Not another Les Paul

 

Les Paul, real name Lester William Polsfuss, passed away on this day in 2009. Or is it yesterday: both dates are out there, but everyone will agree the difference is somewhat marginal. What is important, however, is what Les Paul represented: a bone fide musical revolution, that sparked an even greater cultural revolution. Not strictly speaking himself though: rather, the objects he’d created under his own name. That would be a string (pun intended) of guitars half the world still uses to this day.

That’s right, we’re talking about Les Paul here, as in Les Paul guitars. And that’s right too: there was an actual man behind that name, in case you didn’t know yet… And the man’s story pretty much mirrors that of modern music itself. Born in a small town in Wisconsin in 1915, young Lester Polsfuss started playing music extremely early, quickly settling on guitar as his instrument of choice. By the time he was a teenager, the artist was already highly proficient — and equally experimental: he managed to plug his acoustic guitar to a speaker to get heard more loudly in venues. Then he started experimenting on the guitar itself…

The list of his innovations and/or inventions reads like a list of what music best had to offer in the second half of the 20th century — and beyond: sustain, overdubbing, delay effects, multitrack production… Aside from being a first rate musician in his own right, from his early 1950’s success with then-wife Mary Ford to a variety of projects in a variety of genres, the man’s most lasting contribution to the art form comes from his even more incredible technical ingenuity. In short, Paul was instrumental in crafting what modern electric guitars sound — and look — like. Coming up with one of the earliest prototypes of a solid-body electric guitar that he called the “The Log”, he presented the concept to the Gibson guitar corporation for large scale manufacturing. Although the company first turned him down, they later changed their mind with key competitor Fender started working on their Telecaster model. That is how the Gibson Les Paul was born…

Paul’s groundbreaking engineering work didn’t even stop there: we was also a pioneer in the development of multitrack recording technology, which set the stage for the ever more sophisticated musical projects the 60’s and 70’s spawned, spearheaded by the likes of the Beatles, Pink Floyd or the Beach Boys. These various inventions stemmed from years of playing in bars and trying to improve the experience for audiences — then later home listeners. It takes a particular genius to not only be a remarkable musician, but also have the foresight to change the very tools his peers use to advance the art form as a whole. The fact that Paul is now best remembered through his guitars, while reductive, may still be the best honour one could bestow on such a singular individual: people the world over still play all kinds of music using guitars with his name on… RIP!