The music world lost a legend today. Les Paul, the father of the electric guitar, has died of pneumonia in hospital in White Plains, New York.
It was because of Les Paul that the band as we know it exists today. Les Paul built his first electric guitar ‘The Log’ in 1939. Around the same time Leo Fender and Adolph Rickenbacker were also working on their guitars.In the 50s, Gibson contacted Les Paul to design a range and the Les Paul guitar was born.
Eric Clapton adopted the Les Paul guitar in the 60s. Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, Slash and Keith Richards all became Les Paul players.
In fact in was the Stones’ Keith who once said, "we must all own up that without Les Paul, generations of flash little punks like us would be in jail or cleaning toilets."
Les Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss on June 9, 1915.
While his work made the sound of rock and roll possible (Slash is playing a Les Paul on the opening of Sweet Child O’ Mine’), Les was also known as the creator of overdubbing, tape delay and the for the use of multitrack recording.
In 1948, he recorded ‘Lover (When You’re Near Me)’ for Capitol Records and used eight different parts of electric guitar layered over the one track.
Les Paul was the Godfather of guitarist Steve Miller. Miller’s father was best man at Les Paul’s wedding.
"The world has lost a truly innovative and exceptional human being today," said Henry Juszkiewicz, the head of Gibson Guitar today. "I cannot imagine life without Les Paul. He would walk into a room and put a smile on anyone's face. His musical charm was extraordinary and his techniques unmatched anywhere in the world."
