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Giu 15, 2022
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The history of the Gibson Les Paul

The history of the Gibson Les Paul

The Gibson Les Paul was first produced early con 1952, the Les Paul was the very first solid body guitar preciso be produced by the Gibson Company, and was created due esatto 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 preciso make sure they acquired a share of the solid body e up with the concept of approaching a well known musician, Les Paul, esatto design verso range of solid body electric guitars. Interestingly, Les Paul had already approached Gibson mediante 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 a very different story onesto the Gibson employees at the time. Durante the Gibson version of the story, the company had already completed the design of the 1952 Les Paul before Les was approached sicuro endorse it, the only modifications he made preciso the design were bridge and the name itself. The story told by Les himself is per little different, he tells that he already had the ideas for the Gold Sommita and the Black Custom, and Gibson gave him the final say sopra 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 preciso be known as the Gold Sommita, due esatto the actual finish of the guitar. Most Les Paul guitars produced durante this period came with verso maple top that was gold coloured, with the back left natural. Hence gold on primo posto, or Gold Primo posto. The actual finish of the guitar was accomplished using a bronze powder, and over time, this took on a greenish paio, resulting in the unmistakable vintage Gold Apice look.

A matter of contention was the original Trapeze tailpiece, which was implemented incorrectly by Gibson according onesto Les Paul. Les had intended for the strings preciso wrap over the tailpiece, not under as the production models came out. This made playing using right hand dampening techniques virtually impossible. Sopra 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 sopra verso vastly improved playing experience.

Durante 1954 Gibson added two new models puro the Les Paul line up. The Les Paul Custom and the Les Paul Junior. 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 a glossy black finish. Instead of the duel P90 pickup of the Gold Sommita models, the neck pickup was swapped out for per single coil pickup, per much louder pickup overall. The Les Paul Ultimogenito was per preventivo model, and had per flat, unmolded body, with mai trimming. It used just per solo P90 pickup, and strangely incorporated the original, flawed tailpiece design of the original Gold Apice.

Arguably the largest change sicuro the Gibson Les Paul design came sopra 1957, when the P90 pickup was replaced for the humbucker pickups. Designed by the technician Seth Lover, these offered a much higher sound output and per far fuller tone with less treble. These localmilfselfies sito mobile 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 a slight difference durante raw materials. This meant that the Les Paul sound would be subtly different between individual guitars and this lead to musicians coveting those extras special guitars that seemed to have the better tone.

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

In 1958 the Gold Apice 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 aceree dye, and exposed puro 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 mediante 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, to per thinner, more durable material and the neck profile was reduced. This made the Les Paul Sunburst (often named the Les Paul Standard), 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 per decina later, durante the late 1960s that the sunburst model became popular, and it was frequently used by influential 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, esatto create a guitar that appears almost vintage, straight out of the garage. Still popular with guitar players across all styles, the Les Paul sound is distinctive and powerful.

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