That's quite a feat when you think of it. Fender did it with the Stratocaster, Telecaster and Precision bass. Gibson got all the right eggs in their basket with the Les Paul solid body.
Why Les Paul?
The then revolutionary concept of a solid body guitar was being pursued on a number of fronts. One Lester Polsfuss, of Waukesha, Wisconsin made one out of a length of 4X4, a railroad sleeper so he says. Les says he played it in a club (under his stage name Les Paul of course) and folks were confused. So he added guitar-like wings and they accepted it a little better. He took this design to Gibson around 1945 but they weren't happy with it. They remembered Les however. This was not surprising as he had become a very famous recording artist and they recognized the marketing value of an association with him. It was with this in mind that Gibson approached Les in 1951 with a proposition. They had been working on a solid body electric guitar design and wanted to put his name on the headstock as a promotional tool. Not surprisingly, Les wanted to at least have some say in the design of the guitar. It is unclear exactly how much say he had, but there is agreement that the trapeze tail-piece and the gold top were Les Paul design contributions to the Les Paul solid body electric guitar.
What are the features of a Les Paul guitar?
The 1952 Gold Top Les Paul guitar featured a carved top, a one piece "trapeze style" tail-piece/bridge assembly, and two P-90 pickups with creme colored plastic guards. The mahogany and maple construction made the guitar very heavy and, to be truthful, Les Pauls from the period '52 to '57 are not great instruments. They are, however, very collectible guitars. In 1954 Gibson made a guitar that has become known as the Black Beauty though its official designation is Les Paul Custom. This guitar with its black top, fitted with Gibson's new tune-o-matic bridge and a better neck pickup, is a genuine contender in the "best guitar of all time" polls.
The Les Paul, unlike the iconic Fender Strat and Tele, appeared in very different configurations, though the one that's generally thought of as the Les Paul is the Gold Top/Custom single cutaway, carved top instrument. Here are some of the variations:
- The Les Paul Junior has a flat top and single pickup.
- The Les Paul TV was essentially a Junior with a "natural" finish (actually more like a see through mustard color), that worked better on black and white TV.
- The Les Paul Special was a two pickup version of the Junior, normally seen in the TV color.
- In 1958 the Junior, TV and Special were offered with a double cutaway, giving a radically different overall look.
The beginning of the end.
Finally, in 1961, Gibson went one step too far for the man whose signature appeared on the headstock. They made an instrument with two horn like cutaways, a very light body and a vibrato system. When Les saw one of these he demanded they take his name off it. Thus, the man and the company parted ways for some years and the new guitar was dubbed the SG (solid guitar). Angus Young is very glad things happened this way.
Les Paul and Gibson made up in the late sixties but the golden era for Les Paul guitars was over.
