss on June 9, 1915) the American jazz guitarist and legendary inventor, was the pioneering force of the development of the solid-body electric guitar which "made the sound of rock and roll possible." His many recording innovations include overdubbing, delay effects such as "sound on sound" and tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack mixing. His multi tracking technique is used in every recording studio in the world, and began in the early 40's at a time when this was unheard of. Today it is the centerpiece of every home recording studio. In 2003, he was named the 46th best guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone.
At the time of this writing, Les is 93 years old and still playing the "Iridium" club in New York with his jazz/rock friends.
Les was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin to George and Evelyn Polfuss. His birth name was first simplified by his mother to Polfuss before he took his stage name of Les Paul. He also used the nickname Red Hot Red.
By age 13 he was performing semi-professionally as a country-music guitarist and working diligently on sound-related inventions. In 1941, Paul built his first solid-body electric guitar, and he continued to make refinements to his prototype throughout the decade. He also worked on refining the technology of sound, developing revolutionary engineering techniques such as close miking, echo delay and sound on sound. All the while he busied himself as a bandleader who could play both jazz and country music.
His career as a musician nearly came to an end in 1948, when a near-fatal car accident shattered his right arm and elbow. However, he instructed the surgeons to set his arm at an angle that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. Paul subsequently made his mark as a jazz-pop musician extraordinaire, recording as a duo with his wife, singer Colleen Summers (a.k.a. Mary Ford).
Their biggest hits included "How High the Moon" (1951) and "Vaya Con Dios" (1953), both reaching #1. The recordings of Les Paul and Mary Ford are noteworthy for Paul's pioneering use of overdubbing - i.e., layering guitar parts one atop another, a technique also referred to as multitracking or "sound on sound" recording. The results were bright, bubbly and a little otherworldly - just the sort of music you might expect from an inventor with an ear for the future.
In 1952, Les Paul introduced the first eight-track tape recorder (designed by Paul and marketed by Ampex) and, more significantly for the future of rock and roll, launched the solid-body electric guitar that bears his name. Built and marketed by Gibson, with continuous advances and refinements from Paul in such areas as low-impedance pickup technology, the Les Paul guitar became a staple instrument among discerning rock guitarists. This list of musicians associated with the Gibson Les Paul include Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Duane Allman and Mike Bloomfield. Over the ensuing decades, Paul himself has remained active, cutting a Grammy-winning album of instrumental duets with Chet Atkins, Chester and Lester in 1977, performing at New York jazz clubs, and continuing to indulge his inventor's curiosity in a basement workshop at his home in Mahwah, New Jersey.
Peter Frampton and the Gibson Les Paul that sold tens of millions of albums, with it's unique and distinctive sound.
Video of the Legendary Les Paul below.
A true and relatively unsung American Icon.
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Les Paul, our American treasure.
The father of the Greatest Rock Guitar, The legendary, "Gibson, Les Paul"
"I knew from the beginning that there was a great marriage between electronics and music," says Les Paul. "I'd play my guitar and my mother or my brother would tell me how good it sounded, but I wanted to hear it, and the only way that could happen was if I could hear it played back. So I built a crank phonograph and turned it into a recording device like Edison had - without even knowing who Edison was. The electronics were all in my living room. In addition to the phonograph I had a player piano, a telephone and a radio. I took the telephone apart at the receiver end, and when I looked at it I figured that the two coils were humbucking and quickly understood what the receiver was doing.
(Humbucking pickup.) Then I looked at the mouthpiece and worked out what that was doing. It was all right there in the living room. I never had to leave it - and I didn't!"
After forming a trio with rhythm guitarist Jimmy Atkins and bass player Ernie Newton, Les relocated to New York and joined Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, while gaining widespread exposure via the radio and even performing at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Moving to Los Angeles in 1943, he formed a new trio and was soon accompanying Bing Crosby on radio and record, topping the charts with 'It's Been a Long, Long Time'. There were also assignments with such major artists as Judy Garland and the Andrews Sisters, and while he and his Trio had a string of discs issued by Decca between 1944 and 1947 Les also found the time to immerse himself in technological innovations.
Inventing Sound On Sound Recording
It was in 1946 that Les Paul saw a tape machine for the first time - invented by the Germans and rescued from recently-liberated Luxembourg by a group of US Army officers. Familiar with wire recorders, Les had no idea about the AEG Magnetophon that made use of plastic-based magnetic tapes.
"Judy Garland and I flew from LA to New York to do the Paul Whiteman Show," he recalls, "and at the rehearsal this fellow kept trying to get my attention. Finally, I walked over to him and he told me that his name was Colonel Dick Ranger and that he had a tape machine that Sherman Fairchild - the founder of Fairchild Aviation, Fairchild Camera and Instrument, and Fairchild Recording - thought I should see. Well, Judy and I got into a car with Colonel Ranger and went to see this device, and then I called Bing Crosby out on the coast and told him about it. It turned out that one of the fellas working for him, Jack Mullins, had been in the same signal corps as Colonel Ranger, and he also had a tape machine, but he'd left it in pieces in his garage. So he dug out the pieces and took them to Ampex, and Ampex bought them right there on the spot. Colonel Ranger already had the assembled machine but he was not a good businessman, so it was Jack Mullins who made the very first tape machine for Ampex, which was the 200. The rest is history. (Bing Crosby with the Ampex 200).
Les Paul and Mary Ford's version of 'How High the Moon', which topped the Billboard singles chart for nine weeks in the spring and early summer of 1951 (while also hitting number one on the R&B chart, something which no white act had done before), was a true wake-up call for many of today's veteran engineers; a multi-layered, souped-up recording that highlighted not only the jazz guitarist's quick-fingered virtuosity, but also, thanks to his technological and innovative brilliance with recording, the creative possibilities that lay beyond merely capturing a straightforward live performance. As multi-Grammy-winning engineer Bruce Swedien once told me:
Les Paul at work in his home studio.
"The first time I really got excited about pop music was when I discovered that it was possible to use my imagination. That had come with a record that I myself didn't work on, Les Paul and Mary Ford's 'How High the Moon', in 1951. Up to that point the goal of music recording had been to capture an unaltered acoustic event, reproducing the music of big bands as if you were in the best seat in the house. It left no room for imagination, but when I heard 'How High the Moon', which did not have one natural sound in it, I thought, 'Damn, there's hope!'"
'How High the Moon' was recorded in Les Paul's home studio in Jackson Heights, using just the Ampex 300, a power supply unit, a small home-made mixer, a Bell & Howe amplifier, a Lansing Manufacturing Iconic speaker, and a single RCA 44BX ribbon mic.
~Sadly, Mary Ford died in 1977 at the age of 53 due to diabetes.~
From left to right above, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Duanne Allman of the Allman Bros,and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. These are just a few of the guitar slingers that utilized "The Les Paul guitar" on their rise to Rock history. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck the list goes on and on.
The 1959 Les Paul, a most sought after guitar, known for its extremely rich warm tone.(Priceless),Well not priceless, it can be found selling for in excess of 400,000 dollars.Les Paul was the original pioneer, in what today is a multi billion dollar, world wide fascination and dream.
Les Paul, always humble and at times self depreciating, he continues on, even at the age of 93.
He is an American Icon.
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adez7
Sep 26, 2008 @ 12:03 pm | delete
- Very nice lens on Les Paul, you did a great job! ***** :)
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