The

GibSon
LES Paul

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 The
GibSon
LES Paul

DAVE HUNTER

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 CONTENTS
PART I
History 8

PART II
Tone & Construction 180

ARTIST PROFILES
Les Paul 36
Hubert Sumlin 40 163 Gary Rossington
Carl Perkins 42 164 Bob Marley
Luther Allison 44 166 Lindsey Buckingham
Freddie King 46 168 Alex Lifeson
Keith Richards 48 170 Gary Moore
Eric Clapton 50 172 Ace Frehley
Mick Taylor 52 174 Joe Walsh
Peter Green 72 176 Joe Perry
Michael Bloomeld 74 178 Tom Scholz
Paul Kossoff 106 186 Johnny Thunders
George Harrison 108 188 Steve Jones
Neil Young 110 190 Mick Jones
Jimmy Page 112 192 Randy Rhoads
Jeff Beck 118 194 Mark Knoper
Marc Bolan 150 196 Zakk Wylde
Peter Frampton 152 208 Slash
Duane Allman 154 210 Buckethead
Dickey Betts 156 212 Mike Ness
Billy F Gibbons 158 214 Billie Joe Armstrong
Mick Ronson 160 216 Sean Costello

Index 218

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 R&B duo Mickey & Sylvia (Mickey Guitar Baker and Sylvia Vanderpool) pose with their Les Pauls, a Custom and a
Special. Baker was later honored with the 2003 Gibson Les Paul Custom 57 Mickey Baker signature model.
Gilles Petard/Redferns/Getty Images

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 1927 Gibson L-5, purchased by Les Paul in
Kalamazoo in 1933. Juliens Auctions

P A RT I

HISTORY
NO OTHER ELECTRIC GUITARS BIRTH is shrouded in as much myth,
mystery, misinformation, and even obsession as that which accompanies the early his-
tory of the Gibson Les Paul. A big part of the problem lies in the fact that the two names that
came together to put their stamp on that iconic instrumentGibson and Les Paulhave often
told very different stories of the development of the model. If you listened to Les Paul talk about it
during his lifetime, youd conclude the guitar was mostly his idea, other than the parts Gibson got
wrong earlier on; from Gibsons perspective, it was mostly a Gibson project, with Les Pauls name
on the headstock. Likely the reality lies somewhere between the two. Whatever the case, theres no
doubt that Les Paul the artist suggested that Gibson build a solidbody electric guitar before any
such beast was successfully in production with an established manufacturer, and that the resultant
instrument was heavily steeped in Gibsons form and style. And that solidbody electric guitar has
become the worlds most valuable standard production model of its type on the vintage market.

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 Orville H. Gibson. Gibson Musical Instruments

Whatever its origins, what is undeniable is that the Les Paul rep-
resented the perfect blend of Gibsons tradition and mid-century
innovation. And while it might not seem entirely innovative from
our vantage point, more than sixty years down the road, at the time
it was nothing short of revolutionaryeven if relatively few players
realized it right away. It was inevitable that Gibson would eventually
develop a solidbody electric guitar, and it might have looked a lot
like the Les Paul Model even without that name attached. But with-
out Les Pauls impetus, the guitar probably would have come along
later, and arguably would not have made the same splash on the mar-
ket without his signature on the headstock. What we can all most
likely agree on is the fact that Gibson and Les Paul came together to
unveil something marvelous, and that its impact was, and remains,
far greater than that of either name on its own.

Orville Gibson and the Birth

of the Archtop Guitar
Other acoustic-guitar makers were producing excellent instruments
in the United States in the latter part of the nineteenth century, but
right from its inception in the 1890s, Gibson was unique among
them. All on his own, in a cramped backroom workshop in Kalam-
azoo, Michigan, Orville H. Gibson invented the archtop guitar.
Consider that all such guitars of the past 120 years built to any
approximation of that templatenot only by Gibson but also by
Epiphone, Gretsch, DAngelico, Stromberg, Guild, Benedetto, and
so many othersowe an eternal debt to Orville Gibsons creation,
and his achievement comes into even keener focus.
Little is known of Orville H. Gibsons early life, other than that
he was born in 1856 to British immigrant John W. Gibson and his
wife Amy on a farm in upstate New York, and that he traveled west
to Kalamazoo, Michigan, at the age of twenty-five. Even in the early
1880s, and before, Michigan represented a West that promised
opportunity and the chance for an entrepreneur to make his own
wayshades of the boom times that would make nearby Detroit a
world industrial power some years later. Kalamazoo itself was techni-
cally no more than a village at the time of Orvilles arrival, albeit a
big one, and one that would rapidly grow toward town and even
city status.
According to Walter Carters very informative book Gibson
Guitars: 100 Years of an American Icon (General Publishing Group,
1994), Orville took a variety of jobs while apparently working
toward his dream of building musical instruments. Positions as a
clerk in a shoe store and at Butters Restaurant saw him through
the mid-1880s and early 1890s, but by the mid-1890s the aspiring
instrument maker had established a functioning workshop and was
already on his way to making guitar history.
While we cant know exactly how or where Orville Gibson got
his notions for guitar and mandolin making, we do know they
established an original and even revolutionary new form in the
industry. Basing his construction on that of the violin, he carved
the tops and backs of his instruments from solid wood, following
the theory that the strength of the arched, solid tops allowed the
soundboards to vibrate more freely, requiring, as they did, fewer and
lighter supporting elements. While these theories evolved into the
renowned Gibson archtop guitars, mandolins were a far bigger craze
in Orvilles day, and his early developments in instrument making
arguably had an even biggeror at least more directimpact on
that world. His carved-top A-style and F-style mandolins gained
attention quickly and remain far and away the two standards in the
industry, nearly 120 years later.
Even so, Orvilles archtop guitars were a major part of the bur-
geoning lineup, and the entire range of Gibson instruments earned
a stellar reputation surprisingly quickly in that slower-paced age.
Having been established in his instrument-making workshop for
little more than half a decade, in 1902 Orville was courted by a
group of Kalamazoo businessmenincluding John W. Adams,
Leroy Hornbeck, Sylvo Reams, Samuel H. Van Horn, and Lewis
A. Williamswho sought to invest in the venture. Contracts

Gibson Les Paul

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 agreed and signed by the end of the year established the Gibson
Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company, Limited, with its
namesake as a consultant, while also paying Orville himself $2,500
(a whopping sum at the time) for the rights to the Gibson name.
However, while the groups backing clearly helped Gibson to grow,
and saw an acceleration in the brands uptake among musicians,
it seems also to have signaled the decline of Orvilles own
involvement in his creations.
In 1911, after a few years of apparent ill health signaled
by occasional hospital stays, Orville returned to upstate New
York in the care of a doctor. All accounts indicate that he had
largely abandoned his involvement in the Gibson company
years before. In his brief biography of Orville, David K.
Bradford writes, the small amount of stock he owned in the
company was sold to a local saloonkeeper within six months
of the companys formation after a falling out with the manage-
ment (19thcenturyguitar.com, 2009). Although little is known
of Orvilles personal life or his history after the formation of the
Gibson company, Bradford also states that the founder of this
burgeoning guitar empire was considered eccentric and prob-
ably suffered from mental illness. On August 21, 1918, after
several more stays in the hospital, Orville H. Gibson died. He
was buried in Morningside Cemetery in Malone, New York.
A Legacy Lives Onand Grows
While the young Gibson company continued to grow, still
manufacturing guitars based on many of the design and con-
struction principles of its deceased namesake, several of the
most significant advancements in the archtop gui-
tar were post-Orville developments. After an
early boom of sorts, Gibson weathered some
difficult times immediately after World
War I. Just as Orville had founded the
business on the notion of building a better
instrument, though, the company pushed
forward with the premise of building the
best guitarsand mandolins and banjosin
America. In the view of many players of
the day, it succeeded.
A respected musician as well as
an innovative instrument designer,
Lloyd Loar came to work for
Gibson in 1919 and was a prime
mover in the first major wave of
qualitative improvements in the
line. Alongside Ted McHugh and
Lewis Williams, Loar helped see in
Gibson Super 400the king of the archtops
from 1935. Nigel Osborne/Redferns/Getty Images
History
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the height-adjustable bridge of 1921, and the adjustable truss rod
in 1922, both of which remain standards of guitar construction
today. The most notable guitar on which they appeared, the Master
Model L-5, tends to be remembered as Loars greatest achievement
in the world of the six-string (his Master Model mandolins have
retained an even stronger reputation in the eight-string arena). In
addition to these adjustable components, Loar dramatically
refined the tuning of the instrumentthat is, the means
of carving and bracing its top to enhance resonance, tone,
and sustainand essentially ushered in the modern era of
the archtop guitar.
Loars L-5 supplanted the L-4 as Gibsons flagship guitar,
and also introduced the now-ubiquitous f-holes on Gibsons
archtops, the first crash of a cresting wave that would see
Orvilles original round and oval sound holes vanish from the
line by the mid-1930s. With its dot position markers and gen-
eral lack of adornments, the L-5 of 1922 might be a plain-looking
guitar when judged by the standards of Gibson archtops soon to
follow, but it was designed entirely with performance and tone in
mind. It was a large guitar for its day, too, at 16 inches across the
lower bout, and exhibited decent volume.
Lloyd Loar left Gibson at the end of 1924, but not before
trying to push a fledgling electric-guitar prototype on Gibson
general manager Guy Hart. He would go on to further explora-
tions in amplifying acoustic instruments.
The L-5 became the guitar of choice for notable performers
such as Eddie Lang and Maybelle Carter, and even a young Lester
Polsfuss acquired oneto which he soon added a pickupin
1928. The model gained a little elegance at the end of
the decade, including the dressy block finger-
board markers added in 1929, and was joined
by the fancier L-7 and L-12 in 1930 and
1932, respectively. But none of these could
hold a candle to the king of the Gibson arch-
tops, the 18-inch-wide Super 400, introduced
in 1934. With its split-block position markers,
enlarged and bound headstock with split-
diamond inlay (a look still familiar on
many Gibsons today), elaborate bound
pickguard, and engraved gold-plated
tailpiece, the Super 400 quickly
became a badge of success for jazz
and country and western perform-
ers alike. It also helped the guitar
supplant the mandolin and banjo
as the most popular stringed instru-
ment in the band. But in achieving
this status, the guitar was also facing
a growing problem.
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 Jazz singer Slim Gaillarda.k.a. McVoutywith his
trusty ES-150. Gilles Petard/Redferns/Getty Images

Guitarist Charlie Christian plays his ES-150

on stage with the Benny Goodman Orchestra
circa 1940 in New York. Frank Driggs/Michael
Ochs Archive/Getty Images

1936 ES-150the first production-model electric guitar

from a major maker. Outline Press
Mid-1930s ES-125 with a 1950s-style logo
on the headstock. Juliens Auctions

Gibson Les Paul

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 As the popular music that it helped to fuel became, well, more
popularand as the orchestras that played it became larger and
louder, and performed in larger venuesthe humble six-string
found itself struggling to keep up in the volume stakes. Even in
a small nightclub, the advanced-sized Super 400 could still be
drowned out by the blare of the trumpet and saxophone. Something
had to be done to put the guitar front and center, and in the mid-
30s Gibson was right on the cusp of doing it. By this time, however,
other designs by other makers were already contributing to the art.
The Quest for Volume
The Super 400 was a response to a quest for greater volume that was
already several years in the running, and as such it was actually a
more traditional effort than much of what had already come before.
An earlier acoustic-based effort at increasing the guitars volume
but one that took a more adventurous approachcame in the form
of National Resophonics resonator guitar, released in 1927. A col-
laboration between guitarist and inventor George Beauchamp,
instrument manufacturer John Dopyera, and metal fabricator
Adolph Rickenbacker, it used a trio of spun-aluminum cones (and
later a single, larger cone) to passively amplify the strings vibra-
tions, via a complex bridge arrangement. Nationals tri-cones
were definitely louder than conventional arched or flattop acoustic
guitars, but they were also different feeling and sounding beasts in
the hands and ears of players looking for tones that were largely
conventional, only louder. Advancements in electronics were also
soon to doom the resonator guitars to redundancy regardlessin
the volume-increasing stakes, anywayalthough the steel-bodied
Nationals and wood-bodied Dobros that followed carved out a
sonic and stylistic niche in their own right and presented a tone
that has remained popular to this day.
The earliest electric efforts came in forms more akin to
the piezo pickups used on acoustic guitars today. Stromberg-
Voisinet (which later became the Kay company) released a
flattop with top-mounted transducer in 1928, and former
Gibson designer Lloyd Loar, partnered by former Gibson
sales manager Lewis A. Williams, continued his explorations
into pickups and amplification with the ViviTone electric
guitars of the early 30s. These translated vibrations from
the bridge to an electromagnetic coil mounted in a drawer
beneath the guitars top. Neither effort survived for long, but
by now the wheels were turning.
Meanwhile, Beauchamp and Rickenbacker had departed
from National in the late 1920s and joined forces with fel-
low inventor Paul Barth to develop an electromagnetic
pickup that was ready for use by 1931. Forever after known
as the horseshoe pickup for the pair of large magnets
Jazz/swing bandleader Alvino Reypictured here with his
Electro-String lap-steeland the 4 King Sisters, circa 1940.
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between which the coil was mounted, it was used on a lap-steel
guitar manufactured in 1932 by the Electro-String company,
and, soon after, on both electric Spanish and lap-steel models in
Bakelite and aluminum, with many early efforts bearing the Rick-
enbacher model name on the headstock. None of these quite set
the music world alight, and the Electro-String company would suffer
considerable setbacks for the war effort of the early 40s before Adolph
Rickenbacker sold up to F. C. Hall in 1953 (which, ironically, led to
the establishment of the Rickenbacker brand as we know it today), but
Beauchamp and Barths focus on the pickup first, and the instrument
after, showed that their thinking was entirely amplification-led: get
the electric right, and the guitar could follow. And even though none
of these efforts had really taken flight in the guitar market by the early
30s, you can bet Gibson was keeping an eye on the trend.
Gibson Goes Electric
Gibson, traditionalist as it was, had obviously come at the issue
of amplifying the guitar from a different direction: namely, it had
the guitar already, so it set about creating a pickup to work with it.
As much as the company might have liked to have dismissed the
forewarnings of a move toward electrification, it had also weathered
some tough years following World War I and through the early part
of the Depression, and it wasnt about to dismiss a trend that might
otherwise result in it lagging behind in the market.
According to guitar historians Walter Carter and A. R. Duch-
ossoir, Gibson general manager Guy Hart first set engineer John
Kutalek the task of developing a viable electric model, using a
workshop in the Lyon & Healy amplifier factory in Chicago, with
consultation from musician Alvino Rey (a popular and influential
performer who was using Electro-Strings early Rickenbacher lap-
steel guitar at the time). Evolving from a Hawaiian music craze that
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 spread like wildfire in the 1920s and early
30s to the burgeoning western swing and
country scenes that ignited in the 30s
and through the 40s, the lap-steel guitar,
Photo by George Aslaender, courtesy of Retrofret Vintage Guitars
played with a solid steel bar (or slide), was
really the most popular electric guitar of
An Electro-String Frying Pan lap-steel guitar from 1931.
the era. Part of its prominence can be attrib-
uted not merely to the music to which it
was so well suited (and which it helped to
inspire), but also to the fact that it was more
effective as a lead instrument, and therefore
more capable of putting guitarists, in the
broad sense, in the spotlight. The Kutalek
Rickenbackers Frying Pan patent.
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venture failed to bear fruit, however (although Alvino Reys efforts
eventually resulted in the first commercially available tone circuit for
the electric guitar), and Gibson instead pursued a line of develop-
ment much closer to home.
Hart tasked engineer Walter Fuller with developing a viable
electric pickup in late 1934 or early 35, and the resultant unit,
originally known simply as the bar pickup, was first used on the
E-150 lap steel of 1935. It would eventually become more famous
forand gain its more common colloquial name fromits use on
the ES-150 electric Spanish guitar introduced the following year.
The first production electric guitar from a major manufacturer, the
ES-150 was soon taken up by jazz virtuoso Charlie Christian, and
the Hart-Fuller unit, in its various guises, has forever after been best
An unusual double-deck ES-150 lap-steel
guitar from 1938. Outline Press
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 known as the Charlie Christian pickup. The guitar
itself, however, was very much a mid-level acoustic
archtop model entirely in Gibsons wheelhouse: carved
X-braced spruce top, flat maple back, and no fancy trim
or markings whatsoever. You might even think Hart
didnt feel the upstart electric guitar deserved Gibsons
best work, but in the hands of Christian and others, the
instrument quickly proved what it could do.
Basic as it was, the ES-150 provided guitarists the means
of escaping the ghetto of the rhythm section and stepping
into the spotlight. In marketing terms, it gave Gibson the
confidence to follow up with a succession of electric mod-
els in the preWorld War II years, which included a more
affordable ES-100 in 1938 and an upmarket ES-250 in
1939. In 1940, the even more deluxe ES-300 was released,
complete with decorative split-parallelogram fingerboard
inlays and a carved maple back. In 1941, however, Gib-
son halted production for the war effort. When production
resumed in 1945, the guitar emerged with an even stron-
ger place in the booming jazz scene, while Gibson electrics
found themselves front and center of a market that wasnt
going away.
The Solidbody Emerges
In many ways, a natural progression of the same quest
for volume that drove guitaristsand guitar manufac-
turersto amplify the instrument also led to what
might now seem to be the sheer inevitability of
Gibson E-150 lap steel in aluminum finish. This model was
produced in a limited run of around one hundred guitars in
late 1935 and early 36 and designated as both an E-150
and an EHG (Electric Hawaiian Guitar). Photos by
George Aslaender, courtesy of Retrofret Vintage Guitars
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the solidbody electric guitar. As bands got louder, the
hollowbody electric guitars that sought to keep up were
prone to feedback, their amplifiers inducing uncontrol-
lable howl in their overly resonant bodies. At the same
time, while the electric Spanish guitar, in the form of a
traditional hollowbody archtop, could theoretically com-
pete, volume-wise, with the lap-steel (or electric Hawaiian)
guitar, it still didnt have quite the sustain, punch, or overall
cutting power amid a large band in full flow.
Gibson pursued one form of a solution with the release of the
ES-175 in 1949. This model had a body made from more rigid,
laminated wood, which Gibson reasoned would be less prone
to feedback and yet still fully acceptable sonically, since the gui-
tars prime intention was amplification rather than acoustic tone.
Following principle No. 2, Gibson also gave the guitar a nifty
pointed cutaway for improved upper-fret access. The ES-175
was a major design success, and virtually an overnight success
with players, too, becoming an enduring jazz classic. It still didnt
entirely cure the feedback and sustain issues, but a more perma-
nent solution was already in the wings . . . or, more accurately,
in the core.
Electro-Strings Rickenbacher Spanish and Hawaiian electrics
from as early as 1932 could arguably be called solidbody gui-
tars, although most had hollow centers. Newcomers Leo Fender
and Doc Kauffman built a one-off solidbody in 1944, primarily
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 A later example of the L-5, this one produced in 1939 and
owned by the noted jazz guitarist Al Viola, known for his work
with Frank Sinatra and on the soundtrack to The Godfather.
Fretted Americana

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 Les Paul in the studio, circa 1950. Pictorial Press/Alamy

History
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 One of several versions of The Log, Les Pauls innovative first
(Continued from page 15)
attempt at an electric guitar, made from a four-by-four and an
to test pickup designs. But the first viable, if limited- Epiphone neck. Outline Press

production, solidbody came from Paul A. Bigsby.

Working from a sketch made by guitarist Merle Travis Lester mounted a phonograph cartridge to the top of the
in the early-to-mid 40s, Bigsbythen a foreman in instrument, with the needle embedded in the soundboard,
the machine shop of the Crocker Motorcycle Company and broadcast it through his fathers radio. Viola! Homemade
in Los Angelescrafted a solid maple guitar with a single electric guitar. Les was designing and building his own vibrato
pickup and a six-a-side headstock, which he completed for tailpieces to add on to his guitars as early as 1929 or 30, and
Travis in 1946. A handful of other Bigsby electric guitars fol- he even came close to cooperating with both Paul Bigsby and
lowed, most equipped with the vibrato tailpiece that would Leo Fender on vibrato designs in later years, but he didnt have
ultimately make his name, although the guitar never went enough interest in following through on the ventures. When in
into wide production. 1941 he explored his notions for a guitar with a solid body, how-
By the end of the decade, one of these pioneers, Leo ever, he was definitely on to something.
Fender, would be on the verge of making major waves in the By the early 40s, Les Paul was on his way to making a name
guitar world with a design that would spur even the more for himself as a jazz guitarist in New York City, and like many
traditional guitar makers into action. Several years before, players on the scene, he was in search of something more from
though, the seeds of Gibsons own move into the solidbody the hollowbody electrics that were commonly available . . . as
arena had already been sewn . . . even if Gibson didnt quite well as something less. He experimented with several materi-
know it yet. als, including some as drastic as a section of railroad track, in
an effort to achieve greater sustain from the instrument. His
Lester Polsfuss theory was that the closer you could come to harnessing and
Born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in amplifying the pure vibration of the string, without the interfer-
1915, the man who would eventually put his name on what ence of any unpredictable wood resonance, the more effective
would become the most valuable vintage electric gui- an instrument you would have. All I wanted to
tar in history had traveled a long road even do was get a string to ring, Les told Hank
before he came to collaborate with Gib- Bordowitz for The Guitar Magazine (UK)
son. Having learned to play the guitar, in 2001. The steel railroad track was the
the banjo, and the harmonica at a ultimate personification of that explora-
young age, Lester started playing tion, but, as Les admitted, I couldnt
professionally while still in his teens. imagine Gene Autry on a horse hold-
The ginger-haired Polsfuss segued ing a piece of railroad track. So, that
through the stage names Wizard of went out the window.
Waukesha, Hot Rod Red, and Rhu- What he could imagine, though, was
barb Red before landing on the more something following the same principle
dignified Les Paul, the name with which but made of wood. After he had outlined
he secured his first major fame. the idea in his Queens apartment in
All the while, Les was as much 1940 or 41, Less pals at the Epi-
of a tinkereror even an out- phone factory on 14th Street
right inventoras he was a in Manhattan let him use the
musician. As a kid he built a facilities during the evening
microphone and PA out of hours to pursue his vision for
a telephone and his moms the future of the guitar. Using
radio, mounting it on a a length of four-by-four pine
broomstick to perform for and the neck from an Epi-
tips out behind a BBQ stand phone guitar, he attached
near his home. When a pickups and a bridge, and
patron complained that they brought his solidbody guitar
could hear his singing and his to life. (Note that, while we
harmonica, but not his guitar, closely associate Epiphone with

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 An early-1940s Epiphone
Zephyr archtop with hand-
cut Plexiglas pickguard
and Gibson decal on the
headstock, bought by Les Paul
at Fife and Nichols Music Store
on Hollywood Boulevard and
and nicknamed Klunker #3 by
him. Juliens Auctions

The site of the old Gibson guitar factory

in Kalamazoo, Michigan, now home to
Heritage Guitars. Andrew Woodley/Alamy

History
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 Gibson today, this was still more than a decade and a half before the
latter guitar company would buy up the former.)
I took it to a bar out in Sunnyside [Queens, New York], Paul
told The Guitar Magazine, and when I sat in with just the four-by-
four they laughed at me! When I put wings on it, they thought it was
a guitar and everything was fine.
The wings consisted of the sawn-off sides of an Epiphone hol-
lowbody, attached to the four-by-four with metal brackets. And
while they made the creation eminently more guitar-like, the instru-
ment never shook its nickname: the log. Despite his association
with Epiphone, however, and the fact that the log carried an Epi
neck and body wings, Les never tried to
sell his invention to the New York gui-
tar maker. I was aiming at Gibson, he
told Tony Bacon in a 1989 interview
(as quoted in Bacons outstanding book
Million Dollar Les Paul; Jawbone Books,
2008). I wasnt aiming at Epi. Gibson
was the biggest in the world, and thats
where I wanted to go.
Sometime in the mid-1940s, Les
Paul took his log to Maurice Berlin,
president of Chicago Musical Instru-
ments (CMI), which had bought out
Gibson in 1944. The reaction was more
laughter, which pretty much defines the
universal reactions to all fledgling (if
revolutionary) efforts to get an electric
guitar off the ground: whether Electro-
Strings frying pan, Fenders canoe
paddle, or Les Pauls log. Paul, it
seems, was largely used to it by now,
though, and went back to his business
of becoming one of the music scenes
most popular guitarists, as well as a pio-
neer of the studio recording process.
By this time, he had already performed
1949 press ad for the Gibson ES-5 electric
and recorded with Bing Crosby, among
others, and the chart-topping crooner
would soon encourage the guitarists explorations in groundbreak-
ing advances in the tape-based recording process. Les Paul was
the first known performer to use sound-on-sound recording, and
also helped to establish multi-track tape recording (a little later, in
1952, he would design the first commercially available eight-track
tape recorder, manufactured by Ampex). His own use of the pro-
cess brought him several hits wrought from orchestral guitar-based
instrumental pieces, and he broadened his reach in popular music
even further when he officially teamed up with singer Mary Ford.
They were married in 1949, while Les was still convalescing from a
Gibson Les Paul
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bad car accident in 1948, and they quickly became one of the most
popular husband-and-wife double acts going. In short, Les Paul
wasnt losing a lot of sleep over the guitar industrys rejection of his
solid-centered creation.
Upstart Solidbody Spurs a Revolution
While all this was going on, an upstart guitar and amplifier maker
out in California was beating a hot path toward a commercially viable
solidbody electric guitar, and the rest of the guitar world would soon
be forced to take notice. In the short span of time from 1946 to 1950,
Leo Fender had developed a solid reputation for his highly functional
and good-sounding lap-steel guitars and
amplifiers. Just prior to the end of the
decade, he and his associates were pre-
paring to unleash a bombshell on the
guitar sceneeven if its full detona-
tion would be delayed by a rather slow
fuseand an electric Spanish guitar
with a solid body would soon be a must
in every respectable makers catalog.
Fender produced a few viable pro-
totypes of his new guitar in 1949 and
even showed some of them at the
summer NAMM show that year. The
production model was released in
1950, first carrying the name Esquire,
then Broadcaster, with the Esquire
becoming the single-pickup model. In
February of 1951, just as the Broad-
caster was gaining some tentative
footing in the guitar world, Fenders
sales arm received a letter from Gretsch
stating that the well-established Brook-
lyn company owned the trademark to
the model name. Gretsch Broadkaster
banjos and drums (with a k in place
of the c) had been on the market
Spanish guitar. Outline Press since the 1920s, and a drum kit of that
name was still available at the time of
the Fender Broadcasters release. Eager to avoid conflict so early in
the game, Fender pulled the model name from the headstock for a
few monthsresulting in the now iconic Nocaster guitarsbefore
Fenders chief of sales Don Randall came up with the Telecaster mon-
iker to capitalize on the early excitement for TV.
Fenders electric Spanish guitar was also laughed at in many
circles, but musicians were buying them and playing them in many
prominent positions. With his lap-steel (a.k.a. Hawaiian) guitars,
Leo Fender had landed on a sound and performance that suited pro-
fessionals needs extremely well, and the Broadcaster/Telecaster et
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al. used that as a springboard. It was bright, clear, and
cutting within a band context; it sustained very well,
compared to conventional, fully acoustic electrics; and
it was impressively resistant to feedback. And if it was just
a slab of swamp ash with a one-piece maple neck secured
by wood screws, so what? It got the job done like nothing
else on the market. Did Maurice Berlin of CMI and Gib-
son president Ted McCarty take notice? Youd better believe
they did. You can just imagine the telephone conversation:
Hello, Mr. Paul? Uhmlets talk some more about
that log contraption of yours . . .
Gibson Enters the Game
With a wealth of guitar history behind it, and a reputa-
tion for cleverly blending tradition with innovation,
Gibson took a decidedly different approach to the solid-
body electric guitar than had Fender. It wasnt hard for
the long-established Kalamazoo company to
distinguish its efforts from those of the Cali-
fornia newcomer, given the bolt-together,
slab-bodied construction of the Fender.
To be fair, Fenders offering did the job
extremely well, whatever it looked like (and
Leos willingness to throw the old blueprints
for the guitar right out of the window was a
big part of what helped the thing fly, design-
wise), but from the start, Gibson was intent
on making its own debutante solidbody a
Gibson, and equally intent that it be fully
seen and accepted as such.
The story so often told has it simply
that Les Paul invented Gibsons solidbody
electric guitar (or presented the idea, at least),
but the wealth of recollections from those on the
scene paints a very different picture. Business was good by 1950,
and Gibson was the market leader, flush with major artists playing
its archtop electric guitars, while the companys flattops were giving
Martin a run for its money. Even so, Gibson was well aware that it
would need a solidbody in the lineup to continue to compete in an
ever-evolving game. Tradition still counted for plenty, but there was
a revolution in the wind, and Gibson was getting a whiff of it.
Ted McCarty had joined Gibson as CEO in 1948, and was
president by the time the solidbody was ever a serious consideration.
Although his background was in businesshe had been in mana-
gerial positions at Wurlitzer for the previous twelve yearshe also
held an engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati, and he
wasnt afraid to step out of the boardroom and into the R&D depart-
ment. A relative newcomer, McCarty wasnt tied to tradition, either.
He had already trimmed the top-heavy company immediately upon
History
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(Text)
Les Pauls 1951 Fender Nocaster, as given to him by Leo Fender.
Juliens Auctions
his arrival to convert an apparently successful guitar manufacturer
into a genuinely successful operation according to the final arbiter:
the bottom line. As a new decade dawned, he was beginning
to see the value in a Gibson solidbodyhowever much
parent-company CMIs head honcho Maurice Berlin
might have derided the idea just a few years beforeand
wasnt afraid to roll up his sleeves and dig in. Even so,
there was still this rather staid heritage thing to work
around at Gibson, and the form that said electric guitar
should take wasnt initially easy to come by without crash-
ing headlong into tradition.
As McCarty told guitar historian Tom Wheeler in
1993, in his contribution to Walter Carters book Gib-
son Guitars: 100 Years of an American Icon, We didnt
like the idea, in a way, because it didnt take a great
deal of skill to build a plank guitar. After trying out
prototypes with a solid maple body that was too heavy,
too bright, and sustained for too long, Gibson turned
back a little more toward tradition. So the original had a
mahogany back with a carved maple top laminated to it, McCarty
told Wheeler. The reason we carved the top was that Fender didnt
have any carving equipment, so I decided, lets do something differ-
ent. Yes, Fender was very much in Gibsons sights.
It seems McCarty was largely responsible for the guitars shape
and arched topaesthetic elements that were scaled down from
Gibsons large jazzboxes. The pickups were essentially the same P-90
single-coil units that Gibson had unveiled in 1946 in dog-ear
covers, reconfigured for new soapbar covers, with the four-knob
control section already in use on some of the upscale archtop elec-
trics early in the new decade. The headstock shape and fingerboard
inlays were also seen elsewhere in the Gibson guitar line. Pulled
together with a standard trapeze tailpiece and traditional bridge, the
guitar was ready to meet its would-be endorsee. Ironicallyin hind-
sightit was wearing a sunburst finish.
(Continued on page 24)
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 Right- and left-handed
versions of the 1952 Les Paul
Model. Outline Press

Gibson Les Paul

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 A press ad from 1952 for the first
Les Paul goldtop. Outline Press

Les Pauls 1952 Standard goldtop, with trapeze tailpiece, bound

fingerboard, and replacement Grovers tuners. Juliens Auctions

History
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 (Continued from page 21)
Les Paul Meets the Les Paul
One way or another, it seemed, all roads still led to Les Paul. In his
conversations with writer Tom Wheeler, McCarty told the story of
taking the prototype to Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, a town
about fifty miles outside New York City, where Les Paul had set up
his recording studio. Les played it, and his eyes lit up. We worked
all night long on a royalty contract, and when we were finished,
it was only a page-and-a-half long. After that we submitted things
to Les for his advice. As with any product in early development,
several more iterations followed this prototype, all evolving toward
a final commercial rendition in 1952, with a goldtop finish in place
of the traditional sunburst, and a bridge-and-tailpiece unit based on
one designed by Les himself, rather than the unit borrowed from
Gibsons larger hollowbody archtops.
The now-iconic goldtop finishactually produced by add-
ing bronze powder to a brew of clear nitrocellulose lacquer and
reducerwas a wise bid to capture the attention of a new mood
sweeping through the guitar worldone that would soon be defined
simply as rock n roll. Whatever its supposed market appeal, Les
has also claimed the finish to be his ideathe idea being to des-
ignate the goldtop as a top-of-the-line electric guitar. (Somewhat
contrary to this, perhaps, he also laid claim to the all-black coat
worn by the black-tie-dressed Les Paul Custom of 1954, which
was truly Gibsons top-of-the-line solidbody electric for many years.)
Apparently first used on a unique presentation model hollowbody
in 1951, the gold finish also appeared on Gibsons ES-295, which
was also released in 1952 and quickly became iconic in rockabilly
circles. That hollowbody electric was identical to the ES-175 except
for its use of one significant piece of hardware: an integral bridge/
tailpiece unit designed by Les Paul himself, which also appeared on
the inaugural run of Les Paul Model solidbody electric guitars, and
which was later encored on the thinline hollowbody ES-225. The
only problemand its another great Les Paul ironywas that the
bridge was used wrongly on the guitar that carried his name.
Les had designed the bridge back in 1945 or 46 with the
intention of enhancing sustain and minimizing unwanted body
vibrations. He constructed it in the metal shop belonging to his
neighbor Phil Wagner and used it on several of his own hollowbody
electrics, and renditions of the log, for recordings and performances
throughout the late 40s, including studio dates with Bing Crosby.
The bridge section was fashioned from a cylindrical metal rod
with six holes for string anchors, a post at either end with thumb-
wheel height adjustment, and long trapeze rods to anchor it at
the butt-end of the guitar, in much the same way as a traditional
trapeze tailpiece would be anchored. As used by Les, the strings
were inserted through the anchor holes from the front of the bridge
bar and wrapped around the top of the bar toward the fingerboard
(as such, it was the true precursor to the wraparound bridge
Gibson Les Paul
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(Text)
introduced in 1953more of which later). As used by Gibson on
the first batch of Les Pauls throughout 1952 and into 53, however,
its function was severely compromised.
This is f---ed up, Paul told The Guitar Magazine UK in Febru-
ary 2001, while displaying an original example. The first arched-top
body models were incorrectly made. The tailpiece is wrong, the
neck joins the body wrong: its not on a bias, not on an angle. They
thought, Well, I guess what Les meant was the strings are supposed
to go under the bridge. But you cant muffle the strings at the bridge.
They made this wrong. When I got this guitar, I said, Stop it! Youre
making the guitars all wrong! There may be a thousand of these
guitars out there. Its also worth noting that Les Paul submitted his
own patent application for the Combined Bridge and Tailpiece for
Stringed Instruments (with the strings clearly wrapping over the
bar) on July 9, 1952, and that it was granted on March 13, 1956, the
year the ES-225 was introduced. The last guitar to carry that piece of
hardware, it would be discontinued in 1959.
It might seem inconceivable that a well-established guitar maker
like Gibson would make such a fundamental mistake on a major
new model, and persist with the flaw through production num-
bers running into the four figuresGibsons shipping records show
that 1,716 were produced in the first year, and many in early 53
retained the same bridgebut several elements seem to have con-
tributed to the prolonged gaff. For one, Les Paul himself was off on
tour with Mary Ford for much of the time that the guitar was in
production, and he didnt receive his sample until plenty had come
off the line (clearly, the assumption was that it would be much like
the final prototype, but with his bridge added).
Back in Kalamazooaccording to accounts of firsthand encoun-
ters with key personnel related in Robb Lawrences book The Les Paul
Legacy (Hal Leonard, 2008)Gibson engineers were following the
premise that the pickups should be set deep into the wood of the top
to capture the bodys resonance, while also working with Less rela-
tively high bridge design, which had presumably been tooled up and
produced in great numbers. Put it all together, however, and the only
way to make the thing playable was to wrap the strings under the
bridge bar. You could no longer palm-mute the strings at the edge of
the bridge the way Les and some other accomplished players liked to
do, but the guitar still functioned.
In addition to the shallow neck pitch and incorrectly used
tailpiece, some of the very earliest Les Paul Models had unbound
rosewood fingerboards, as opposed to the bound boards that have
become the norm. The very earliest also had the P-90 in the bridge
position mounted with screws running through diagonally opposite
corners of the cover and bobbin, rather than between the A and D
and the G and B poles (as on the neck P-90, as well as the standard
bridge units that followed shortly after). Soon, however, Gibson
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settled into the more common first-run goldtops, which were pro-
duced from around spring of 1952 into early or mid-53. Unlike
many collectible vintage guitars, these have never garnered as much
excitement as have examples from throughout the rest of the decade,
thanks to the flat neck angle and wrong bridge installation. Often
more affordable on the vintage market than their successors, these
debutante Les Pauls are sometimes converted by their owners, some
of whom add wrap-over bridges (ground down to fit the low neck
pitch) or even reset the necks to make them more like Les Pauls from
the mid-to-late 50s.
A More Playable Les Paul Model
Partway into 1953, Gibson took Les Pauls comments onboard and
rejigged the design with a new bridge. Perhaps surprisingly, given
what weve seen so far, the factory didnt simply correct the neck
pitch and use Less design with the strings correctly wrapped over the
bar, but extrapolated from that design to create a new and improved
bridge. Forever after known as the wrap-over or wraparound
bridge, it was very similar in theory, with a solid steel bar through
which the strings anchored before wrapping up from the back and
over the top of the curved surface that formed a single large saddle.
Rather than merely standing on its supports like the bridge-bar sec-
tion of Les Pauls patent-pending design, the new wraparound bridge
History
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Another 1952 press ad, this time featuring Les
and his wife, Mary Ford. Outline Press
had a U-shaped lug at each end of its saddle bar, fit into the slots in
each of two large steel bolts. These in turn threaded into studs sunk
into the guitars top. A small grub screw at the back of either end of
the bridge could be tightened or loosened to adjust the depth of its
seating in the bolts, providing some slight angle adjustment to com-
pensate for overall intonation.
While the wraparound bridge finally made the Les Paul a
viable solidbody electric, the design would barely stand still for a
full a year before Gibson sought to improve it further, while also
developing plans to expand the range. Despite the misfire with the
original bridge, it had quickly become apparent that the electric
guitarand, moreover, the solidbody electric guitarwould be
a significant part of Gibsons lineup going forward. As related in
Tony Bacons Million Dollar Les Paul, from information compiled
by Gibsons historian of the period, Julius Bellson, electric guitars
et al amounted to just 15 percent of the companys sales in 1940,
but that figure had risen to 65 percent by 1953. To more directly
compare solidbody and hollowbody electric models, Gibson sales
records show the company shipped 1,278 ES-175 guitars in 1953,
but 2,245 Les Paul Models.
With the new electric market booming, makers were continually
looking to outdo each other in the features department, and the
bridge was ripe for improvement. Ted McCarty put his engineering
degree to work to design a bridge, which he eventually patented,
with individually adjustable string saddles, as well as overall height
adjustment at each end. We might take it for granted today, but
the facility to individually adjust an independent bridge saddle for
each string was an impressive development when it first hit the
guitar world. Prior to the arrival of McCartys bridgethe ABR-1
Tune-o-maticin 1954, Gibson electrics carried either a floating
bridge with compensated one-piece rosewood or ebony saddle, a
rudimentary trapeze tailpiece with integral wrap-over bridge bar,
or a stud-mounted wraparound bridge, each of which offered only
the crudest global intonation and height adjustment for the strings.
Most other makers bridges were equally crude, although racing to
the market at the same time was Fenders Stratocaster vibrato, with
its own individually adjustable saddles.
When the Tune-o-matic first appeared, it was a true revelation in
intonation and set a standard for simplicity and functionality that is
emulated to this day. Finally, a player could fine-tune intonation for
themselves, in a matter of minutes, and easily adjust it again when
atmospheric conditions required periodic alterations. This solid,
well-seated piece of hardware also yields good coupling between
string and body, which results in great tone and excellent sustain.
This bridge would soon be one of the key ingredients to bring the
Les Paul Model to its archetypal form. Being thought of as a cus-
tom component at the time, though, it would first debut on a truly
Custom instrument.
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 The Range Expands: Custom and Junior
Les Paul said on several occasions that he always conceived of two
versions of the guitar. In a taped interview with Gourmet Guitars
in 2009, he spoke of meeting with CMI chairman Maurice Berlin.
The first thing he asked me was the color, and I said, Gold, he
said. Other people jumped up and said, Dont pick the color gold,
its going to turn green on you. Youre going to have a lot of problems
with a gold guitar. But the chairman of the board of Gibson says,
He wants gold, gold it is! I said I was going to the mens room, and
he said, Before you go, whats the other color going to be, because
were going to make two of them. I picked black.
In 1954, Gibson finally made good on the promise of two Les
Pauls when it brought Less black model to the market. Simultane-
ously, the company rounded out the other end of the line with a
plain-Jane student model: the Junior. For Les, the Custom was
a black-tie electric guitar for the professional player working a for-
mal date. In addition to its new-and-improved Tune-o-matic bridge
and the ebony-black finish on the body and the back of the neck,
it had an ebony fingerboard, larger celluloid block inlays, seven-ply
binding around its top, and five-ply binding around its back and
headstock. The headstock was also larger than that of the goldtop,
with a large split-diamond inlay, and all of the hardware was, natu-
rally, plated in gold.
In addition, the Custom bore several other alterations that made
it sound and feel somewhat different, rather than just standing out
in its looks. The Sealfast tuners with pearloid buttonssomewhat
different from the Klusons on the goldtopwere not such a big
deal, but two other changes left it feeling and sounding, respectively,
like an entirely different guitar.
First, at Les Pauls request, the Custom was fitted with low, nar-
row frets, a feature that the artist felt made it faster to play, and
that earned it the fretless wonder nickname. In truth, this failed to
excite many guitarists, since these frets left some players feeling they
didnt have enough meat to grab onto, particularly when it came to
string-bending. Second, the Custom carried an entirely new pickup
in its neck position: one that looked somewhat like a P-90 from a
distance, but was constructed entirely differently.
The Alnico V pickup, often called the staple pickup, was devel-
oped by Seth Lover in late 1952 or 53 at the behest of McCarty.
Intended as an upgrade of the P-90, it used six individual rectangular
Alnico V magnets as pole pieces within the coil (rather than carrying
bar magnets beneath the coil), a design change that gave it a crisp,
bright tone with plenty of snap and clarity. Employed on several of
Gibsons high-end archtop electrics of the mid-50sincluding the
L-5CES, ES-5, and Byrdlandthe Alnico V pickup made its debut
on the original Les Paul Custom of 1954 and helped enhance string
definition in the neck position.
With its height-adjustable individual poles made from alnico (an
alloy of aluminum, nickel, and cobalt, mixed with a little copper and
Gibson Les Paul
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a lot of iron), the Alnico V pickup has much in common with the
DeArmond Model 200, then best known as the Dynasonic pickup
used in Gretsch guitars, and it seems clear that McCarty and Lover
were chasing that sound with the design. Fenders pickups also had
individual alnico poles, although they werent adjustable. Lover as
much as said, in several interviews, that the only reason he used rect-
angular bar-magnet segments rather than round rod segments was to
differentiate Gibsons pickup from others on the market.
Under the hood, there was one further, very significant differ-
ence. While the opaque finish of each guitar ably hid the wood used
for the top, the Custom was in fact made entirely of mahogany,
with a carved mahogany top rather than the goldtops carved maple
top. Given the model name, and the fact that the Custom, priced
at $325 in 1954, debuted at a full $100 more than the current Les
Paul Model with gold finish, the simpler, less-complex construction
doesnt actually seem so custom. The variation in timber also con-
tributed to further slight differences in tone between the two, with
a little more warmth in the Custom and less of the goldtops maple-
fueled snap and clarity.
Its an interesting side note, perhaps, that the specs of the Custom
bring up yet another Les Paul irony (and there will be others yet in
future years through the run of the model). Namely, when designed
and constructed precisely as Les himself preferred it, the guitar often
appealed to fewer players. Sales numbers seem to play out this the-
ory. Gibsons shipping records show that 1,912 single-cutaway Les
Paul Customs were sold between its introduction in 1954 and its
deletion from the line at the end of 1960, compared with around
7,000 goldtops sold in the same period (after removing sales from
5253 from that total).
As Les himself put it to Gourmet Guitars, It made me happy, and
of course I thought whatever made me happys gonna make every-
body happy. I didnt think it out, I just knew thats what I liked.
Nearly two decades later, this phenomenon would play itself out
even further in the release of the Les Paul Personal, Professional, and
Recording models, which never attained much popularity.
One for the Students
As well as expanding upward in 1954, the Les Paul line also
expanded downward, with the introduction of the student model
Les Paul Junior. Several elements made the Junior more affordable
to produce, helping Gibson bring it in at a $99 price tag, which was
deemed acceptable to the student and beginner market. The gui-
tar was made with an unbound, flattopped mahogany body with
a more rudimentary brown-to-yellow sunburst finish than used on
most upscale Gibsons. It had just a single P-90 pickup in the bridge
position, with volume and tone controls, and an unbound rosewood
fingerboard with simple dot position markers, along with a more
simply adorned headstock with a gold Gibson decal rather than an
(Continued on page 34)
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 A Gibson Les Paul GA-40 tube amplifier
from 1952. Photos by George Aslaender,
courtesy of Retrofret Vintage Guitars

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 Les Pauls ES-295. Rumble Seat Music

Les and Mary relax at home in a 1953 print

ad for the Les Paul Model. Outline Press

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 Les Paul and Mary Ford at Chubbys Home of the Stars
in Camden, New Jersey, September 1953. Michael Ochs
Archives/Getty Images

Billy F Gibbons used this nicely patinated goldtop from his collection
throughout ZZ Tops Rhythmeen sessions. David Perry

Gibson Les Paul

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 A 1953 goldtop, showcasing the newly designed and much
more user-friendly wrap-over bridge. Olivias Music

History
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 Gibson Les Paul
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 A well-preserved 1954 goldtop. Charles Daughtry

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(Continued from page 26)
inlaid logo. The bridge was the same wraparound unit that the Les
Paul Model still carried at the time.
As a real Gibson at an affordable price, the Junior proved
extremely successful. Records show that 19,035 of them were pro-
duced between 1954 and 60, a number that rises above 21,000
when you add in variations. The Les Paul TV was introduced later in
1954 as a downsized beginners guitar in a light limed mahogany
finish, and a so-called three-quarters scale length of 22 inches
to the full-sized Juniors scale length of 24 inches (the same as all
other Les Pauls). Some of these early short-scale TV models were
also made with solid maple bodies, but by 1955, the standard-sized,
mahogany-body Les Paul TV arrived as a merely visual alternative to
the sunburst Junior.
The TV moniker came from the notion that these guitars would
stand out well on the black-and-white televisions of the day, where
guitars with darker finishes might fade into the background. It has
often been said that Fender was thinking along the same lines with
the Telecasters blond finish, and certainly the Les Paul TV might
also have been a shot at putting a dent in that line.
In addition to the beginners and students who originally bought
Junior and TV models through the 50s, these guitars became popu-
lar with garage, alternative, and punk artists in the late 60s and
beyond. The same reasoning that brought young players to a new
Junior hanging on a guitar-store wall in 1956namely, the low
pricemade it accessible to players in these commonly down-at-
heel genres, and the guitars form and function had massive appeal to
the no-nonsense rockers, too. With just a single pickup, a minimum
of controls, and a raw, meaty tone, the Les Paul Junior was virtually
made for sweaty garage rock or thrashing punk, and in the hands of
Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls or Mick Jones of the Clash,
it became far more than just a beginners model.
The Junior Gets Special,
the Goldtop Evolves
A year after the Juniors introduction, Gibson took the flattop solid-
body electric further upmarket in the form of the mid-level Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
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Billy F Gibbons single-pickup Drink Mamba Beer Custom Shop
creation is a unique spin on the goldtop aesthetic. The inlay is the
hood badge from 1958 Thunderbird. David Perry
Special. The Special was introduced with the same limed-mahogany
finish of the Junior-variant TV model as standard, although it was
itself never officially called a TV model. It was most obviously set
apart by its complement of two P-90 pickups and four controls, plus
a three-way switch, and it also had upmarket features such as a bound
rosewood fingerboard and an inlaid pearl Gibson logo on the head-
stock. Another success on a market that was rapidly accepting the
solidbody, the Special sold better than the goldtop during 195559,
with Gibson shipping just shy of 6,000 guitars during that time.
Rather close to being a Les Paul Model without the carved maple
top, the Specials price$182.50 in 1955was closer to that of the
goldtop than the Junior.
With the Tune-o-matic bridge making its way onto the goldtop
by late 55 or early 56, the wraparound bridge was truly becoming
a lower-tier Les Paul component. There were other slight variations
in specs as the decade wore on. Being that this was a guitar made
from wood cut by hand with basic power tools, and then assembled
and finished by hand, there were always minor differences between
the feel of any given pair of Les Pauls from the 50s. In a very broad
sense, neck profiles went from larger to somewhat smaller from 1952
to 1960, but there really are no universal sizes attributable to any
given era. The guitar world has come to think of the early-50s Les
Paul neck as being a fat, round, club-like creation, and the late-50s
neckthose from 1959 in particularas being smaller and more
manageable, if still rounded and full. In truth, you will find necks
from goldtops in the first couple years that are no greater in depth
than the industrys common current perception of the less-clubby
so-called 59 profile, while some necks from the early and middle
part of the decade are virtual baseball bats. That necks were hand-
shaped one at a time, with rudimentary woodworking tools, goes a
long way toward explaining such variation, and it is another part of
the charm of the vintage Les Paul.
Even after the wraparound bridge was introduced in 1953, Les
Paul guitars were still made with a fairly shallow neck angle for a
time. Examples of this are seen today in vintage models that need
to have their wraparound bridges set down about as close to the
body as theyll go in order to be playable. These still tend to be more
desirable to players than early Les Pauls with wrap-under trapeze
bridges, but theres a general preference for later examples with
slightly steeper neck pitches and more room to adjust the bridge
height in either direction.
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 Other than these minor variations, the Les Paul Model was
headed out of the mid-50s looking not a lot different than it had
coming in. As 1956 wound to a close, it still carried a pair of P-90
soapbar pickups, a bronze-metallic finish, and the newer Tune-o-
matic bridge with stopbar tailpiece. Goldtop guitars of these various
configurations were played by Carl Perkins, B. B. King, Freddie
King, and Howlin Wolfes guitarist Hubert Sumlin, but the model
never quite took the music world by storm the way Gibson, and Les
Paul, had no doubt hoped. Nevertheless, much bigger changes were
in the wind, poised to finally render the Les Paul the most valu-
able standard-production electric guitar ever madeeven if players,
and even Gibson itself, would not realize the achievement for several
years to come.
The Humbucking Pickup
Despite the granting of a patent in 1959, Gibson was not the
first musical-instrument maker to design a hum-rejecting pickup.
Armand F. Knoblaugh, a designer working for the Baldwin Com-
pany of Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded a patent for a hum-canceling
musical instrument pickup designed in 1935 (designed for the
piano, admittedly, but said to be adaptable to other stringed instru-
ments). But nearly six decades after its introduction, the Kalamazoo
companys creation remains far and away the standard bearer for the
industry. The need for a noiseless (or at least less noisy) pickup was
obviously as great in the mid-50s as it is today, when plenty of play-
ers are still driven to hum-canceling designs out of an abhorrence of
excess hum in their guitar signal. For Gibson, like other makers, the
drive to develop new features was usually a fifty-fifty split between a
genuine desire to innovate and the need to every so often provide the
sales team with a new USP (unique selling point).
With the Alnico V pickup barely having gotten comfortable
on the Les Paul Custom, Seth Lover and Walter Fuller were set
to work again, at the urging of Ted McCarty, in pursuit of this
notion of a hum-rejecting guitar pickup. Both of Gibsons main
pickups of the daythe P-90 and the Alnico Vwere great, full,
distinctive-sounding pickups, but like all single-coil designs were
prone to picking up unwanted hum and noise from external elec-
trical sources. Being familiar with tube amplifiers, Lover was well
aware of how a choke (a coil in the form of a small transformer)
could help filter out hum induced by an amps power supply, and
he began working toward applying the same logic to guitar pickups.
Even if the concept wasnt entirely new, no previous effort had yet
achieved the simple eleganceand tonal successthat would come
with Lover and Fullers new pickup.
The final result was a pickup that used two similar but reverse-
wound coils with opposite magnetic polarities, placed side-by-side
and wired together in series. As a result, this configuration rejected
much of the hum that single-coil pickups reproduce, which is elimi-
nated when the signals from two mirror image coils are summed
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together, but passed along all of the guitar tone. In addition to the
benefits regarding noise rejection, the double-coil pickups side-by-
side coil alignment produced a warm, rich sound that came across as
bigger and rounder than that of the average single-coil pickup. Lover
also added a cover made of thin metal to further reject electrostatic
interference. Often referred to as nickel, these covers were actually
made from German silver, also sometimes called nickel silver, an
alloy of nickel, copper, and zinc, which was relatively easy to solder
to the pickups base plate.
Gibson dubbed Lovers new creation the humbucker for its
ability to buck electrical hum and, aware that it was a unique
device in the fledgling industry, applied for a U.S. patent to protect
the design. The first variations of the unit appeared in the form of
a triple-coil humbucker, used on Gibson lap-steel guitars in 1956.
When double-coil humbuckers first appeared on the goldtop Les
Paul Model and black Les Paul Custom in 1957, they carried stickers
that read Patent Applied For, to warn off would-be copyists while
the company awaited the patent. Pickups of the era, therefore, are
given the nickname PAF, which applies to any pickup carrying
the Patent Applied For sticker that all Gibson humbuckers wore
between late 1956/early 57 and late 1962. In fact, a U.S. patent
was granted in July of 1959, but Gibson continued to apply these
stickers for another two years. One theory is that the company still
didnt want potential copyists to have access to the design, which
they could easily have found by searching for the patent number at
the U.S. Patent Office. (When the patent number stickers finally
appeared on humbuckers late in 1962, the number was in fact for a
bridge patenta simple mistake, or a further deterrent to the com-
petition?) The second theory is that Gibson was just using up the
many Patent Applied For stickers it had already printed up, and
perhaps had already even applied to a stock of pickups.
Gibsons PAF humbucker turned the industrys thinking on its
ear, offering players unparalleled levels of sound and performance
that set the standards for pickup design forever after. Players and
collectors today (or at least those who can afford to) are willing to
pay upward of five-figure sums for a pair of original PAFs in good
condition, and reproducing the pickups in precise detail has become
virtually an industry in itself.
The goldtop of 1957 was otherwise very much like the P-90-
equipped Les Paul Model of 1956, but it comes across as a very
different beast, thanks entirely to its two humbucking pickups. For
all the sensation surrounding the hallowed PAF, there are still plenty
of players today who prefer P-90 pickups, although they are prob-
ably in the minority. However slight the changethe replacement
of two single-coil pickups with two humbucking pickupsmight
seem when examined away from the fog of hype and mythology, the
difference in price between a 56 Les Paul and a 57 on the vintage
market shows what a major impact this evolution had on the guitar
world. The latter can reap upward of three times the price of the
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 Les Paul

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 LEFT AND RIGHT: A 1968
prototype of the Les Paul Custom
Recording model. Juliens Auctions

T he most famous artist ever to become synonymous with a guitar model,

Les Paul was the consummate do-it-yourselfer. Although he helped
issue in the era of the solidbody electric guitar, he was not one for
colluding with off-the-shelf instruments. Paul had started the entire
ball rolling, of course, way back in 1940 or so, with a contraption A 2005 Les Paul goldtop presented
to Les at the Carnegie Hall event to
that appears very little like a Les Paul today, but prefigured the
celebrate his ninetieth birthday on
future solidbody more than many guitars that preceded it, thanks June 19 that year. The guitar was
to its solidbody core. Given free rein to develop his inventions in signed by the acts who performed
that night, among them Steve Miller,
the Epiphone factory on weekends, Paul sawed the body wings Joe Satriani, and Pat Martino.
and neck from a full-depth Epiphone archtop and attached them to Juliens Auctions

OPPOSITE: Les and his favored Recording model, 1978.

Richard E. Aaron/Redferns/Getty Images
Les Paul
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 Les Paul
a pine four-by-four that formed the center of a guitar he called the
Log. Equipped with a pair of home-wound pickups and a vibrato tail-
piece of his own devising, the instrument was ready to go. However
ungainly it looked, Paul played it on several professional recording
and performance dates throughout the 40s and into the early 50s.
Unable to see the future of the music world in this Frankenstein of
a guitar, however, both Epiphone and future Epiphone owner Gibson
declined to put Pauls ideas into productionuntil Fenders plank-
bodied guitars hit the scene in 1950 and gave the competition a kick
in the seat of the pants.
Even after Gibson adapted the principles embodied in the Log and ran
with them, Paul was rarely entirely satisfied with the results and never
quite jibed with the Standard versions of Les Pauls that the company
produced and sold throughout the years. He was famously irate that
a semi-trapeze tailpiece of his own design was employed with too-
flat a neck angle on the very first goldtop Les Paul Models of 1952
and early 53, forcing a far less playable setup that involved wrapping
the strings under the bridge bar rather than over it as intended. Paul
also commented several times that Gibson transposed his original
visions for the Standard and Custom models, giving the former the
complex mahogany and maple body construction and the latter
the simple mahogany-only body. When Les Paul returned to Gib-
son as an endorsee in the late 60s, the company saw it as an
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important opportunity to bring the original carved-top, single-cutaway
design back to the fold after nearly eight years of the SGs rein as the
companys flagship solidbody. For Les Paul, the artist and inventor, this
was an opportunity to get another raft of advancements through the door
in Kalamazoo and into production.
In addition to the return of the Les Paul Model (soon known as the
Les Paul Deluxe) and Les Paul Custom to the market in 1968, another
result of Pauls re-upping with Gibson arrived in 1969 in the form of the
Les Paul Personal and Les Paul Professional, both of which carried his
beloved low-impedance pickups. These quirky models never sold well
(the Personal, based on Pauls own home-tweaked guitar, even carried
the whacky addition of an XLR mic input on its top edge for a mobile
vocal microphone), and in 1971 the pair evolved into the single Les Paul
Recording Model, which retained the same low-impedance pickups with
an added high/low switch that converted the signal to high-impedance
for use with standard amplifiers, a phase switch, and an eleven-posi-
tion Decade tone switch. The Recording Model also offered a slightly
more acceptable layout. All three models featured all-mahogany bodies
that were slightly larger, and therefore generally heavier, than those of
the traditional Les Paul Standard and Custom. The Les Paul Record-
ing became Pauls model of choice, and he frequently played one live
(alternating it with his own, personally modified Personal-like Les Paul)
right up until his death in 2009.
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 Although he was an enthusiastic live performer, Pauls greatest
innovations were in the studiowhere he pioneered multi-track
recording, close-micing of vocals, and other techniques that remain
popular todayand his guitars were designed specifically to excel
in the studio environment. The low-impedance pickups made it pos-
sible to plug these guitars directly into the board to record a linear,
high-fidelity signal that could be EQd and effected with outboard
equipment, or later in the mix. Although the technique has caught
on with some guitarists, it never became the revolution that Paul
obviously intended and expected. Its ironic that Les Paul remained
devoted to the more oddball models among the range that bore his
name, while the Les Paul Standard became one of the most desir-
able, and expensive, electric guitars of all time.

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 Hubert Sumlin

O ver the past fifty years, the Chicago blues has evolved into some-
thing of a multinational brand propelling everything from radio hits
to TV commercials. You can earn a college degree learning how to play
Sumlin and his trusty goldtop circa 1990. Andrew Lepley/Redferns/Getty Images

it, and on any Saturday night find a corner bar in just about any town in
America where some hot young gun is cranking out an entirely com-
petent, if often overheated, approximation of the sound. Amid all
this emulation, the real deal still remains, in the playing of Hubert
Sumlin, Howlin Wolfs lead guitarist for twenty-five years.
Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in 1931, and raised just across the
Mississippi River in Hughes, Arkansas, Sumlin first saw Howlin Wolf
perform in West Memphis as a young boy of just eleven or twelve years
old. At fourteen, Sumlin left home to pursue his love of the guitar, played
with his contemporary and future blues-harp legend James Cotton in

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 West Memphis for a time, and in the early 50s moved to Chicago to become Wolfs
guitarist and musical right-hand man until the great blues shouters death in 1976.
Although he has played other guitars on occasion, Sumlin is best associated
with the Gibson Les Paul goldtop. Sumlin reports that Wolf gave him his first
Les Paul, a goldtop with wraparound bridge and P-90 pickups, in the mid-50s.
After that one was stolen, Sumlin bought himself another, very likely the circa-
1956 goldtop with P-90s and Tune-o-matic bridge that he is documented as
having played later in his career.
As one of the great originators of Chicago blues, Sumlin was an influential
force on the British blues-rock boom of the mid-1960s, but his playing, more
so than the music of many other Chicago greats, reveals the Delta and rural
blues roots of the Chicago blues. As a result, Sumlins sound and technique are
arguably more unique, even more timeless.
Sumlin attributes one of the critical elements of his playing stylehis fre-
quent use of fingertips in place of a pickto Howlin Wolf himself. Legend has it
that Wolf forbade Sumlin to use a pick for a time during the early years, because his
playing was so nimble that the resultant guitar frenzy crashed all over the vocals (and
a young man from Arkansas wasnt likely to argue with the formidable Wolf). Examine,
as cases in point, the relentlessly snaky fills in Goin Down Slow; the funky, syn-
copated riffs behind Three Hundred Pounds of Joy; the pinched, playful leads that
punctuate Shake for Me; and, of course, the legendary licks behind seminal tunes
like Smokestack Lightning, Wang Dang Doodle, and Killing Floor, all of which
brilliantly exhibit both Sumlins own inimitable style, and the thick, gritty bite of his
P-90-equipped Les Paul.

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 Carl Perkins Perkins with his goldtopplus brothers Clayton (left) and J. B. (right) and drummer
W. B. Hollandon the set of the 1957 movie Jamboree. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

A fter success brought in enough money for him to splurge on new

a guitar, Carl Perkins splashed out on a new 1956 Gibson ES-5
Switchmaster. Ironically, the move found him going in the opposite
direction than that which Gibson had intended to push the growing
number of guitarists on the rock n roll scene. In fact, at Sun Records,
Perkins had used a pair of 50s Les Paul goldtops to record the hits that
earned him his ES-5 spending cash, and these solidbodies are respon-
sible for the sound that we still most associate him.
The move was symptomatic, however, of the general way in
which Gibsons fledgling solidbody failed to catch fire with early rock
n rollers, who were still more likely to proceed with the archtop
electrics they had used to create the new genre in the first place
(witness Scotty Moore, Danny Cedrone, Chuck Berry, et al.) or
to adopt Gretschs flashier entrants into the arena. Sure, plenty of
50s bluesmen strapped on Les Pauls, but Perkinss use of a 1952 or
early 53 goldtop with cumbersome wrap-under tailpiece to record
Honey Dont toward the end of 1955, and a 55 goldtop with Bigsby
tailpiece to record Blue Suede Shoes in January 1956, signaled the
most prominent adoption of the model by an early rockabilly or rock
n roll artist.
With fifty years of musical hindsight fogging the rearview mirror,
its too easy to forget what a groundbreaking star, and an enormous
influence, Perkins actually was. Sun labelmates Elvis Presley and
Johnny Cash went on to greater fame, but Perkins was regarded by
musicians as one of the founding fathers of rock n roll. In Carl Per-
kins, one can truly hear the blend of country and blues that formed

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 Perkinss 1955 Les Paul Standard. The blue
finish that Perkins applied to his goldtop
has darkened nearly black with age.
Kristina Krug Photography
the genre (a dash of Hank Williamss vocal
yelps, a pinch of Muddy Waterss instru-
mental attitude), while a closer listen to
many other major mid- and late-50s rock
n roll stars who came later tends to reveal
a series of artists who mainly seemed to be
trying hard to sound like Carl Perkins. All
in all, Perkinss sound was one that might
strictly be categorized more as pure rockabillyalthough rockabilly
itself was a way station on the road to rock n roll anyway.
Perkins differed from many early rock n roll idols in that he wrote
his own songs. His first major single, Blue Suede Shoes, is perhaps
better remembered today for Elvis Presleys cover, but Perkinss original
recording was actually the bigger hit, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard
pop and R&B charts and No. 1 on the country chart, while also scoring
Sun Records first gold disc with more than one million copies sold by
late spring of 1956. Sometime after this, Perkins painted his Les Paul
blue in celebration of the hit record, and he retained the guitar even
after buying his ES-5. The former goldtop remains in the possession of
the Perkins family in Jackson, Tennessee.

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 Luther Allison Allison at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival, which he shared a bill with the likes of B. B. King, Muddy Waters,
and Howlin Wolf at what later was dubbed by some the Midwest Woodstock. Michael Ochs Archives

Allisons Golden Boy II. Michael Dregni

A s with many Deep South bluesmen, Luther Allisons first instrument was a
diddley-bow. But as soon as he could get his hands on a real guitarI had
to scratch for it, selling pop bottles, watermelon, whateverhe bought a Gibson
Les Paul.
Allison yearned to play a Les Paul in emulation of his guitarslinger hero, Fred-
die King. And while Allison played Strats and ES-335s over the years, the Les Paul
remained his guitarin particular, an all-gold Les Paul 1960 Classic he christened
Golden Boy.
Born in Widener, Arkansas, in 1939, Allison grew up in a sharecropping family
with a love of gospel music. Making the exodus to Chicago in 1951, he started
a band in 1957 presciently named the Rolling Stones, in emulation of Muddy
Waters song. He was soon playing in Howlin Wolfs band and also backing
James Cotton.
In a Windy City dive, Allison met up with King, who became his mentor. And
when King began touring behind his famous late-50s hits, Allison took over both
Kings band and his standing weekly gigs. He soon became one of the hottest
acts on Chicagos West Side.
At the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival, Allison wowed the blues world with
rocking version of standards much as Jimi Hendrix dazzled the rock world
at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Allison signed with Motown in 1972 and
cut three LPs for the label. When disco became cool and blues old school,
he moved to Paris and became a star throughout Europe.

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His return to the U.S. scene was announced by 1994s Soul Fixin
Man, which ranks as one of the best modern blues albums, hands
down. In 1995, he headlined the Chicago Blues Festival with Otis Rush
like the triumphant return of the prodigal son: one wheelchair-bound
older woman in front of the stage shouted and hallelujah-ed as if
kingdom had finally come.
Luther Allison
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Allisons first real guitar was a Les Paul Junior that he bought from
a fellow gospel singer back in the 1960s. Seeing King picking his early
P-90-equipped goldtop, Allison soon sought out one of his own. In the
60s as part of the vanguard of West Side Soul, Allison switched to
Strats: In those days, everybody jumped on the brand-new Strato-
caster. Everybody had a Strat at some point, and I had two or three
down the stretch. We were all victims of the Stratocaster. He played
a black 62 Strat that became a victim of his performing excessesI
split it down the middle acting the fool.
All along, though, Allison said he always viewed Gibsons as the
Cadillac of blues guitars. He discovered the guitar he named
Golden Boy in a Paris guitar shop in the early 90s. Neither a
first-generation goldtop nor a $100,000 Burst, Golden Boy
was a basic 1960 Classic reissue. But it sang. Allison
called it his perfect guitar and counted himself lucky
to stumble upon it. Golden Boy was an especially
heavy Les Paul with midas-touched back and sides;
Allison believed all of the wood, components, and
electrics were ideally in tune. This guitar has
made a lot of noise for Luther Allison, he said.
He also played a second 1960 Classic gold-
topGolden Burstand slide on a tobacco Burst Les
Paul reissue.
Michael Dregni
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 Freddie King

Gibson Les Paul King and goldtop in a 1961 press photo.

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 OPPOSITE: King and goldtop in a 1961 press
photo. Gilles Petard/Redferns/Getty Images
A lthough he was born in Texas, Freddie King became synonymous
with hard-driving electric Chicago blues. He was grounded in his
trade while combing the Southside clubs and catching the great blues
artists of the late 40s and early 50s after his family moved to the
Windy City in 1949 when he was just thirteen. He always retained a cer-
tain Texas twist to his playing, though, and that might partly be credited
with his originality in a crowded blues field. King had started learning
guitar at the age of six, and by the early 50s he was trying hard to forge
a career in his own right, while also working a day job in Chicagos
steel mills. Having been born Frederick Christian, Freddie is thought to
have changed his stage name to King to benefit from associations
with B. B. King (oddly, he also spelled his name Freddy up until 1968,
and Freddie after that). By the time King was experiencing some suc-
cess in his own right, he was doing it with a 54 Les Paul goldtop, and
although he eventually moved over to an ES-335-type Gibson, he is
most closely associated with the seminal P-90-loaded Les Paul.
False starts and failed attempts to launch a recording career
throughout much of the 50s found King finally logging his first two
proper studio albums in 1961, and he sported his goldtop on the cov-
ers of both of them: Freddy King Sings the Original Hits and Lets Hide
Away and Dance Away with Freddy King. It was the latter that inspired
young English guitarist Eric Clapton to seek out a Les Paul of his own,
Freddie King
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and, as a result, arguably spawned the British blues-rock boom.
Later, King would help initiate successive generations of bluesmen
and blues-rockers to the craft, touring with fellow Texans ZZ Top and
offering advice to a young Stevie Ray Vaughan. Through out the middle
and latter parts of his career, King made good inroads with young,
white audiences more often associated with the rock and blues-rock
scenes. He performed alongside Led Zeppelin in 1969 at the Texas
Pop Festival, and around the same time was signed to Leon Russells
label, Shelter Records.
With his aggressive playing style, hybrid fingers-and-thumbpick
technique, and eviscerating tone, Freddie Kings guitar work was
always hard to miss. He was a big man and put plenty of weight
behind his toucha momentum that translated viscerally through his
Les Paul goldtop and into the amplifier. The rigors of touringand,
perhaps, Kings tendency to drink a Bloody Mary rather than eat a
square meal while setting up for the showtook their toll on the gui-
tarists health, and he died of complications from chronic ulcers and
pancreatitis in 1976, at the age of just forty-two. At his posthumous
induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, Kings daughter
Wanda talked about having broken her fathers Les Paul goldtop while
running around the house with her siblingsperhaps the event that
inspired his move to Gibson semi-acoustic electrics.
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 Keith Richards

Keef and the Bigsby-equipped Les Paul appear on Thank Your

Lucky Stars, March 21, 1965. David Redfern/Getty Images
Gibson Les Paul
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W e associate the Stones guitarist first and foremost with his long-
time companion Micawber, a modified 50s Telecaster, but
Keith Richards was among the first major pop-rock stars to prominently
wield a sunburst Les Paul. And while Richardss playing has never been
considered archetypal of the British blues-rock LP-slinger, its signature
tone through a clean amp verging on crunchy certainly makes sense
amid the bands meaty rhythm chords and tasty, wiry riffs.
According to information provided by high-end guitar brokerage
Richard Henry, the Keith Burst is a 1959 Les Paul that first arrived
at Farmers Music Store in Luton, England, in 1961, and was played
for a time by John Bowen of Mike Dean & the Kingsmen. Bowen had
a Bigsby added to the guitar at Selmers Musica regular haunt for
musicians on the booming London music scene of the daybefore
trading it in there in late 1962. A young Keith Richards would occasion-
ally visit the store, and on one of those occasions he purchased the Les
Paul with Bigsby there.
Throughout the early days of the Stones, the Les Paul was one of
Richardss most prominent guitars. The best-known photos of the era
show him playing it during a 1964 performance on the TV show Ready
Steady Go!, and he also played it on tour in the United States that same
year, when it popped up during the Stones performance on The Ed
Sullivan Show. Early Rolling Stones hits purportedly recorded with the
Les Paul include Satisfaction, Get Off My Cloud, Lets Spend the
Night Together, and Little Red Rooster. As seen in color photos from
Keith Richards
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the time, just five years after it left the factory, the guitar had already
faded to a deep amber burst with a little iced-tea shading around the
body edges.
Accounts of the guitars travels from this point onward tend to differ.
The best-corroborated rendition, again from Richard Henry, recounts
that Richards sold it to Mick Taylor in 1967 when Taylor (a future Stones
guitarist) replaced Peter Green in John Mayall & the Blues Breakers,
but not before another former Blues Breakerone Eric Claptonbor-
rowed it for a live show with the band in 1966. Following this path, the
Keith Burst returned to the Rolling Stones fold when Taylor replaced
the late Brian Jones, playing it prominently during the bands Hyde Park
concert in July 1969. Both Taylor and Richards then played the Les Paul
on a tour of the States later that year.
In 1971, the Keith Burst surrendered its Stones-hood once
again, and forever after, when it was either stolen from the mansion
Nellcote in southern France, where the band was recording Exile
on Main Street; stolen from the Marquee Club during a Stones per-
formance; or given (or sold) to Heavy Metal Kids guitarist Cosmo
Verrico to replace a guitar of his that was stolen. In any case, Ver-
rico sold the Les Paul to Bernie Marsden of Whitesnake, who finally
concluded the Keith Bursts star ownership by flipping it to private
collector Mike Jopp a week later. The guitar remained in Jopps own-
ership until 2003 and was last sold at auction in 2004 by Christies in
New York, going to a private collector in Europe. Richards has played
other Les Pauls now and then throughout his careermost notably,
perhaps, a three-pickup black Custom that appeared in some Norlin-
era Gibson adsbut that original 59 with post-factory Bigsby will
always be remembered as the Keith Burst.
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 Eric Clapton

Claptons mid-60s SG, nicknamed The Fool for the Dutch

art collective responsible for the iconic custom finish.
Outline Press

T hroughout his career, Eric Clapton has been an arbiter of tone, and while he
has moved through several different makes and models of guitar over the
past forty-five years, he has been extremely devoted to each at certain periods,
and has inspired major guitar lust in the hearts of many at every stop along the
road. Clapton was already recognized as a leading blues-rocker while wielding
a red Telecaster and a double-cutaway Gretsch 6120 with the Yardbirds in the
mid-1960s, but he first established a must-have sound in the hearts and minds
of other tonehounds when he took up a late-50s sunburst Gibson Les Paul to

Gibson Les Paul

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 Playing The Fool during a
Danish TV broadcast with
Cream, November 1967. Jan
Persson/Redferns/Getty Images

record John Mayall Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, otherwise known as the
Beano album, in 1966. Claptons exemplary Les Paul, believed to be a late-
59 or 60 model because of his descriptions of its thin neck profile, served as
the midwife that took blues into blues-rock when the star rammed it through
a cranked Marshall 1962 combo (forever after known as a Bluesbreaker)
and warned the recording engineer that he intended to play loud. The result
was one of the first widely chased guitar tones in the history of rock, and from
thence forward, the previously underappreciated Les Paul Standard was a very
well appreciated guitar indeed. Clapton himself, however, was forced to evolve
somewhat, due to the theft of said Les Paul in the summer of 1966 while he was
rehearsing for Creams first shows.
After that, Clapton gigged and recorded with a few borrowed Les Pauls, but,
unable to find one that he liked as much as his lost Beano guitar, he eventu-
ally settled in with a Gibson SG and an ES-335 for the majority of his work with
Cream. The SG, a 1964 or 65 model, became famous for the paint job given to
it by the Dutch artists collective known as The Fool, a name also given to the
guitar itself. When Clapton owned the guitar, the remains of the framework of
its original Maestro lyre vibrato tailpiece could still be seen. Todd Rundgren
acquired the SG in 1974, and its bridge, tailpiece, and paint job were updated
some time after. It is currently on loan to the Hard Rock Caf in San Francisco.

OPPOSITE: Clapton tests out a Bigsby-equipped Les Paul during

Creams live debut at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival in
Berkshire, England, July 1966, several weeks after the theft of his
legendary Beano Burst. Michael Putland/Getty Images
Eric Clapton
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 Mick Taylor

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 The Bigsby Burst today:
Iridium, New York City, May
2012. Bill Robinson
The Stones Get Yer Ya-Yas Out LPnote the
appearance of Taylors Burst on the cover.
F irst Peter Greens replacement in John Mayalls Blues Breakers, then
Brian Joness replacement in the Rolling Stones, Mick Taylor was a
gifted blues guitarist in his own rightin some ways more of a purist,
in that regard, than the more famous guitarists in whose footsteps he
followedand was also another prime arbiter of classic Les Paul tone.
We have already visited Taylors acquisition of the Keith Burst in Keith
Richardss artist profile, but this is only one of the famous original Bursts
played by Taylor throughout his career. (Amid ongoing confusion over
which of these guitars was which, given that Taylor and Richards later
shared their Les Pauls somewhat indiscriminately in the studio and on
tour during 196972, Im basing much of the detail on the assessment
of the Keith Burst as a 59 by London guitar dealer Richard Henry, the
last vintage-guitar authority to have examined the instrument closely
before it passed into private hands.) Taylor took his own previous Burst
to the Mayall gig with him in 1966 at the tender age of seventeen, using
it to record the Blues Breakers album Crusade before it was stolen. He
replaced that guitar with the Les Paul purchased from Richards. Other
genuine Bursts would also grace the Taylor arsenal, although he has
turned more to reissues and reproductions in later years, having sold off
his original late-50s Les Pauls.
Mick Taylor was born in Welwyn Garden City in central England and
raised in Hatfield, a town in the county of Hertfordshire, just north of
OPPOSITE: An early shot of Taylor (performing
with Gods) and his Bigsby-equipped Burst at
the Starlight Ballroom, Sudbury, England, 1966.
Michael Putland/Getty Images Mick Taylor
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London. He became proficient on the guitar at an early age and was
gigging with schoolmate bands while still in his mid-teens. A full year
before joining the Blues Breakers as Peter Greens replacement, he
sat in with Mayalls band for a full set at a show in Welwyn Garden
City after seeing that Eric Clapton hadnt shown up for the gig and
duly convincing the bands leader that he was up to the task. Thus
began Taylors career as premier journeyman guitarist, an adventure
that would land him gigs with Jack Bruce, Mike Oldfield, Bob Dylan,
and several others, in addition to his prolific solo work. He continues
to be far and away best remembered, though, for his time as a Roll-
ing Stonethe most enduring image of which is, perhaps, the young
Taylor, still just twenty-one years old, striding out onto the stage with
Les Paul in hand, blond locks flowing, before a crowd of a quarter of
a million people in Hyde Park, London, just weeks after joining the
band. Taylor left the Stones in 1974, disgruntled over his treatment at
the hands of Richards and the lack of credit given for his songwriting
contributions. Many fans and critics say his departure marked the end
of the most musically accomplished phase of the bands existence.
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 Frank Zappa coaxes a tune out of his
mid-50s goldtop at the Falkoner Theatre in
1954 Les Paul goldtop. Copenhagen, Denmark, summer 1967.
Outline Press Jan Persson/Redferns

Slim Dunlap brings his goldtop out to play for the

Gibson Les Paul Replacements 1989 show at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium,
St. Paul, Minnesota. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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 1954 Les Paul Custom with gold hardware, stamped with the word
PROTOTYPE on the back of the headstock. Juliens Auctions

History
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 Keith and his 57 Custom at soundcheck in Denmark, circa
1970. Jan Persson/Redferns/Getty Images

Richardss 57, years later.

Outline Press

Gibson Les Paul

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 Rock n roll pioneer Chuck Berry performs with
a Gibson Les Paul as legendary pianist Johnnie
Johnson looks on, circa 1957. Michael Ochs
Archives/Getty Images

The 1954 Les Paul Custom:

Less black-tie guitar. Outline Press

Les Paul, Mary Ford, and their

Gibsonshers a Custom, his a goldtop
in 1953. Outline Press

History
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 Albert Lee and his Custom perform onstage with Eric Clapton
in Rotterdam, April 1983. Rob Verhorst/Redferns/Getty Images

1956 Les Paul Custom.

Photos by George Aslaender,
courtesy of Retrofret
Vintage Guitars

Gibson Les Paul

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 1958 Les Paul Custom. Rumble Seat Music

Carlos Santana wields a sunburst Custom at the Sunshine 72

festival in Honolulu, Hawaii, New Years Day 1972. Robert Knight
Archive/Redferns/Getty Images
History
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 1955 Les Paul Junior.
Fretted Americana

Gibson Les Paul

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 model, produced from 1956 to 1968, bore a distinct Les Paul shape. Outline Press
A three-quarter-size Gibson ES-140T thinline archtop from 1956. This single-cut
A 1955 print ad for Gibsons new
student model, as the Les Paul
Junior was originally designated.
Outline Press

1954 single-cutaway Les Paul

Junior in dark sunburst finish.
Outline Press

History
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 A well-traveled 56 Les Paul Junior.
Olivias Music Gibson Les Paul
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 1957 Les Paul TV Special with
twin P-90 pickups, customized
with the nickname Murph by a
prior owner. Fretted Americana

History
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 001-224_40649.indd 64
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1957 single-pickup Les Paul made with light
limed mahogany finish. Outline Press

(Text)
64
Gibson Les Paul
LEFT AND RIGHT: Front and rear views of a 1957 Les Paul Special.
Photos by George Aslaender, courtesy of Retrofret Vintage Guitars

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 1959 double-cutaway Les Paul Junior.
Fretted Americana

History
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 Bobbys gotta have it: R&B/funk legend
Bobby Womack and his Junior in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1976.
Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns/Getty Images

1959 double-cutaway Les Paul Junior.

Fretted Americana

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 Three-quarter-size
1960 Les Paul Junior.
Fretted Americana

History
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 1960 double-cutaway
Les Paul Junior.
Outline Press

Replacements front man Paul

Westerberg and his Les Paul
Junior at the Orpheum Theatre in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, February
1991. Michael Ochs Archives/
Getty Images

Gibson Les Paul

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 1957 goldtop with twin humbuckers.
Outline Press

A left-handed humbucker-loaded
57 goldtop. Outline Press

History
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 Our first step into Burst country, in the form of a well-maintained
1958 Les Paul Standard. Outline Press

Bigsby-equipped 59 Burst.
Outline Press

Gibson Les Paul

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 (Continued from page 35)
formerquite a disparity when you consider that the components
themselves, though pricey, can be had for quite a bit less than the
margin. Then again, fewer than 500 goldtops with Tune-o-matic
bridges and PAF humbuckers were made, so they remain among the
rarest of Les Paul configurations, if not the most highly prized. To
reach that zenith, as outlandish as it might seem, Gibson had merely
to add a new paint job.
The Burst Is Born
It might seem odd to be approaching the arrival of the most coveted
electric guitar ever made having already covered all the significant
constructional details other than a change of finish color, yet that is
really what it amounts to. Aficionados will of course point to several
small variances in Les Pauls produced throughout the late 50s, but
none of these amount to out-and-out changes in specifications. No,
what really gets em all excited is the new type of finish . . . and the
wood beneath it.
After reaching a considerable peak of 2,245 goldtops in 1953,
according to Gibsons shipping records, production of the Les Paul
Model declined every year after through the decade up to 1957.
Something had to be done if the model was to survive, and McCarty
and Co. deemed that a turn toward tradition was the way to go. In
1958, Gibson did away with the bronze-metallic finish and applied a
cherry-sunburst finish to the guitars carved maple top, with a red fin-
ish made from aniline dye on the back, the sides, and the back of the
neck. Prior to this time, very few Les Pauls had been made to custom-
order with sunburst finishesthe sunburst being a Gibson standard
since the late 1800sbut the wholesale revamp introduced the most
iconic look to the guitar, and one that remains archetypal today.
The collectability of 195860 sunburst Les Pauls has as much
or more to do with the figure of the maple top as it does with
more significant playing considerations, such as tone and feel.
Given that the maple top was now visible beneath the finish (if not
so visible as it would be once that finish began to fade), Gibsons
builders started putting more attention into the wood selection
process, although they didnt do so right away, or very consistently,
considering how much it would mean to collectors five decades or
more later. Guitars made in 1958 tended more often to be rather
plain-topped, although some do exhibit notable figuring. Plain-
topped Les Pauls still emerged in 1959 and 60, although examples
from these years also exhibited more dramatic figuring, and did so
more consistently.
Burst aficionados recognize several different terms used to
describe the subtle-to-dramatic figuring seen within the grain of
the eastern maple used on vintage Les Paul topsflame, quilt, tiger
stripebut one thing is clear: the more of it, the betterin terms
of vintage values, at least. Decorative maple had been used in the
backs of Gibsons high-end archtop guitars for much of the century
History
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(the tops were usually carved from solid spruce), but this timber
never caused quite the same stir until it landed on the sunburst Les
Paul Model. Such figuring contributes in no way to the resonance,
sustain, or overall tone of the guitar (some builders will even tell
you that extreme figure can sometimes indicate a less stable piece of
maple), but the luminous, three-dimensional look of the stuff sure
drives many guitarists crazy with desire.
Almost as significant to a vintage Les Pauls look is the condi-
tion of the finish over the wood. Gibson used nitrocellulose lacquer
to finish the guitars, and this hard, thin substance tended to gain
a vintage patina along with mild-to-severe checking (cracking, or
crazing) as the finish aged. A more dramatic variable, though, is the
way that the red stain used for the outer sunburst element faded over
time, sometimes as a result of exposure to sunlight. On occasion, the
red darkened into the classic dark burst or tobacco burst, faded
toward the center while remaining strong at the edges in an ice
tea burst, or disappeared altogether, leaving a yellowy light-amber
color often referred to as lemondrop or lemonburst, all of which
can look spectacular over a highly figured top. On rare occasions,
the cherry-red finish remains strong and vibrant, bursting from dark
cherry at the edges to vibrant cherry red before the amber tint takes
over at the center.
The Magic of the Burst
Many makes and models of vintage guitars are attributed mysti-
cal properties by the players who love them, and there definitely
can be something special about the tone and feel of a really good
electric guitar from the golden age of the instrument. Few, if any,
however, have accumulated the aura of magic that surrounds the
Les Paul Burst from 195860. As is the case with any truly great
musical instrument, these guitars are the sum of several different
components, design points, and construction techniques, which pull
together to create something much greater than the individual ele-
ments could ever hint at. Certainly, not every vintage Les Paul is an
outstanding guitar, but enough of them are truly mind-blowing that
we can reasonably conclude there really was something in the water.
For those who have experienced the truly great ones, it can be dif-
ficult to turn back.
ZZ Top Guitarist Billy F Gibbons is known for assigning mysti-
cal properties to his own 59 Burst, dubbed Pearly Gates, and the
guitar is widely acclaimed as being among the very best examples
out there. It was assembled on one of those fateful days when the
glue was just right, the wood was just right, and the electronics were
placed perfectly, he writes in his 2005 autobiography, Rock + Roll
Gearhead. Til this day, I have yet to find an instrument to equal its
raw power.
For me to be myself, I have to play a Les Paul, Joe Bonamassa
told Gibson.com in 2012. Among other Les Pauls, the acclaimed
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 Peter Green

Greens Burst. Outline Press

Green and his 1959 Standardwith backward neck pickupduring a 1968 TV taping
in Denmark. Jan Persson/Redferns/Getty Images

M ost instruments worthy of star guitar status are notable for the exemplary
tones they put forth in the hands of the artists who made them famous.
But in the minds of the fans who idolize them, some guitars have been elevated
beyond mere celebrity guitar status. Peter Greens 1959 Les Paul Standard is one
such example, and so too the tone he achieved with it in the early incarnation of
Fleetwood Mac. In 1967, after leaving John Mayalls Blues Breakersthat cru-
cible of blues-rock guitar stardomGreen founded Fleetwood Mac alongside
Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Jeremy Spencer (later replaced by Danny
Kirwan) in order to play pure blues. In their company, Green recorded such
classics of tone as Need Your Love So Bad, Black Magic Woman, Alba-
tross, Oh Well, and several others. Amid a late-60s scene in which other
British blues artists were evolving toward high-gain blues-rock, Greens more
purist stancecoupled with his more nuanced and organic tone, delicate
touch, and plaintive melodic sensehelped him to stand out from the crowd.

Gibson Les Paul

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 Greens Les Paul was a standout instrument, too, and
quickly drew the eye of many a guitar worshiper. While he
owned it, the guitar still maintained much of the richness of
its sunburst finish, as would be expected of a guitar that was
then only between eight and eleven years old, but this 59
Burst is also famous for having faded later to a golden hue
that beautifully showed off its gently tiger-striped maple top.
Perhaps most notable from early on in Greens stewardship
of the instrument, however, is the reversed neck pickup, which not of institutionalization. He famously sold his Les Paul to blues-rocker
only appears backwardwith the adjustable pole pieces facing the Gary Moore for around 110 (approximately $200), a paltry sum for a
bridge rather than the fingerboardbut also was rewound to reverse vintage Les Paul Standard even in the mid-70s. Moore told Guitarist
polarity by a misguided repairman. Possibly one of the more fortuitous magazine in 1995 that Green himself insisted upon the figure because
mistakes in the annals of the electric guitar, the reversed neck pickup it was the price he had paid for the guitar in the first place. Moore used
gave Green a distinctive out-of-phase tone when both pickups were the Les Paul on several recordings with Thin Lizzy, and later as a solo
used together, which helped cement the mythos of this artistand has artist, but eventually sold the guitar. Since the late 90s, Peter Green has
been copied by countless other players since. reemerged as an artist, recording and performing with his own Peter
Peter Green unceremoniously quit Fleetwood Mac in 1970 and Green Splinter Group and several collaborative projects. Of his legend-
faded into an obscurity that bottomed out with the former star being ary old partner, though, Green told Rick Batey of The Guitar Magazine in
diagnosed with schizophrenia and eventually enduring several bouts 1999, Im sick of Les Pauls. . . . You see them everywhere.

Peter Green
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 Michael Bloomeld

Michael Bloomfield and his legendary 1959 Les Paul, doing something super, no
doubt, during an early-70s studio session. Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

A fter failing to set the music world alight upon its release in 1958and suf-
fering a premature deletion from the Gibson catalog in 1960 as a resultthe
sunburst Les Paul Standards glories spread like contagion in the mid-60s, when
its tonal splendor first became widely appreciated. Eric Claptons use of a late-
50s Burst on the Blues Breakers so-called Beano album (a.k.a. John Mayall
Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton) spread the bug like an uncovered sneeze in a
crowded kindergarten classroom. The epidemic swept most virulently through
British blues-rockers, but notably caught up with plenty of American players,
too. Billy F Gibbons, for one, declared that he lusted after a Les Paul (and a few
years later obtained an extremely fine one) after seeing Clapton play with the
Blues Breakers, but ground zero for most U.S.-based sufferers has to be Michael
Bloomfield, who followed Claptons lead into humbucker-fueled tone after wield-
ing a slew of other guitars.

Gibson Les Paul

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 Gibsons custom-aged Michael Bloomfield 1959 Les Paul Standard
signature model. Gibson Musical Instruments

An avid blues fan from an early age, Bloomfield soaked up

the work of countless blues originators in his hometown
of Chicago and eventually made his own mark with
the Butterfield Blues Band, the Electric Flag, Bob
Bloomfield, who passed away in 1981, lost his
Dylan (most notably at the infamous electrified
Burst in 1974 or 1975, when, as his brother Allen
1965 Newport Folk Festival set and on Highway
recalls at MikeBloomfield.com, a venue owner
61 Revisited), and the Super Sessions album
in Vancouver retained it as compensation for an
with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills (probably
abandoned performance date. The iconic instru-
the most successful recording of Bloomfields
ment is now believed to be in the possession of
career). Having transitioned through a Fender
an anonymous U.S. collector. Although outwardly
Duo-Sonic, a Telecaster, and a 1956 goldtop with
just an excellent example of a 59 Les Paul Burst
P-90 pickups, Bloomfield finally acquired his leg-
with a striking flamed top, Bloomfields former
endary sunburst 1959 Les Paul Standard with
guitar is also distinguished by the Grover tun-
PAF humbuckers in the spring of 1967 in a
ers that Erlewine installed shortly before
deal made with acclaimed guitar technician
swapping it, the lack of a tip on its pickup-
Dan Erlewine, then an aspiring musician
selector switch, and a mismatched mix
himself. Ironically, as David Dann writes
of Top Hat and Speed knobs on its
at MikeBloomfieldAmericanMusic.com,
volume and tone controls (Bloomfield
Erlewine had acquired his 59 Les Paul
supposedly added these to better dis-
partly in admiration of Bloomfields
tinguish the controls without having
tone on the goldtop, and bringing that
to look down at them, but they were
guitar into the offer apparently sweet-
possibly just the best replacements
ened the pot just enough to close the
he could find for missing knobs), and
deal. Bloomfield gave Erlewine the gold-
an inch-long crack near the treble-side
top plus $100 cash, and got the 59 Les
post of the stop-bar tailpiece.
Paul in return.

Michael Bloomfield
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 Darling Nicky: a Burst collectors
favorite 59 model. Charles Daughtry

Gibson Les Paul

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 Another beloved 59 Standard with
rich iced tea finish, nicknamed
Minty by its previous owner.
Fretted Americana

Gibson Les Paul

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 History
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 A Chicago Musical Instruments Co. label, as found
on an amplifier shipping box. Rumble Seat Music

1959 Skinner Burst. Rumble Seat Music

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 (Continued from page 71)
guitarist owns a transitional early-1960 Standard that mostly exhib-
its 59 specs, a guitar ordered with a factory Bigsby by its original
owner, and now known in the Burst community as The Babe. I
plug it in and it sounds like meexactly the way Im supposed to
sound. Anything else just doesnt make sense.
So, what exactly is this magical sound? One Burst collector,
Charles A. Daughtry, takes a stab at it. A vintage Les Paul has har-
monics that Ive never heard from a newer Les Paul. The neck pickup
is clear and very usable, not muddy like most [reissues]. Theres a
three-dimensional quality to the sound that just isnt there with
newer guitars. Most people who play a Burst for the first time ini-
tially think that the pickups sound weak and arent as trebly as the with exceptional tops or notable histories have gone for more. The
pickups they hear in newer Les Pauls. But theres still a midrange
howl to a good Burst, and a rounder top end, that cant be duplicated
with modern guitars, in my opinion. A good Bursts bridge pickup
will sound like a Teles bridge pickup on steroids: fat and clear at the
same time.
In addition to the sound itself, Daughtry explains that the play-
ing feel is also a big part of the magic. The neck of a good Burst
will literally vibrate in your hand. You can also feel the body of it
vibrating against your ribs and sternum when youre sitting down
History
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Five distinguished gentlemen get together to discuss the good old days.
Rumble Seat Music
and playing it. Ultimately, he says, the magic is a combination of
so many things. Theres a reverence when I play a Burst. Im cognizant
of the history of the guitar, and feel honored that Im being allowed
to participate in all of its history. The feeling is really indescribable,
but its different, and, in my mind, better than the feeling of playing
a newer guitar.
Different and better come at a substantial price to todays
player. A sunburst 195860 Les Paul in good original condition
can nudge toward the half-million-dollar ballpark, and examples
extremes of supply and demand that have pushed prices skyward
have also spawned a significant market in historically accurate repro-
ductions (made both by Gibsons own Custom Shop and by several
independent luthiers), as well as in somewhat more original hand-
made, non-copy guitars that seek to capture a hefty dose of the
Burst magic, if not the precise look. It all brews up to a situation that
can be rather daunting, and despair-making, for a guitarist who gets a
taste for the real thingbut lacks the wherewithal to acquire it (as,
lets face it, most of us do).
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This despair at the unat-
tainable was perhaps best expressed
at the end of a playing assessment of six original
195860 Les Pauls, written up in the April 2008 issue of the
Tone Quest Report by Nate Riverhorse Nakadate and TQR editor David
Wilson, with guitarist John Richardson in the hot seat. After thorough
sessions with each of the original Bursts, one of the writers asked the
guitarist what he thought of the experience. What do I think? he
replied. I think I wish that I had never heard any of these guitars.
The Les Paul Evolves, Then Vanishes
As prized as it is today, the sunburst-finish-with-humbuckers
evolution failed to save the Les Paul Model (which only came to
be referred to as a Standard in this configuration from 1960
onward). Theres no arguing that this wasnt a successful design,
but it somehow failed to light a fire with enough players to make
it a viable product in Gibsons eyes. In hindsight, we can see that
the music for which the Les Paul would be best suited really hadnt
come along yet, and the full voice of the guitar would only be
revealed in the blues-rock and heavy rock that roared onto the
scene in the mid-to-late 1960s. Meanwhile, Fenders bright, wiry,
candy-colored creations were very much hitting the mark with the
surf, pop, country, and rock n roll scenes, with guitars landing
in the hands of everyone from Dick Dale to Buddy Holly, James
Burton to Buck Owens. The list of stars who would take up the Les
Paul less than a decade on would rival any endorsement roster in
the world of popular musicit just hadnt happened yet.
Gibson records show that after shipping 920 goldtops in 1956
and 598 in 57, the company only sent out 434 sunburst Les Pauls
in 58. That number rose to 643 in 59, then declined to 635 in 60.
Meanwhile, sales of the humbucker-loaded Les Paul Custom (gener-
ally now made with three pickups, though occasionally with two)
declined steadily from 284 guitars in 1957 to 189 in 1960. One
could surmise that if the world of rock n roll would eventually fall
in love with the humbucking pickup, it certainly hadnt happened
yet. Gibson decided a new direction was called for, and the change
was extreme. The result found the now-iconic Les Paul Model with
carved maple top, single cutaway, and sunburst finish deleted from
the Gibson catalog after 1960, replaced in 61 by a new design that
shared only pickups, inlays, and some hardware with its predecessor,
but nevertheless still bore the Les Paul name.
Style-wise, its safe to say that the double-cutaway Les Paul
Standard of 1961known as the SG Standard after 1962, with
models from 6162 often now referred to as Les Paul/SGswas to being awkward to use, it offered relatively poor return-to-pitch
Gibson Les Paul
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a more radical venture than the sunburst, single-cutaway Les Paul
of 195860, if not quite so extreme as the Flying V and Explorer
of the Modernist Series that had fallen on its face circa 195860.
And maybe radical is exactly what was called for. Sure, many of the
competitors were turning out flashy designs that echoed the chrome-
and-tailfins aesthetics of Detroit in the late 50s and early 60s, and
Gibson would soon give that styling a shot with its own reverse
body Firebird. On the other hand, the slightly asymmetrical dual
horns and thin, beveled body of the 1961 Les Paul virtually screamed
heavy rock, even if that music form hadnt yet arrived. One thing is
for certain: at its core, the new design was a long way from Gibson
tradition, although touches like the standard transparent cherry fin-
ish and the retention of the archetypal trapezoidal fingerboard inlays
were clear bids to keep it all in the family at least.
In addition to the radical looks, the construction of the new Les
Paul also had little in common with how the guitars were made in
195260. The body was considerably thinner and made from solid
mahogany rather than the maple-topped mahogany of the single-
cut design. The guitar still had Gibsons seminal glued-in neck,
but the double-cutaway design, while offering outstanding upper-
fret playing access, produced a notable weakness at the neck/body
joint, further disabled by the relatively deep route for the neck
pickup within the shallow body. To strengthen this region, Gibson
moved the neck pickup further away from the end of the finger-
board, as compared with its placement in the single-cutaway Les
Paul. Still, it was a weak link in the structural chain. The neck
profile of the single-cut Les Paul had reached its slimmest propor-
tions in 1960, but the necks of 1961 into early 62 were among
the slimmest Gibson creations yet. Considered fast and easy to
play at the time, they are generally not among the favorite Gibson
neck profiles among the majority of players today, and they remain
something of an acquired taste.
The thinner all-mahogany body and thinner neck altered the
tone of the new Les Paul Standard somewhat when compared with
its predecessor, although the slightly snappier, janglier voice might
have better suited much of the music of the day. The 61 Les Paul
now also came with a vibrato of its owna popular feature of the
dayas standard, rather than requiring an add-on Bigsby as a rare
factory extra. The unit chosen for the task, however, has come to be
regarded by many players as a real beast of the hardware world. The
so-called sideways vibratoor, in Gibson parlance, the Deluxe
Vibratohad a cumbersome decorative cover and a fold-out arm
that the player must move side-to-side to trigger its trademark wobble
in pitch, rather than up and down like most such units. In addition
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 The Rolling Stones Mick
Taylor, onstage in Honolulu
with his Les Paul Standard in
1973. Robert Knight Archive/
Redferns/Getty Images

Les Paul #9 0881,

a.k.a. The Bearded Lady.
Rumble Seat Music

History
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 Approaching the Paul McCartneys
end of the line: left-handed 1960
a 1960 Burst. sunburst Standard.
Outline Press Outline Press

Gibson Les Paul

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 1960 Melody Maker with 59 neck profile and
slightly larger pickup. Olivias Music

History
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(Continued from page 82)
capabilities, and, when at rest, didnt do much to enhance the guitars
inherent tone, either.
The relatively few early Les Paul/SGs made with stopbar tail-
pieces rather than Deluxe Vibratos tend to be highly sought-after
today, and they are generally considered to represent the true
potential of these guitars in tone and function. Alongside these,
many players also have a preference for the small number of early
Les Paul/SGs made with a Maestro Vibrola mounted to an ebony
block with pearloid inlays, which is a somewhat more stable tail-
piece (if one still lacking in precise return-to-pitch capabilities).
For all that, however, most will agree that a 6162 Les Paul/SG
with two PAF pickups and a sideways vibrato is still a monster-
sounding instrument.
1960 Les Paul/SG. Rumble Seat Music Gibson Les Paul
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1960 Burst fitted with a Bigsby. Rumble Seat Music
Radical looks and obtuse vibrato aside, the new 1961 Les Paul
Standard successfully sparked the interest of a wider swathe of play-
ers. Gibson shipped a whopping 1,662 units that year, not far short
of three times the number of Les Paul Models sold in 1960. The
new Les Paul Custom, which now came with a white finish and
three pickups, saw an equally copious upturn in production, with
513 shipped in 1961although only 298 went out the door the
following year. Whether the initial bump was thanks to the public-
ity the brand-new design received, or the decline that followed was
the result of an unfavorable reception for the feel of the new Cus-
tom, is difficult to say. Many players today do find the three-pickup,
fretless-wonder with sideways Vibrola a particularly difficult guitar
to wrangle, even if theres a world of potential sonic glory huddled
within its trio of PAF humbuckers.
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 Double Cutaway Junior and Special
Both the Les Paul Junior and Les Paul Special proved to be good
sellers right out of the box, but that didnt stop Gibson from updat-
ing the designs just a few years into their run. The Junior was given
a double-cutaway body in 1958, with a neck that joined the body
right at the very end of the fingerboard, providing unprecedented
playing access to the guitars highest frets. While the necks on these
guitars look like theyre just begging to be snapped off, the lack of
a pickup in the neck position leaves room for a solid extended neck
tenon, and a pretty sturdy joint as a result.
On the other hand, the double-cutaway Les Paul Special, which
was introduced in 1959, did exhibit an alarming tendency to suf-
fer neck fractures when dropped. The route for the forward pickup
of these guitars cuts right into the neck tenon, weakening the
joint severely. They are much-loved guitars, and can sound
sublime, but too many owners have learned the hard way
the need to ensure their straps are secure when playing these
guitars, or to pay extra attention to how they place them on
their stands. In 1960, Gibson moved the neck pickup further
away from the end of the fingerboard, leaving more meat at the
joint and improving its strength somewhat.
This double-cutaway, double-pickup, all-mahogany guitar is
so often referred to as the double-cut Special, but it was in fact
dubbed the SG in Gibson literature when released in 1958. The
nameshort for solid guitarmight not possess quite the zing
of Special, but correctly applies to the thick-bodied double-
cutaway designs with the rounded horns of the era. And while
the rest of the Les Paul range changed in 1961, these guitars con-
tinued to be made into 1962, before the thinner, pointier body
style also overtook the Special, which then got its original model
name back.
Some early-61 Les Paul Juniors also retained the thicker
dual-cutaway mahogany body with rounded horns, but this
single-pickup student model soon also grew into the new thin-
ner, pointy-horned body style. Gibson had introduced
a beginners model even further down-market in
1959the Melody Makerand while the Junior
and Special were still considerably more afford-
able than the Les Paul Standard, they were fast
becoming popular with grown-up players seek-
ing no-nonsense Gibson tone and performance at
a cut-down price.
A little later in the decade, major players like
Pete Townshend, Carlos Santana, and Robby
Krieger would make a major splash with Specials
loaded with P-90 pickups, while Leslie West of
Mountain would create considerable noise on a
humble Junior, a guitar he also gifted to Black
Sabbaths Tony Iommi.
1961 SG/Les Paul Junior with double cutaway
and a single P-90 pickup. Outline Press
History
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Les Paul Jumps Ship
His name remained on the headstock (or engraved in the truss-rod
cover, at least), but Les Paul was purportedly never very happy with
the new SG body style that overtook his namesake in 1961. Les Paul
and Mary Ford still appeared in promotional photos for the guitar,
invariably smiling and cradling a white Les Paul Customoften
a custom-made, two-pickup version at that, Les finding the third
pickup interfered with his picking techniquebut a bigger problem
than his uncertainty over the redesign would soon surface. By the
early 60s, Les Paul and Mary Fords marriage was on the rocks, and
divorce was on the cards. Concerned that his Gibson royalties might
be attached in any divorce settlement, Les pulled his endorsement,
and his name was scrubbed from the headstock.
In 1963, the erstwhile Les Paul Standard with thin mahog-
any body and dual pointy-horned cutaways officially became
the SG Standard. If the name might imply less glory than
that of the Les Paul Standard of the previous year, the specs
of these guitars would prove more desirable to many players
over the long haul. The neck profile, while not as chunky
as those from the 50s, began to fill out a little more on many
examples, producing a more enduring playing feel. The sideways
Deluxe Vibrato was replaced with a unit often referred to as
a lyre vibrato, essentially an aesthetically upgraded Maestro
Vibrola with a decorative metal cover bearing an engraving of
a lyre. Meanwhile, although the patent-number stickers were
finally arriving on the humbucking pickups, their design and
constructionand, therefore, their tonewas largely consis-
tent with that of the hallowed PAFs before them.
Gibson shipped fewer SG Standards in 1963 than it had in
each of the previous two years, but only slightly, and the bump
in 61 might have been attributable to the publicity surrounding
the new model. Even so, the company sold nearly as many of
the double-cutaway SG Standards in each of the years through
the middle part of the decade, on average, as it had of the single-
cutaway Les Paul Model through the entire three years of its
run put together. As the new design reached its half-
decade mark, sales rallied again, peaking at 1,731
units shipped in 1965. But other changes were
in the wind, and they wouldnt do the SG any
favorsneither then nor in the eyes (and hands)
of players decades later.
From its arrival in 1952 to partway through
1965, the neck of the Les Paul and the SG that
followed sported a width at the nut of around
111/16 inches. In response to a perceived trend
toward narrower necks, Gibson decreased
that specification to 19/16 inches in the lat-
ter part of 1965 (as ever, these figures werent
entirely consistent, and necks with a width of
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 Les Paul poses for a portrait with an SG, two years
prior to having his name removed from the instrument.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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 1961 SG/Les Paul Standard with twin humbuckers and a
vibrato tailpiece. Outline Press

A striking white 1961 SG/Les Paul Custom with gold-plated

hardware and three humbuckers. Outline Press

This heavily modded SG/Les Paul belonging

to Billy F Gibbons is out of the Gibson
Custom Shop. A single PAF complements
Celtic-themed inlays, repositioned knobs,
and a Flying V headstock. David Perry

Another 61 SG from the Billy F Gibbons

collection . . . this one featuring some
period-perfect hot rod pinstriping.
David Perry

History
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 Gibson Les Paul
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 1961 Les Paul Junior in TV finish.
History Olivias Music
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 Gibson Les Paul
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 THIS SPREAD: 1962 SG Standard.
Olivias Music

History
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 1963 Les Paul Standard. Photos
by George Aslaender, courtesy
of Retrofret Vintage Guitars

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 (Continued from page 87)
1 inches at the nut can also be found). Although two sixteenths
of an inch might not look like much on paper, the change felt dras-
tic in the hand, and many players derided the new specs. In 1966,
Gibson altered the neck design once again, decreasing the tradi-
tional backward headstock angle from 17 degrees to 14 degrees.
The move was part of an effort to decrease incidences of headstocks
breaking from guitars that were dropped, or which fell from their
stands. A detrimental side effect, however, was that of reducing the
strings tension in the nut slots, thereby decreasing these guitars
resonance and sustainin the estimation of some players, at least.
Popular demand saw the return of 111/16inch nut widths in late
1967 or early 68, although the 14-degree headstock angle remained
through the 1970s and into the early 80s. In the historical sense,
these changes are two among a number of smaller alterations that
demarcate the late 65toearly 66 period as the start of a gradual power of a warm, rich, and long-sustaining Les Paul with humbuck-
decline in the quality of Gibsons electric guitars, and in the desir-
ability of vintage Gibsons in the eyes of collectors today.
Nevertheless, right at this turning point in production quality
or what is often now, in hindsight, viewed as suchGibson had
its biggest year yet. In 1965, the company sold more than 80,000
instruments in total, plus some 20,000 Epiphones (guitars that had
been built in the Kalamazoo factory ever since Gibsons acquisition
of the New York guitar maker in 1957). But this era of prosperity
would be short-lived.
The SG: A Hard-Rock Standard
Meanwhile, the SG had thoroughly established its own reputation
as the choice of numerous rockers, and seemed to be a leader in the
heavy rock and metal worlds in particular. The guitars devil horns
might have suited this fierce music in some ways, and indeed the SG
was the most radical looking of the more commonly available Gib-
son electricsif, perhaps, the reverse-bodied Firebird had proved a
step too far. But the feel and tone must have won over many players,
too. The SG was lighter than the Les Paul (which, of course, was still
hard to come by up until the end of the 60s), and therefore more
comfortable to some to play; its unrestrained upper-fret access was
no doubt appealing to many lead players; and once you rammed it
through a full stack with some gain applied, it still sounded plenty
powerful, despite the lesser physical girth.
Having started as a British beat group, the Who had evolved into
the worlds loudest band by the time the iconic Live at Leeds set was
recorded in 1970, and Pete Townshend had been making his noise
on a Gibson SG Special for a couple years already, with a little help
from a pair of 100-watt Hiwatt stacks. Eric Clapton used an SG for
a time with Cream, and George Harrison occasionally wielded one
with the Beatles. Tony Iommi coined the archetypal heavy-metal riff
on an SG with Black Sabbath in the late 60s and early 70s, and
shortly after that an SG Standard laid down another series of infec-
tious rock licks in the hands of AC/DCs Angus Young.
History
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Through it all, the SG established itself as a solidbody that was
here to stay. In 1969, Gibson shipped 3,354 SG Standards and 2,378
SG Specials, more each of the two models of Standard and Special
solidbody electrics than it had ever sold before. In short, even with
the Les Paul returning to the fold, the SG wasnt going anywhere,
and indeed would remain the primary choice of countless notable
players over the coming decades.
The Les Paul Explodes
Even with the SG doing well for Gibsons solidbody catalog, the mid-
60s brought rumblings in the music world that indicated the original
single-cutaway Les Paul might finally be getting the appreciation it
deserved. As rock absorbed more and more of the blues, and play-
ers sought new and distinctive tones, guitarists began discovering the
ing pickups through a cranked tube amp. Eric Clapton established
the early part of a trend by using his late-59 or early-60 sunburst
Les Paul to record John Mayall Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, oth-
erwise known as the Beano album, in 1966. After winding up his
1982 Marshall combo to full bore and warning the engineer that it
was going to get loud so he might want to place the mic on the far
side of the room, Clapton went at it for all he was worth. The resul-
tant recordings gave many pop and rock fansand many guitarists
besidestheir first taste of a guitar not merely being amplified by
an amplifier, but working together with an amp to form one instru-
ment with an extremely expressive voice.
Although his sound perhaps wasnt classic Les Paul Standard as
we would come to know it when rock moved into the arenas, Keith
Richards had actually beaten Clapton to the sunburst wave, using
a 59 Les Paul Model with Bigsby vibrato tailpiece with the Roll-
ing Stones as early as 1964. By the end of the decade, however, the
temporary replacement for the late Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, was
laying down more typically bluesy Les Paul licks within the Stones
swaggering British R&B.
By this time, though, the Les Paul was already on fire, and
just about everyone had to have one. Jeff Beck acquired a 58 Les
Paul during 1966 and, after using it for the majority of his latter
work with the Yardbirds, became a proponent of high-octane hum-
bucker tone through much of the playing that followed. Back in the
States, bluesman Michael Bloomfieldfired up by Claptons tone
on Beanoswapped his Telecaster for a goldtop Les Paul, then
swapped with Dan Erlewine (now a noted guitar tech) for a 59 sun-
burst Les Paul, the most legendary tone machine of his turbulent
career. Major Les Paul advocate Billy F Gibbons would later acquire
his beloved Pearly Gates some years after having first been infected
by the same Claptonitis, and would use it to make some of the most
distinctive blues-rock of the early 70s and beyond.
Back in Britain, as the 60s rolled into the 70s, many of the most
notable names in rock were all making their mark on Les Pauls: from
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 Gibson Les Paul 1964 single-pickup SG Junior. Olivias Music
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 1965 SG Special with Maestro
Vibrola unit. Olivias Music

History
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 Gibson Les Paul 1966 SG Standard. Olivias Music
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 (Continued from page 95)
Peter Green to Jimmy Page, Paul Kossoff to Mick Ron-
son, that single-cutaway, dual-humbucker tone was the
sound to beat. It didnt hurt that Les Paul guitars and
Marshall amplifiers proved a match made in tone heaven.
And if we cant quite say today whether the gear influ-
enced the music or the music dictated the gear, theres little
argument that the mid-60s until the mid-70sin terms of
the heavier rock genres, at leastwas the Age of the Les Paul.
End of an Era
Just as rockers around the world were discovering the glories
of the late-50s Les Paul, one of the prime movers behind its
creation was bidding farewell to Gibson. Ted McCarty left
the company midway through 1966, and for two years the
Kalamazoo operation was run, for all intents and purposes,
by accountant Albert Stanley. He had little understanding of
the inner workings of guitar manufacturing, and his oversight
appears to have run down Gibsons recent prowess. The com-
pany was losing upward of a million dollars a year by the late
60s, and players and dealers alike were noticing a substantive
dip in quality.
CMI president Maurice Berlin knew he needed a new,
more experienced hand to pull Gibson out of its slump, and
he found it in Stan Rendell. Having been head of manu-
facturing for CMI since 1963, Rendell had overseen several
disparate factories around the country, gaining a wealth of
production and efficiency experience in the pro-
cess. After coming in as new Gibson president in
1968, Rendell drastically trimmed back the
companys middle and upper management
to reduce personnel costs, and streamlined
Gibsons various arms of production in the
name of efficiency. He also introduced sev-
eral changes in guitar production to reduce
waste and warranty returns, and, in the face of
endemic flaws in the way Kalamazoo was build-
ing its ES models in the late 60s, he entirely shut
down production of that line for a period of
time. Rendells moves helped to get Gib-
son back on course, financially, but from
the players perspective, his stewardship
wasnt all good news.
Moves toward three-piece mahog-
any and maple necks; a strengthening
volute (a triangular hump) where
the back of the neck bends toward the
headstock; and eventually, multi-piece
pancake bodies were all introduced
during Rendells rein. Ostensibly bids to
increase the strength of these wood parts,
History
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A 1968 example of the twin-pickup
Les Paul Custom. Outline Press
they were all clearly money-savers, too. More to the point,
from the players perspective, they were all considered det-
rimental to tone and/or playing feel in one way or another,
and they were also a uniform break from the traditions of
Gibsons golden years of the solidbody electric guitar.
The Les Paul Returns . . .
Sort Of
Right in the middle of what we might call the first age of dark-
ness for Gibsons solidbody electric guitars, the namesake of
the companys most famous exponent returned to the fold,
and the Les Paul guitar returned to production right along
with him. Clearly recognizing the growing popularity of the
single-cutaway Les Paul, Gibson reintroduced that model in
1968, restructuring an agreement to get Less name back on
the headstock. Oddly enough, though, rather than bringing
back the sunburst Les Paul Standard with dual humbuckers,
which had been discontinued a mere eight years before, Gibson
unleashed a goldtop Standard with two P-90 soapbar pickups
and a Tune-o-matic bridge. Early the following year, the model
gained the wider headstock that would be characteristic of most
70s Gibsons, before morphing into the Les Paul Deluxe.
The Deluxe was built with the new four-piece bodyas if
any Les Paul needed more strength in that regionwith two
mahogany slabs joined by a thin fillet of maple and a carved maple
top. Its neck was a three-piece mahogany construction, and it
came with two humbucking pickups as standardalthough not
the full-sized PAF-style humbuckers that were
firing up the rock scene on late-50s Les Pauls.
These units were narrower, less powerful, and
brighter of tone. Derived from a smaller hum-
bucker inherited from Epiphone, they would
henceforth be known as the Mini-Humbucker
and were a defining element of the Les Paul
Deluxe. The pickups were mounted in rings
that looked to be adapted from P-90 soapbar
covers and set down into the same routes
as those single-coil units, allowing Gib-
son to save money on retooling. (Some
early examples were also surrounded
by secondary goof rings to cover up
routing errors.)
The Les Paul Deluxe was a popu-
lar model in its own right throughout
the 70s, possibly because it was the
closest thing players could get to a
new Les Paul. A few known examples
of Les Paul Standards from the early 70s
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 Pencil sketch by Les Paul labeled White Guitar Aug
5, 1968 and featuring an extra finger (button) and
phase switch. Juliens AuctionsOlivias Music

Guitar and bass prototypes of the Les Paul Recording

model, plus accompanying notes. Juliens Auctions

Gibson Les Paul

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 A prototype Recording modelprobably the first one ever made
with a Paulverizer fitted over the Bigsby. Juliens Auctions

The Les Paul Personal, a mildly more popularand

slightly more user-friendlyrelative of the Professional,
also from 1969. Outline Press

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 Mahavishnu John McLaughlin and his Les Paul Deluxe.
David Redfern/Redferns/Getty Images

Gibson Les Paul

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 Yes guitarist Steve Howe gets his prog on with a Junior, of
all things, at Londons Rainbow Theatre, November 1973.
David Warner Ellis/Redferns/Getty Images

Les Pauls somewhat idiosyncratic

Professional model, only 370 of which were
produced during 196970. Outline Press

1969 Les Paul Deluxe.

Outline Press

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 A modified 1972 Les Paul Custom
and Less thoughts on it.
Juliens Auctions

1973 Les Paul Deluxe. Photos

by George Aslaender, courtesy
of Retrofret Vintage Guitars

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 1974 semi-acoustic goldtop Les Paul Signature
model (also produced in sunburst finish).
Outline Press
Jeff Skunk Baxter of Steely Dan at
Londons Rainbow Theatre, May 20,
1974. David Warner Ellis/Redferns/
Getty Images

History
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 Paul Kossoff

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 A lthough he died at the age of twenty-five, Paul Kossoff started
young in the music business, packing enough into his eleven-year
career to be remembered as a prime exponent of classic Les Paul tone.
Kossoff became most famous as guitarist in the rock band Free, but as
a teenager in his first band, Black Cat Bones, he regularly played sup-
porting gigs for the Peter Greenled Fleetwood Mac. Whether Greens
59 Burst played any role in Kossoffs decision to procure his equally
famous 59 Les Paul is open to conjecture. What isnt up for debate
is the fact that Kossoffs Burst is firmly ensconced in the pantheon of
celebrated 59 Les Paul Standards.
Kossoff got his first tastes of the glories of Gibsons exalted Les
Paul when he was just fifteen, working at Selmers music in Londons
Charing Cross Road, a prime West End hangout for many name artists
of the day. Both Keith Richards and Jeff Beck acquired their own Bursts
at Selmers, and its hard to imagine that the young Kossoff
didnt develop a taste for the tone and feel of the Les Paul
Kossoffs 1959 Standard. Outline Press
OPPOSITE: Paul Kossoff performs with Free at Newcastle City Hall, 1972.
Michael Putland/Getty Images
Paul Kossoff
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during his time there. He was still just sixteen years old when he formed
Free with singer Paul Rogers, bassist Andy Fraser, and drummer Simon
Kirkeall of whom were also still in their teensand the band was
quickly signed by Island Records. Their 1968 debut album Tons of Sobs
and the followup Free displayed a refreshingly straightforward take on
soulful British blues amid the psychedelic revolution of the day, but it
was 1970s Fire and Water that really launched Free to the big time,
largely via the massive worldwide hit All Right Now.
A handful of other Les Pauls, vintage and early reissue, graced the
Kossoff lineup during the latter part of his career. But we will forever
associate his deep, rich tone, musical phrasing, and wide, evocative
vibrato technique with the faded, beautifully flamed 59, which
went to a friend after his death. Following the breakup of Free
in 1973, Kossoff formed the band Back Street Crawler and
continued to record and tour expensively, but the fast life of
the road and the early fame seemed to have proved too much
for him. Having dipped in and out of heroin abuse for several
years, Kossoff died of a drug-related heart attack on a flight from
Los Angeles to New York in 1976. His father, the actor David Kossoff,
remained an ardent campaigner against drug abuse until his own death
in 2005.
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 George Harrison
Harrison onstage with Delaney & Bonnie and Lucy, Copenhagen, Denmark, December 1969.
G eorge Harrison is so strongly associated with several other
guitarsmodels by Gretsch, Rickenbacker, Epiphone, and
Fenderthat we often dont think of him as a Les Paul guy. Fact is,
though, Harrison put in a lot of time on a Les Paul late in the Beatles
existence, and he frequently played a 65 SG before that, too. And if
Harrisons use of this particular Les Paul isnt enough to render it
a legendary, the instruments backstory name-checks a stunning
number of famous players before it even arrived in the hands of
the youngest Beatle.
Gibson Les Paul
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Jan Persson/Redferns/Getty Images
The music world knows the red Les Paul that George Harrison used
on so many Beatles recordings in the final years of the bands career
best as Lucy, but the guitaroriginally a 1957 goldtop with Bigsby
vibrato, with the serial number 78789passed through the hands
of three other major stars before landing with Harrison in 1968. Andy
Babiuk, author of the book Beatles Gear (2001, Backbeat Books), traced
the first notable ownership of Lucy to the Lovin Spoonfuls guitarist
John Sebastian. It went to guitar-legend Rick Derringer around 1966,
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 and it was Derringer who had it refinished to an SG-style cherry red and
had the Bigsby removed, at the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo some time
shortly thereafter. The only trouble was, the guitar just didnt feel the
same to Derringer after the work, so he swapped it for a sunburst Les
Paul at Dan Armstrongs guitar shop in Manhattan . . . where Eric Clapton
Lucy, the unusual red 57 Les Paul Model given to

then purchased it.

Harrison by Eric Clapton in 1969. Outline Press

According to Beatles roadie Mal Evans in The Beatles Monthly, Clap-

ton gave the Les Paul to his good friend George Harrison in early August
of 1968, but it first made Beatles history back in Claptons hands again
on September 6 of that year, when Harrison invited the Cream star to
record the now-legendary solo to While My Guitar Gently Weeps, for
which Clapton used his recent gift to the Beatle. After a further hiccup
in the ownership of the guitarinvolving its theft in a burglary of Har-
risons Beverly Hills home and its convoluted recovery from an owner in
Mexicothis refinished 1957 Les Paul stayed with Harrison throughout
his career, appearing on several solo recordings and performances. It
remains the property of the George Harrison estate.

George Harrison
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 Neil Young

Tuning up Old Black backstage at the Catalyst Club in Santa Cruz, California, 1977.
Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

A music fan of 1968 would have found Neil Young an odd candidate
to be credited as a founder of the heavy-rock movement. Up to
this point, his work with Buffalo Springfield and his self-titled solo debut
(1968), all worked toward crafting his image as a country-rock origi-
nator and a moving force in the burgeoning singer/songwriter scene.
With the release of his second solo album, Everybody Knows This Is
Nowhere (1969), extended electric guitar workouts in songs like Cin-
namon Girl, Down by the River, and Cowgirl in the Sand hinted
at a more unhinged musical fury. Youngs stinging, slightly venomous
musical personaboth sonic and thematiccontinued to boil to the
surface, first with a few tracks on the mostly folk- and country-informed
After the Gold Rush (1970) and Harvest (1972), and more so on later
releases like Zuma (1975), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), and Ragged
Glory (1990). Though Young has long been associated with acoustic-
flavored country rock, this is an artist who likes to rockand when
he does, he more often than not does so on a modified 1953
Gibson Les Paul known as Old Black, one of the quirkiest and
most colorful guitars out there.
Young acquired Old Black from former Buffalo Spring-
field bandmate Jim Messina in 1969 (some accounts
credit the former owner as Stephen Stills), by which time
the Les Paul had already been thoroughly modified. Born with

Gibson Les Paul

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 a classic early-1950s goldtop finish, it had
been painted black by a previous owner. The
original wraparound combined bridge and tail-
piece had also been replaced by a Bigsby B7 vibrato/
Gibson Tune-o-matic bridge combination. Apparently the
guitars original neck or headstock had been replaced as well
sometime in the 60s, as evidenced by the SG/ES-335-style crown
inlay found where the Les Paul Model logo would normally be seen.
Other cosmetic alterations include pinstriping tape added to the back
of the neck and body, and the aluminum pickguard that has replaced
the original cream-colored plastic guard. More pertinent to its signa-
ture tone, though, is the addition of a Gibson Firebird mini-humbucking
pickup in the bridge position, while the neck pickup is still the original
P-90, though this has been updated with a metal cover over the years.
An exceedingly lively pickup, this Firebird bucker, which Youngs long-
time guitar tech Larry Cragg describes as microphonic, plays a big part
in Youngs characteristic feedback-laden soloing assault. An additional
toggle switch acts as a bypass, sending the Firebird pickup directly to
Youngs amplifier.
Of course, some of the credit for Youngs distinct sound is owed to by Youngs late amp tech Sal Trentino in the late 1970s. The Whizzer
that amplifier: a modified 1959 tweed Fender Deluxe that has long been can rotate volume and tone controls to four preset configurations with
Youngs number-one amp. Youngs legendary, super-saturated overdrive the stomp of a footswitch, to elicit subtleand sometimes radical
sound is derived from Old Black injected straight into the Deluxeother changes in the amps performance. Add it up, and its a fierce assault
pedals are used for different effects, but none for added gain or distortion. enabled by relatively basicand ancientgear. And, as witnessed on
Unprecedented control over the simple Deluxes three-knob control panel albums and performances from 1969 to present, the rig proves more
is afforded by a gizmo named The Whizzer, an automated unit built than enough to earn Young his Godfather of Grunge tag.

Neil Young
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 Page takes a violin bow to his Burst at Madison Square Garden, New York, June 1977.
Richard E. Aaron/Redferns/Getty Images
Jimmy Page

JImmys 1959 Les Paul Standard

a.k.a. Number One. Outline Press

I n Les Paul circles, Jimmy Page needs no introduction. His Number One 59 Les Paul
might be considered the primo Burst in the minds of many fans, and although many early
landmark Zep recordings were done on a Telecaster, Page himself is often deemed the
consummate Les Paul artist when any discussion of this vaunted axe arises. Purchased
from Joe Walsh in 1969 for the then-princely sum of $1,200, the guitar replaced
Pages famous 1959 Dragon Telecaster, a holdover from his Yardbirds days.
Jimmy . . . was looking for a Les Paul and asked if I knew of any, cause he
couldnt find any that he liked, and I had two, Walsh told Guitar World magazine
in 2012. So I kept the one I liked the most and flew . . . with the other one. I laid
it on him and said, Try this out. He really liked it. So whatever my expenses
were, thats what I charged him . . . I just thought he should have a Les Paul
for godsakes!

Gibson Les Paul

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 based on Number Two. Outline Press
The Gibson Jimmy Page Les Paul,
Number One arguably went on to become his most iconic Zeppelin-era guitar, and even served
Page in good stead during the bands celebrated December 2007 reunion show at Londons O2
Arena. Of course, Number One got its name for a reason: Page also had a Number Two (another
59 Standard Burst) and Number Three (a 69 Les Paul Deluxe).
Walsh had had Number Ones neck shaved down to the thinner profile of a 60 Les Paul
Standard, so it was already modified when Page received it. The Zep guitarist added his preferred
Grover tuners, and, over the years, changed out a broken original double-cream bridge pickup for
a later T-top Gibson humbucker, which was in turn changed to a custom-wound Seymour Duncan
humbucker years later. After this, the neck pickup was eventually swapped for another original PAF.
Page also installed a phase-reverse switch, activated by push-pull potentiometers, in an effort to
achieve the Peter Green out-of-phase tone.
Page bought Number Two at a music store in Londons Charing Cross Road early on in
the days of Led Zeppelin, mainly as a backup for Number One. Of this second Les Paul, Pat
Foley, head of Gibsons artist relations, said, When I first saw it at his home, I was knocked
outI thought it was a better looking guitar than his Number One. The neck is still very
slim, but not quite as extreme as the reshaping of the neck on LP Number One. The finish
had a little bit more of a sunburst pattern remaining, and you could see where the original
red had faded and left a gray-brown sunburst. Over the years, this Les Paul was modified
even more dramatically than Number One, with individual coil-split switches on the tone
controls, series-parallel switching on the volume controls, and two pushbutton switches
beneath the pickguard, for universal phase and universal series/parallel switching.

Jimmy Page
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 A 1975 cream Les Paul Custom
owned by U2 guitarist The Edge.
Juliens Auctions
The Edge puts his 75 to work on the Zoo TV tour.
Paul Bergen/Redferns/Getty Images

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 A 1978 Les Paul Recording model
with factory Bigsby, PHASE switch,
two quarter-inch jacks, and an XLR
microphone input. Juliens Auctions

A 1976 Les Paul Recording

model with factory Bigsby, plus
Pauls notes about the guitar.
Juliens Auctions

History
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 Journeys Neal Schon with one of his many Les Pauls,
Oakland, California, September 1978. Ed Perlstein/
Redferns/Getty Images

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(Continued from page 99)
were apparently ordered from
the factory with full-sized humbuck-
ing pickups, but many players also pulled their Mini-Humbuckers,
widened the pickup routes, and installed PAF-style humbuckers them-
selves in an attempt to attain the authentic late-50s Les Paul tone.
You could, however, get the two full-sized humbuckers in the
newly reintroduced Les Paul Custom, out the same year as the goldtop
so-called Standard. Initially dressed in black like its predecessors
although cherry, cherry-sunburst, and alpine-white options would be
added in the early 70sthe new Custom very often had a carved
maple top, rather than the all-mahogany construction of the 50s Cus-
toms. It also had gold-plated hardware, multi-ply binding, and large
pearloid block markers on an ebony fingerboardappointments that
might not have suited some players seeking a Les Paul Standard. Nev-
ertheless, reissue-era Les Paul Customs logged some major hits in the
hands of Mick Ronson (with David Bowie) and Lindsey Buckingham
(with Fleetwood Mac), and they proved another legit route to that
tone for many players.
Lo-Z, Hi-Zzzzz
Also part of the grand return of the single-cutaway solidbody to the
fold was Les Pauls final bid to foist a range of instruments of his own
particular preference onto the guitar-buying public. If he was getting
back into the game, well, Les wanted some of his own recent notions
put into development, and they hit the scene in 1969 in the form
of the Les Paul Personal and Les Paul Professional models. Both
looked much like something Les had whipped up in his workshop,
for his own use, with more emphasis on gizmotronery than on looks.
Wide, oval, low-impedance pickups were standard, as was an array
of switches for tone, phase, and pickup selections. The Personal also
included one of Less own nifty performance aids: an XLR input and
mic volume control mounted on the upper rim of the guitar. These
guitars passed for solid mahogany with a carved top, not a maple top
like the Standard, but were actually another three-piece pancake
construction with a maple center laminate.
History
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Only 370 Les Paul Personals were produced through-
out 196970, while 901 of the Professional were shipped
in the same period. In 1971 they morphed into the Les
Paul Recording model, with largely similar appointments,
but no XLR mic input. The reasoning was, most likely,
that if the rock gods werent finding these lo-z models
appropriate for leather-trousered strutting in front of Mar-
shall stacks, well, the features should make them suitable
for studio use. Les himself had long been fond of recording
direct to the mixing desk, which the low-impedance pick-
ups and active electronics allowed, but the resultant tone
simply wasnt what the majority of players on the current
scene were after.
I use nothing but low-impedance pickups, Les told
Hank Bordowitz for Guitar Magazine (UK) in 2001.
You can use longer cables and get less noise and a bet-
ter frequency response. For many players, though, that better
frequency response sounded too hi-fi, and not at all in line with
the warmth and grit of the classic Les Paul humbucker tone. This
model didnt meet with much acceptance, Les continued, mostly
from the kids. It didnt match up with the amplifiers or anything
else. The amplifiers are high impedance, and the pickups on most
guitars were high impedance. (Its worth noting that low-imped-
ance EMG pickups have been a hot item on the heavy rock and
metal scene for many years, as replacements for standard Gibson
humbuckers, and even installed at the factory on a handful of
Gibson models. But these are designed to capture much of the
sound of a traditional humbucker, albeit with a broader frequency
response, more power, and more clarity.)
Some players have no doubt made great music with the Les Paul
Personal, Professional, and Recording models, although its difficult
to think of any offhand. The latter guitar was produced until 1979,
by which time Gibson had shipped 5,380 units, so there are plenty of
them out there somewhere.
The Ownership Shuffle
Gibson had already undergone two ownership transitions since Orville
invented the archtop guitar in his Kalamazoo workshop in the 1890s,
and both had occurred before the introduction of the Les Paul. The
first change of ownership of the solidbody era, and perhaps the most
infamous, came in December of 1969, when Gibson was acquired by
Ecuadorian Company Limited (ECL). Just a few months later, the
company changed its name to Norlin, using the first three letters of
ECL chairman Norman Stevenss name and the last three from CMI
chairman Maurice Berlins surname.
For many players, Norlins ownership of Gibson, from late 1969
to early 1986, was to Gibson what CBSs was to Fender. Those years
demarcate an era of rationalizing production by a parent company
(Continued on page 126)
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 Jeff Beck

Beck and the unusual 54 Les Paul he stumbled upon at Strings and Things one day in
the early 1970s. Robert Knight Archive/Redferns/Getty Images

Becks modified 54 goldtop, with chocolate-brown oxblood finish. Outline Press

Gibson Les Paul

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 A s a young Yardbird, Jeff Beck began his career on Fender Tele-
casters and Esquiresand has come full semi-circle to a Strat in
his more recent solo workbut many fans will forever associate him
with the thick, creamy Les Paul tone that formed the meat of much of
his earlier playing in between. Beck bought his first Les Paul, a 1958
model with a deep sunburst finish, in 1966 at Selmers in London, the
same music shop where Keith Richards acquired his 59 Les Paul a
few years before. In addition to using it prominently with the Yardbirds
before departing that outfit, Beck played the guitar on much of the Jeff
Beck Groups 1968 debut Truth, featuring it on songs like Hap-
penings Ten Years Time Ago, Becks Bolero, and
Over, Under, Sideways, Down.
Through Becks ownership of the guitar, its looks
gradually evolved to fit the fads of the day: it lost its pickup
covers to reveal two double-cream PAFs (a modification
thought to induce improved high-end response), then was stripped of
its characteristic sunburst top finish (a bid to enhance the woods reso-
nance). Sometime later, this first Beck Les Paul was damaged during a
U.S. tour, and it was replaced by another 58 Les Paul with a dramati-
cally figured flame-maple top, which stood in for the damaged original
until the Jeff Beck Groups demise in 1969.
Jeff Beck
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For all these original late-50s Bursts, though, the guitarist is prob-
ably most often associated with modified 54 Les Paul that might have
appeared a down-and-out working dog to some players of the day, but
which spoke to the artist deeply. While recording in Memphis, Tennes-
see, in the early 70s, Beck paid a visit to the popular Strings and Things
guitar store to check out the stock. He was captivated by a 1954 Les
Paul that a customer had dropped in for some very specific modifica-
tions. One request was that its original goldtop be refinished to a deep
chocolate-brown, a color that turned out to exhibit some oxblood tints
in certain light. Other modifications included the installation of full-size
humbucking pickups in place of the P-90s, altering the full and
rounded early-50s neck shape to a slightly thinner profile,
and changing the original tuners for modern replace-
ments. Legend has it that the customer didnt like the
results . . . but Jeff Beck did. He bought the adulterated
Les Paul, played it extensively on tour and in the stu-
dio, and even gave it pride of place on the cover of his
milestone 1975 album Blow By Blow.
While much of Becks playing in the 1970s exhibits
the incendiary tone that was common to Les Pauldom that
decade, much of it is also snappy, round, and lithe, and more akin
to the semi-clean blues-rock tones prominent in the previous decade.
Ultimately, all three of these Les Pauls have contributed to the work of
an artist whom many fans still regard as one of the most skilled guitar-
ists in the broad genre of rock-fusion. In 2009, the Gibson Custom Shop
released its own tribute to the modified 54 goldtop as the Jeff Beck
Oxblood Les Paul.
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 1978 Les Paul Artisan, with three
pickups, gold-plated hardware, and
ornate fingerboard markers.
Outline Press

Jeff Lynne seeks inspiration from his goldtop during

sessions for the Electric Light Orchestras Discovery at
Gibson Les Paul Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, spring 1979.
120 Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images

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 1979 Les Paul K.M.the
initials designating the fact
that this guitar originated
The Les Paul: a high-end Standard with
from Kalamazoo, rather than
hand-carved wooden components,
Nashville, where most Les Pauls
produced in a very limited run of fifty-
were manufactured from 1975
four guitars between 1976 and 1979.
onward. Outline Press
Outline Press

Mr. Paul . . . and The Paul in a 1978

print ad. Outline Press

History
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 1980 Les Paul Artist, with three controls and three mini-
switches for brightness, expansion, and compression.
Outline Press

1980 Les Paul Pro Deluxe.

Outline Press

1980 Les Paul Heritage model with honey-

burst finish and 0001 stamped on the back
of the headstock. Juliens Auctions

Gibson Les Paul

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 1982 Leos Reissue Les Paul, produced
on special order for the Leos Pro Audio
in Oakland, California. Outline Press
The Les Paul 25/50 Anniversary
model from 1979 marked the
start of Gibsons move into
issuing guitars to celebrate
landmarks in the companys
history. Outline Press

History
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 1982 Standard 82 Les Paul.

1983 Spotlight Special with Antique

Natural finish. Outline Press
Outline Press

A 1983 print ad spotlighting Gibsons

Historic Collection. Outline Press

Gibson Les Paul

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 Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark with an unusual early-80s Les
Paul XR-1 (fitted with mini humbuckers) in 1983. Ebet Roberts/
Redferns/Getty Images

A print ad for the SG-62, featuring AC/DCs Angus Young

and the fastest neck in the world. Outline Press

A 1983 print ad detailing the work involved in

assembling one of these fine creatures. Outline Press History
125

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 1985 Gibson Les Paul Studio Standard, factory-
fitted with Roland GR-700 guitar synth system, plus
handmade pickguard. Juliens Auctions
(Continued from page 117)

more concerned with the bottom line than with the craft and nuance and sales were fall-
of musical instrument manufacturing. Under Norlin, Gibson con- ing far short of
tinued to be a major name in the guitar industry, and countless expectations. In
classic records were cut on Norlin-era Les Pauls. But aspects of one corner, shifting
instrument manufacture under the conglomeratefrom the devel- styles and evolv-
opment of new models, to the standards of existing favorites, to the ing musical trends
quality control of the entire production rangeare considered by made life hard on
many to have hit the nadir of Gibsons history. guitar makers, with
With this in mind, 1969 marks, for many, the end of the golden the synthesizer and
age of Gibson guitars, and the years after are therefore somewhat electronic music
beyond the scope of our interest here as regards the Les Paul. In in general pushing
short, the archetype had already been established; the best of what popular music in new
would come later largely encompassed the companys best efforts in directions. In the other,
the future to recapture the glories of the past. Japanese manufacturers
were improving their
South Bound and Trouble Brewing quality by leaps and
Today, some might deride the Norlin-era guitars as hailing bounds, and mak-
from a low point in Gibsons manufacturing history, but ing major inroads
the company was doing well, sales-wise, in the early 70s, into the U.S. and Euro-
and needed room to expand its facilities. Labor disputes in pean markets. Makers like
Kalamazoo inspired Norlin to consider greener pastures, and Ibanez, Yamaha, Aria, and a
it began construction on a new 100,000-square-foot factory in handful of others were selling solid,
Nashville, Tennessee. The new facility opened in the summer of good-sounding guitars to playersmany
1975, and Gibson production moved south bit by bit over the professionals among themwho might have
course of the next few years. sworn by Gibson previously, and these guitar makers were
By the late 70s and early 80s, Kalamazoo production was usually doing so for significantly less money.
more and more restricted to custom and special-order instru- These factors were felt deeply by most Western guitar manufac-
ments, such as the limited run dealer spec Leos Les Paul and turers, and they hit Gibson particularly hard. In the years between
Guitar Trader Les Paul, according to information compiled by the opening of the Nashville plant and the closure of the old fac-
Mike Slubowski, published in Vintage Guitar magazines Febru- tory in Kalamazoo, Norlin reported pre-tax losses attributable to
ary 2004 edition. In June of 1984, the Kalamazoo factory closed its musical industry holdings of $145 million. By the mid-80s,
its doors for good, and all corporate and manufacturing struc- the company appeared to be spiraling toward its demise. Mean-
tures were repositioned in Nashville. While Norlins acquisition while, back in Kalamazoo, former Gibson managers Jim Deurloo,
of Gibson in 1969 might have triggered a sea change in Marv Lam, and J. P. Moats had refused to make the move south.
the makers reputation, the departure from Kalamazoo Instead, they leased part of the closed Gibson factory to con-
really signaled the end of Gibson as players had known tinue production under their own steam, forming the
it. Ted McCarty had left Gibson in 1966, when he Heritage guitar company in April 1985. At the time
acquired Bigsby Accessories, also in Kalamazoo, but of writing, Heritage continues to make Gibson-style
his feelings on the move, as told to Walter Carter in electric guitars.
Gibson Guitars, echo those of many regarding the clo-
sure of the historic Gibson factory: I loved it right Near-Death Experience
down to the last minute I was there. I feel like cry- and Resurrection
ing every time I go by that thing. That was the The troubled financial outlook of the mid-80s,
finest guitar factory in the world. along with Norlins seeming propensity to wash
Despite a successful relocation, things were its hands of the musical instrument manufac-
not rosy for Gibson. Between the boom of the turing business, brought Americas most storied
early 70s, the construction of the grand new facil- electric-guitar maker remarkably close to fold-
ity, and the wholesale relocation down south, the ing entirely. In January 1986, a team of former
guitar makers direction had gone somewhat astray,

Gibson Les Paul

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 Harvard Business School classmatesHenry Juskiewicz, David Ber- solidification of the concept. Some of the one-off and short-run
ryman, and Gary Zubrowskibought Gibson for a mere $5 million guitars among the last instruments made at the Kalamazoo plant
and gradually set about turning the company around. bore Custom Shop decals to indicate their status, although they
The road to recovery was inevitably a little bumpy at first, as were produced by Gibsons general production line. Then, in the late
managerial teething troubles and some testing of the waters with 80s, occasional one-off Art guitars produced in the new Nashville
less-than-traditional new models helped the team find its way in the plant segued the concept toward the Art & Historic period, which,
market. Gradually, however, improvements in efficiency and a better in addition to showpiece or presentation style guitars, produced
understanding of the brands real strengths saw a new and revitalized several well-regarded reissues into the early 1990s.
Gibson growing on the guitar scene once again. The Gibson Custom Shop as we know it today was founded in
A large proportion of Gibsons return to strength was born out of 1993, when the company established a separate division with its
the reborn companys recognition of the appeal of the classic models own workshop peopled by master-grade luthiers. Since that time,
of the 1950s and early 60s. Accordingly, the Custom Shop has offered a series of his-
the company strove to provide more torically accurate reissues of vintage
and more accurate renditions of its Les Pauls in their myriad guises, as
reissues. This trend had been foreshad- well as limited-edition, artist, and
owed by the success of the Heritage truly custom one-off creations. Recent
Series of the early 80s, and it was Custom Shop Les Pauls have included
further confirmed by the Historic Col- models based on those famously
lection of the early 90s, the precursor played by Billy Gibbons, Jimmy Page,
to Gibsons current Custom Shop. A Peter Green, Paul Kossoff, Joe Walsh,
raft of well-targeted new models from Michael Bloomfield, Eric Clapton,
Gibsons standard production line and several others. Meanwhile, the
helped tremendously to get the com- Custom Shop has also launched other
pany back into the hands of players well-received lines such as the lim-
again. On one side of the coin, guitars ited edition Collectors Choice series,
such as the well-received SG Reissue which replicates original Les Pauls
of 1986 and a succession of Les Paul held in the collections of noted artists
Standards addressed guitarists con- or enthusiasts.
tinuing desires for the great Gibsons Rather than merely resting on its
of days gone by. On the other, new laurels, Gibson has continually striven
variations on old themessuch as to improve the accuracy of its Les Paul
the Les Paul Studio, Les Paul Cus- reissues. At the time of writing, the
tom Lite, Explorer 90, and Flying V Custom Shop recently celebrated its sil-
90updated the legends to suit con- ver anniversary by establishing the 20th
temporary playing needs. Anniversary Historic Specifications,
Slowly but surely, Gibson proved intended to bring its reproductions
itself to be saved from what most closer to the real thing than ever before.
analysts agree was the brink of extinc- A 1991 press ad issued to celebrate the fortieth anniversary These specifications include a single-
tionsaved by three businessmen who, of the Les Pauland make clear that Only a Gibson is Good layer rosewood fingerboard, hot-hide
Enough. Outline Press
for a change, showed a keen interest glue-neck joint, accurate fingerboard and
in guitars. Moving forward, the guitar body-binding color, historically accurate,
maker was not only surviving; it was on the way to becoming the tube-less truss-rod assembly, and genuine aniline red die for the gui-
biggest and strongest company it had ever been. tars back, neck, and sides.
Having weathered the infamous seizure of stocks of ebony and
The Gibson Custom Shop rosewood by federal agents in 2011, and appropriately adjusted to
Gibson had always entertained custom orders from dealers and the varying resources of a changing worldas well as the evolving
playersif the request was reasonable and the price rightso in tastes of a guitar world in constant fluxGibson in general, and the
truth the Custom Shop was an evolution of that idea rather than Les Paul in particular, appear strong and primed for survival in
an overnight creation. Still, a few specific steps do clearly mark the the twenty-first century.

History
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 1993 Les Paul Studio Litemade from balsa
wood (or chromyte, as the advertising had it) to
reduce overall body weight. Outline Press

Eddie Van Halen shows the master his Floyd Roseequipped Standard
at the Les Paul Tribute Concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in
Brooklyn, New York, August 1988. Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty Images

1989 Orville Yamano Les Paul,

produced solely for the Japanese
market. Outline Press

Gibson Les Paul

128

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 One-off Les Paul Custom made
for Less eightieth birthday, its
twin pickups engraved with the
words Happy 80th Birthday
and From the Gibson Custom
Shop. The serial number
LP1915refers to the year of
Pauls birth. Juliens Auctions
The 59 Flametop Reissue Les Paul from 1993.
Outline Press

History
129

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 Les Paul in action, 1993. Lewton Cole/Alamy

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 By the mid-1990s, the Gibson reissue program was in full swing. Here,
from 1996, are the Les Paul Classic Premium Plus (left) and the Ultima
goldtop (far right), with its elaborate tailpiece and fingerboard inlay.
Outline Press

One-of-a-kind 1996 Les Paul

Custom with XLR input, horseshoe
Bigsby tailpiece, and an unusual
configuration of knobs and
switches, plus detailed handwritten
specifications, from Les Pauls
private collection. Juliens Auctions

Gibson Les Paul

132

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 Sheryl Crow picks
at her Les Paul
Special during a
1997 BBC radio
session. Mick
Hutson/Redferns/
Getty Images
2001 Custom Les Paul Standarda Custom Shop favorite. Outline Press

A 1999 print ad for the socially conscious

Smartwood series. Outline Press

The golden age of tone returns.

Outline Press
History
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 Les Paul plays a Bigsby Burst at a 2001 event
to commemorate fifty years of the Les Paul.
Carmen Valdes/WireImage/Getty Images Gibson Les Paul
134

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 A 2001 print ad for the 1958 Les Paul
Reissue program. Outline Press
History
135

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 Jay Farrar improvises a slide with his 50s Junior at the Bowery Ballroom,
New York City, July 2003. Stephen Loverkin/FilmMagic/Getty Images

2003 Les Paul Historic 1959 Reissue.

Outline Press

2006 Les Paul Studio model.

Juliens Auctions
Gibson Les Paul
136

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 Poster for the 2008 American Music
Masters concert, at which Les
PaulThe Wizard of Waukeshawas
honored, signed by many of the guitar
legends who appeared at the event,
including Duane Eddy, Slash, and Billy F
Gibbons. Juliens Auctions

Hand-painted 2005 Music Rising Les Paul.

Outline Press

The unsanded, rough-and-ready BFG

from 2007. Outline Press

History
137

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 2008 Les Paul Standard Axcess, with factory-fitted Floyd Rose.
Gibson Musical Instruments

Gibson Les Paul

138

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 2007 Les Paul Robot Ltd with automated tuning system
and LED light in the neck switch. Outline Press

History
139

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 Gibsons Memphis factory. Chris Ferris/Alamy

2008 Les Paul Standard 58 50th Anniversary model.

Outline Press

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 2010 Custom Shop Don Felder Hotel California EDS-1275.
Gibson Musical Instruments

Bursting at the seams:

Eagle Don Felder and his 59 Standard
in The Netherlands, May 1977.
Rob Verhorst/Redferns/Getty Images

History
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 Dan Murphy and his goldtop at the
Waterfront, Louisville, Kentucky, April 2011.
Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images

Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum purchased his goldtop at

Minneapoliss legendary Benedict Music in the mid-
80s. It put on some heavy miles in the nearly three
decades that followed. Minnesota Historical Society

Gibson Les Paul

142

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 Joe Bonamassa and his signature Goldtop.
Jesse Wild/Guitarist Magazine/Getty Images

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 2012 Nitrous Les Paul Studio with Electric
Lime finish. Gibson Musical Instruments

Gibson Les Paul

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 From 2012, #3 in the Collectors Choice series: The Babe, based
on an early-60s transitional Les Paul Standard currently owned
by Joe Bonamassa. Gibson Musical Instruments

History
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 Husband-and-wife duo Alan Sparhawk
(pictured here with a 70s Bigsby-
equipped Les Paul) and Mimi Parker of
Low perform at the Festival del Mil.lenni
in Barcelona, Spain, May 2013. Jordi
Vidal/Redferns/Getty Images

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 Joan Jett brings her Melody Maker along for the party at
the Sunset Strip Music Festival, Hollywood House of Blues,
August 2013. Gabriel Olsen/FilmMagic/Getty Images History
147

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 Collectors Choice #11: Rosie,
based on an exceedingly well-
preserved 59 Burst. Gibson
Musical Instruments

Collectors Choice #15: the Greg

Martin 1958 Les Paul, built to the
exact specifications of the Kentucky
Headhunters guitarists vintage model.
Gibson Musical Instruments

Gibson Les Paul

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 Collectors Choice #8: The Beast, modeled
on Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsdens 59
Standard. Gibson Musical Instruments

The 20th Anniversary 1959 Les Paul Standard

Reissue, produced in 2013 to commemorate
two decades of the Custom Shops Historic
Reissue Series. Gibson Musical Instruments

History
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 Marc Bolan

Bolan takes to the fields with

his modified Les Paul, 1972.
Michael Putland/Getty Images

The Marc Bolan Les Paul

signature model. Gibson
Musical Instruments

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C heck the music of just about any contemporary glam-tinged
rockeror even more alternative acts like the White Stripes or the
Black Keysand youll hear a distinct echo of the fuzzy, infectious, pared-
down riffs of Marc Bolan. While he might have been limited of technique
and virtually devoid of any stunning lead ability, Bolan applied his Les Paul
to some of the sexiest phrases ever rammed through a full stackand in
the process he beautifully captured an excitingly transitional, adventurous
mood both in music and in the lives and attitudes of countless adoles-
cents, teens, and young adults of the early
1970s. This was not your big brothers
dour-faced Les Paul blues-rockthis
was fun, dammit.
Born Mark Feld in East London in 1947,
Bolanas the rock world would know himworked as a model
for clothing-store catalogs before venturing out as a solo artist in the
mid-1960s. While that effort failed to launch amid the mismanagement
Marc Bolan
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of his would-be career, Yardbirds manager Simon Napier-Bell spotted
Bolans talent early on and slotted him into one of his other bands,
Johns Children. When that band fell apart after some minor success,
Bolan then formed Tyrannosaurus Rex with drummer Steve Peregrin
Took (you couldnt make up these names). Initially a psychedelic-
folk duo of sorts, Tyrannosaurus Rex segued over the course of three
albums to the heavier, catchier, definitively glam-rock T. Rex, a sound
first encapsulated in the bands 1970 single Ride a White Swan. By
this time, Bolan was playing loud and proud, and a Les Paul was a
major part of the brew.
Bolans sensual swagger bloomed courtesy of a 1959 Les Paul
stricken with all the trendy mods of the day: its sunburst top had been
stripped and refinished in an orangey-brown stain, its pickup covers
had been removed, and its Kluson tuners had been swapped out for
the then-obligatory Grovers. While they might have been a crime
to plenty of aficionados, these alterations looked dead-nuts rock
godly around Bolans neck. Can you imagine Get It On played
on a gently fading sunburst atop vividly flamed maple? Perhaps
not. Irresistible sing-alongor stomp-alongT. Rex tunes
like this one (renamed Bang a Gong (Get It On) in the United
States), Jeepster, Metal Guru, Telegram Sam, Children
of the Revolution, and Solid Gold Easy Actiontalk about a
Les Paul tributefirmly established the archetypal glam-rock
sound and feel, but a change in musical fashions saw Bolans
star waning by the early-mid 70s. On September 16, 1977, just as
he was on the verge of a comeback of sorts, Bolan was killed when
a Mini Cooper driven by girlfriend Gloria Jones careened off the road
into a tree in Barnes, southwest London.
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 Peter Frampton

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Y oud be hard-pressed to cruise your AM or FM radio dial in America
in 1976 or 77 without landing on one of the three mammoth hits
from Peter Framptons Frampton Comes Alive! album, which launched
him into the pop-rock-idol stratosphere. The singles Do You Feel Like We
Do, Show Me the Way, and Baby I Love Your Way were everywhere, tiful sound Id ever heard.
Frampton was selling out arenas across the country, and the artists blond
locks and jet-black Les Paul Custom gleamed out from the covers of the
more than six million copies of the double album that were sold in its
release year alone. But Framptons chops had really solidified on one fate-
ful night in California six years before, during the recording of a previous
live album with a previous bandand while playing that same three-
pickup Les Paul Custom for the very first time.
Frampton emerged as a young guitar star of 60s London in the wake
of behemoth players such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.
There, he caught the attention of singer and guitarist Steve Marriott of
the Small Faces, who tapped the nineteen-year-old to form Humble Pie.
Over the next couple of years Humble Pie toured and recorded hard. The
creative juices were really flowing by late 1970 when Marriott, Frampton,
OPPOSITE: Frampton and his 1954 Les Paul Custom
come alive. Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images
Peter Frampton
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and Co. found themselves opening for the Grateful Dead during
a three-night stand at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, with a
mobile recording unit pulled up outside.
On the first night, Framptons Gibson ES-335 was plagued by
feedback. After the Pies set on the second night, a fan named
Mark Mariana approached him and said hed noticed that the gui-
tarist was having some trouble. He offered to bring along a Les
Paul the next day that Frampton could play for the third show, if
he liked it. The following morning, Mariana met the guitarist in
a hotel coffee shop and opened a new Gibson case to reveal a
1954 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty, fresh from a factory refinish,
its original single-coil pickups replaced with three PAF humbuckers.
As soon as he asked me if I wanted to try it, I said, Yeah, please!
Frampton told Steve Rosen for Gibson.com in 2008. And of course
my feet didnt touch the ground the whole night. It was the most beau-
Of course, Frampton couldnt imagine surrendering such an
instrument, and he offered Mariana his ES-335 plus cash if hed
part with it. Mariana told the guitarist he wouldnt sell him the Les
Paulbut he would give it to him (unsurprisingly, the pair remain
friends to this day). The live album gleaned from that first night that
the Les Paul and Frampton joined forces, Performance: Rockin the
Fillmore, reached No. 21 on the Billboard album chart the following
year, by which time Frampton had already departed Humble Pie for a
solo career, throughout the zenith of which the modified 54 Les Paul
Custom did him proud. The guitar was presumed lost in 1980 when a
cargo plane crashed in Venezuela, also claiming the lives of the pilot,
co-pilot, and one passengeruntil it was miraculously returned to its
owner, thirty-two years later, in 2012.
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 Duane Allman

The Duane Allman 1959 Cherry Sunburst Les Paul,

as issued by the Gibson Custom Shop in 2013.
Gibson Musical Instruments

Duane and Burst perform with the Allman Brothers at Spartanburg,

South Carolina, October 1970. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Gibson Les Paul

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 D uring his tragically brief life and career, Duane Allman bought, bor-
rowed, and swapped so many guitars that it has often been difficult
to document which model appears on what studio recording. What is
beyond a doubt, however, is how the best-remembered examples of his
touch and tone are classic Les Pauland thats the guitar with which
he will always be most closely associated. Recently, as part of a project
conducted for Gibson (documented alongside the release of the Custom
Shop Duane Allman Cherry Sunburst 59 Les Paul in 2013), guitarist and
Country Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee Lee Roy Parnell wove together
the threads of a scattered, myth-riddled story to give credit to what he
concluded was Allmans most-recorded guitar.
We believe that this particular guitar [the 59 Cherry Sunburst Les
Paul] was the one that Duane had used most often to record and perform
live, Parnell told Gibson. However, because Duanes life and career were a tone that was never particularly heavy or overdistorted, but always
so short, much of his fame was coming just as he passed away. There are
a lot pictures of Duane over a short period of time, which made it difficult
to determine which guitar he was playing on any given recording. For
some, Allman is most associated with the tobacco-sunburst Les Paul that
makes an appearance in a great many of those pictures, but the current
thinkingfrom Parnell, and other cornersis that the majority of All-
mans most notable recordings were done on the cherry Burst, a guitar
he owned during a period of heavy studio activity (brief though it might
have been), before acquiring the tobacco-burst LP. Allman also frequently
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played a goldtop 1957 Les Paul early in his career with the band,
which he swapped to guitarist Rick Stine of the band Stone Balloon
for the 59 with cherry sunburst, just a week before the latter made
its Allman Brothers debut at the Fillmore East in New York City on
September 23, 1970.
Whatever the history, and whichever guitar was used when and
where, the sound of Allmans playing has long been held up as a prime
example of superlative Les Paul tone. Listen to any of Allmans most
notable recordingslive or in the studioand tracks like Whipping
Post, Melissa, Midnight Rider, and One Way Outor Derek & the
Dominoes Layla, for that matterexhibit iconic old-school Les Paul
tone. Duanes touch, dynamics, and unbridled musicianship resulted in
brimming with character. Of course, he had a little help from a 50-watt
Marshall head or a 100-watt Fender Showman (and sometimes both),
plus the glass Coricidin medicine bottle that he used for slideand a
certain lead-guitar partner by the name of Dickey Betts (profiled on the
following pages). Allman also liked to top wrap his strings around the
Les Pauls stopbar tailpiece, enabling the bar to be adjusted down tight
to the guitars topa practice still used today by guitarists who feel it
enhances resonance and sustain. Duane Allman died in a motorcycle
crash in Macon, Georgia, on October 28, 1971.
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 Dickey Betts

Dickey Betts and his trusty 57 goldtop circa 1975. Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The Gibson Custom Shops 2002 Dickey Betts

Redtop model. Outline Press

D uane Allman might have given the band its name, but that by no means indicates that
the Allman Brothers Bands second guitarist, Dickey Betts, was a second-stringer. As
a founding member of this iconic Southern-rock outfit, Betts was very much a lead guitarist
himself throughout the time he and Duane shared the stage, and became even more front-
and-center after his partners death in 1971. As it happens, one of the best-known Allman
Brothers Band instrumentals is Jessica, a Betts composition recorded in 1973. As Betts
told Guitar World magazine in 2006, Duane was always very complimentary to me.
He would really get upset when people didnt recognize I was a lead guitar player
. . . He would always say, You dont realize this cat played that, not me. Theres two
guitar players in this damn band! He would really stick up for me, going out of
his way to make people aware we were twin guitars. Indeed, the Allman/Betts
duo virtually coined the singing twin-lead techniqueand they did it on a pair
of golden-era Les Pauls.
While Allman went from a goldtop to a couple different sunburst models,
Dickey Betts remained true to his own 57 goldtop throughout the formative

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 Dickeys 59 Burstand a reunion with an old friend
while on tour in Japan in 2012. Kunio Kishada

years of the band. If youre looking to distinguish his playing from

Allmans in studio and live recordingsand it isnt always easy,
without a crib sheet handyset your ear to the rounder, warmer,
more fluid neck-pickup tone to latch onto Betts; Allman, alongside
him, often has a somewhat more cutting and staccato bridge-pickup
tone. Rig-wise, Bettss tastes were usually pretty simple: Marshall
head into cabs loaded with JBL speakers for a slightly firmer tone,
with just an occasional wah-wah pedal in between.
Betts also sometimes played an early-60s Les Paul/SGboth
during his time with the Allmans, and more often, in his later work
with his solo band, Great Southernwhich he gave to Duane at
one point to save time retuning onstage before the song From One
Brother to Another. This guitar had its cumbersome original side-
ways vibrato removed and replaced with a standard stud-mounted
stopbar tailpiece for improved tone and sustain. In 2002, the Gibson
Custom Shop released a Limited Edition Dickey Betts 1957 Les Paul
goldtop, hand-aged by Tom Murphy. The Dickey Betts From One
Brother to Another SG followed in 2011. Betts recorded his first solo
album, Highway Call, in 1974, but he remained a member of the All-
man Brothers until the band dissolved in 1976. He rejoined the cause
in 1979 when the band reformed, but was ousted from proceedings
in 2000 due to personal differences with the other remaining found-
ing members. In the meantime, Betts has continued touring and
recording as a solo artist, often with his band Dickey Betts and Great
Southern, which has occasionally included his son, Duane Betts, on
a Gibson Les Paul.

Dickey Betts
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 Billy F Gibbons

Miss Pearly Gates. David Perry

Billy and Pearly onstage, circa 1980.

Lorne Resnick/Redferns/Getty Images

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F ew guitars in rock are as iconic as Billy F Gibbons 1959 Les Paul
Standard, named Pearly Gates by the Texas tonehound for its
supposed divine connections. This guitar has been the subject of much
adulation over the years, and no small portion of it gushes from the ZZ
Top guitarist himself, who has conducted a forty-plus-year love affair
with the guitar that he still refers to as my beloved Miss Pearly Gates.
As Gibbons told Alex Becker of Gibson.com in 2009, Pearly Gates is
not just a 1959 Les Paul Standard, but the 1959 Les Paul Standard.
Anyone who has seen or heard this incomparable electric guitar is likely
to agree with him.
Gibbons formed ZZ Top in Houston, Texas, in 1969 with bassist
Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard, but by this time he had already
been on the prowl for a late-50s Les Paul Standard after having seen
Eric Clapton play one with John Mayall & the Blues Breakers some
years earlier. As if a sign of this bands ascending fortunes, his oppor-
tunity came shortly afterand totally unexpectedly. Having traveled in
an old 1930s Packard in their early days together, the band loaned the
car to a members girlfriend to make the trip out to Hollywood to audi-
tion for a role in the movies. The friend, Renee Thomas, arrived safely
Billy F Gibbons
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and got the part. Gibbons and company determined that the beat-up
old car must have been a heavenly omen and named it Pearly Gates.
To pay back her friends, Renee sold the car to a collector and sent
the proceeds to Gibbons. The very day that the money arrived, a guy
called me up wanting to sell an old guitar . . . a 59 Sunburst Les Paul,
Gibbons told Becker. The guitarist and a friend drove out to rural Texas,
where the seller pulled a brown, formfitting hard-shell case out from
under the bed where it had lain since the guitars owner passed away
several years before. The cash was exchanged, and the rest is history.
While all 195860 Les Paul Standards are highly prized, slight
irregularities of production, the variables in wood stocks and pickup
windings, and other factors, mean that some examples simply play and
sound better than others. Pearly Gates is at the top of the heap, rep-
resenting a fortuitous confluence of gently figured maple top, light and
resonant mahogany body, comfortably rounded neck profile, and two
sweet, rich, vocal PAF humbucking pickups that stand at the epitome of
the art form. It was assembled on one of those fateful days when the
glue was just right, the wood was just right, and the electronics were
placed perfectly, Gibbons reflected in his 2005 autobiography, Rock +
Roll Gearhead. Til this day, I have yet to find an instrument to equal
its raw power.
Although Gibbons has used a wide range of guitars liveincluding
many other Les Pauls, original and reissue, and several custom-made
showpieces (the spinning, fur-covered, Explorer-style guitar, any-
one?)Pearly Gates has remained his weapon of choice in the studio
for four decades and has been played on every ZZ Top album.
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 Mick Ronson

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 D avid Bowie might
have embodied
the Ziggy persona, but
Mick Ronsons incendi-
ary guitar tone and fluid,
infectious licks drove the musi-
cal experience behind Ziggy Stardust
and the Spiders from Mars. Although his name
is raised less frequently than those of several other
late-60s and early-70s Les Paultoting Brit-rock masters, this
humble artist from Hull, Yorkshire, in the north of England wielded one
of the most instantly recognizable tones in the history of cranked guitar.
Cue up the start of Ziggy Stardust and the eyes of every guitarist in
the room will light up, while most non-players will break into enthusi-
astic displays of air guitar.
Ronsons power and tonal appeal derived from simple yet mighty
ingredients. The Gibson Les Paul reined supreme with top British rock
guitarists of the era, and Ronsons choice followed suit. His was a 1968
Les Paul Custom, the first real Les Paul with humbuckers in the eight
years since the demise of the single-cutaway Standard and Custom
in 1960. Although Ronsons guitar had emerged from the factory with
the traditional Black Beauty finish, the guitarist had the top stripped
back to natural. He reported in interviews having been told by a fellow
musician that stripping the top of an acoustic increased its high-end
response, so he applied the same logic to his electric, although the
OPPOSITE: Onstage with Bowies Spiders From Mars
at the Hammersmith Odeon, 1973. Debi Doss/Hulton
Archive/Getty Images Mick Ronson
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results arent likely to have been nearly as signifi-
cant with a solidbody guitar. Slightly more effective,
perhaps, and another trend of the day, Ronson also
removed the gold-plated metal covers from his pickups,
a mod long considered to help boost highs.
In addition to being the age of the Les Paul, this was
also an era of monstrous amplifiers, and Ronsons 200-watt
Marshall Majorwhich he nicknamed The Pigwas as gar-
gantuan as any out there. As with many great tonesmiths, Ronson
didnt throw a whole lot more into the brew. He used a Vox Tone
Bender pedal on occasionswhen fuzz was required more than pure
tube-amp overdriveand also employed a wah-wah pedal, which he
occasionally used as designed, but also sometimes left at set positions
to act as a tone filter to notch his midrange sound (as heard in the
slightly nasal guitar tone on Ziggy Stardust).
The Ronson/Bowie catalog is rife with other timeless examples of
rock power. From the early years of their association, the pre-Ziggy
The Man Who Sold the World (from the album of the same name)
offers a relentless, addictive, slightly eastern-tinged signature riff. More
upbeat, both in tempo and mood, Suffragette City, The Jean Genie,
and Panic in Detroitall unexpected frat-rockers of a sortdisplay
trenchant tones, playful musicianship, and surprising staying power.
After notably assisting other artists such as Mott the Hoople, Lou Reed,
and even John Mellencamp (whose hit Jack & Diane he co-wrote),
Mick Ronson died in April 1993 of inoperable liver cancer.
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 Gary Rossington

Rossington sets the Standard, Beacon

Theatre, New York City, April 1976.
Richard E. Aaron/Redferns/Getty Images

The Limited Edition Gary Rossington

Les Paul. Gibson Musical Instruments

Gibson Les Paul

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 T he career of Southern-rock founder Gary Rossington is one that
has been dogged with tragedy, but his tone and playing style ring
out as archetypal Les Paulfueled boogie-rock, and his mark on the
history of the instrument is everlasting. Rossington was born in Jack-
sonville, Florida, in 1951, and while still in his teens formed the roots
of what would become Lynyrd Skynyrd. He came by his Les Paul much
the way many a vintage-guitar hunter has dreamed of stumbling on
their own rare findboyfriend leaves girlfriend, girlfriend revenge-
sells boyfriends priceless Les Pauland the instrument became a
major part of Lynyrd Skynyrds three-guitar assault.
The bands 1973 debut album logged an eternal cover-band request
in the single Free Bird, as well as popular Skynyrd tunes Gimme
Three Steps and Simple Man, but it was the sophomore outing, Sec-
ond Helping, that produced their biggest hit, Sweet Home Alabama.
By this time, third guitarist Ed King, formerly of Strawberry
Alarm Clock, had joined Rossington and Allen Collins to secure
Lynyrd Skynyrds signature sound. The band cruised through the mid-
70s as the worlds premier southern rockers, when the first of two
successive tragedies struck. After overdoing it on drugs and alcohol on
Labor Day weekend in 1976, Rossington ran his brand new Ford Torino
into an oak tree; by some freak coincidence, Collins was also injured in
Gary Rossington
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a separate car accident that same weekend. (The Collins/Van Zant song
That Smell on the bands next album would tell the story of Rossing-
tons substance abuse, and the crash: Whiskey bottles, and brand new
cars / Oak tree youre in my way / Theres too much coke and too much
smoke / Look whats going on inside you.)
Just over a year later, on a flight from the fifth date of the Street
Survivors tour in Greenville, South Carolina, the bands chartered plane
crashed in the woods outside McComb, Mississippi, killing lead singer
Ronnie Van Zant and new guitarist Steve Gaines, as well as other mem-
bers of the crew, while badly injuring the remaining six band members.
Rossington broke both arms, both legs, both wrists, both ankles, and
his pelvis, and suffered a slow recuperation after many operations, with
metal pins installed in several repaired joints. Subsequent pressings of
the cover of the fatefully ironic Street Survivors albumnamed for the
previous years car crashes, with a photo of the band
engulfed in flameswould instead show the
band standing before a somber black back-
ground. In 1986, bandmate Allen Collins was
involved in another car accident, which took
the life of his girlfriend and left him paralyzed
from the waist down. He died in 1990 from
complications brought on by his injuries.
Through subsequent projects and the refor-
mation of Lynyrd Skynyrd (of which Rossington
is the only original member at the time of writing),
the Les Paul has remained Rossingtons primary instru-
ment, although he frequently turned to reissue models in later years.
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 Bob Marley

The Les Paul Bob Marley Special

signature model. Outline Press

Marley and his 1957 Special in the Netherlands, May 1977. Gijsbert Hanekroot/
Redferns/Getty Imges

P erhaps Bob Marley didnt set out to take reggae to the masses, but thats
certainly the way it ended up. The genre existed before Marley became a
household name, but by the time the Jamaican artist was done transforming
that loping rhythm into something entirely his own, he had made it into one of
the most universal forms of music the world has ever known. Bob Marley has
been gone for three full decades, but close your eyes and you can still see it
and hear it: his band, the Wailers, chunking out that big, potent groove while

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 their leader skanks along in front of the mic, road-worn Les Paul Special in his
arms, dreadlocks flying.
Marley played a Fender Stratocaster before acquiring his 1957 Gibson Les
Paul Special in London in 1973, but the Gibson is far and away the guitar most
identified with him, and it accompanied him through his best-known hits and
worldwide tours. Through the course of the 70s the Gibson underwent several modifica-
tions, on top of the mods it received before landing in the reggae stars hands. It came to
him with small pearloid block inlays on the neck in place of the original dot position mark-
ers, the holly headstock veneer and pearloid logo replaced by a simple Gibson logo decal, a
non-stock brass nut, and white binding added to the edges of the headstock. After Marley
purchased the guitar, he added a large white plastic ring around the pickup selector switch
to disguise damage to the wood. He also removed the one-piece wrap-over bridge, filling
the large holes for its stud mounts with wooden dowels and adding a Tune-o-matic bridge
and stop-bar tailpiece, as found on Gibsons Les Paul Standard.
This is the way the Les Paul Special appeared through most of the guitars tenure
in Marleys hands, although a few further modifications were undertaken by in 1979 by
electrical and acoustical engineer and effects pedal innovator Roger Mayer, who replaced
the original black plastic pickguard with an aluminum guard and replaced the large white
plastic switch ring with an eyeball-shaped aluminum ring held in place with two screws.
Mayer had also set up the guitars of both Marley and Wailers guitarist Junior Marvin,
dressing their frets and setting their intonation, prior to the recording of Exodus in 1977.
If you listen to Exodus and compare it with previous albums, you can hear that both
Bobs and Juniors guitars resonate and sustain better, and are in perfect harmony with
each other, Mayer told this writer in 2004. Despite several modifications, Marleys Les
Paul Special retained its formative partsnamely its original P-90 pickups and solid
mahogany body and neckand, therefore, its thick, juicy tone, as can be heard driv-
ing almost every tune the star recorded on electric guitar from 1973 onward.
Marleys Les Paul Special is now on display, in its final form, in the Bob Marley Marleys Les Paul Special.
Museum in Kingston, Jamaica. Bob Marley Museum

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 Lindsey Buckingham

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H e might have joined Fleetwood Mac playing a Fender Strat, and
exited the band wielding a Turner Model 1, but throughout the
meat of the supergroups mammoth success in the mid-1970s, Lindsey
Buckingham plied his very individual trade on a Les Paul Custom, mak-
ing rock history in the process. While so many stars of the era (and the
years just prior) had cut their tracks on vintage Les Pauls of the 50s,
Buckinghams choice of guitar is interesting for its then-contemporary
stature: a white 1974 Custom, firmly of the Norlin era, to which he
treated himself upon joining Fleetwood Mac.
Even more than the tone of the guitar itself, its this skilled players
unique style that made its mark in the annals of riffing. Having frequently
gigged as a folk musician on banjo many years before sliding toward
arena rock, Buckingham was adept at a type of fingerstyle playing
known as frailing, achieved by flicking the fingers downward to strike
the strings with the backs of the nails. Apply this to a Les Paul Custom
through a cranked 100-watter and, well, the result is a tone and feel
unlike the majority of what you hear from lead players out there. The
technique gave Buckingham a driving, propulsive sound that also helped
to make virtually any tune on which it appeared instantly recognizable
as Fleetwood Mac.
The merging of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks with existing
Fleetwood Mac members Mick Fleetwood and John and Christine McVie
OPPOSITE: Buckingham rehearses with his Norlin-era
Les Paul Custom in New Haven, Connecticut, October
1975. Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images Lindsey Buckingham
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seems entirely fortuitous, and rather fluky to boot. While auditioning stu-
dios for the bands next album, Mick Fleetwood heard demos at LAs
Sound City of a young duo who had been recording at the facility. Liking
what he saw of the studio, and heard of its sound, he booked Sound City
for the bands next album . . . only to have guitarist Bob Welch depart just
days before the recording session was due to begin. Fleetwood asked
if the young guitarist hed heard, Lindsey Buckingham, was available
to record; Buckingham said he wouldnt do it without his girlfriend and
musical partner, Stevie Nicks. The Buckingham-Nicks duo was quickly
absorbed into Fleetwood Mac, and the new band jumped in at the deep
end to record what would become the Fleetwood Mac album.
As related in a story told as part of Sound City, Dave Grohls out-
standing documentary of the now-defunct studio, it wasnt an entirely
seamless shift to the newer, poppier rock sound for bluesers Fleetwood
and MacVie, who had founded the band years before with Peter Green
and Danny Kirwan, and then evolved through the jazz-blues playing style
of Welch. At one point early in the sessions, bassist McVie commented
to the studio manager, This is a long way from the blues. To which
the manager replied, Yeah, but its a lot closer to the bank. The new
lineups 1975 debut album spawned the hits Over My Head and Rhi-
annon, as well as long-standing favorites Landslide, Say You Love
Me, and World Turning. The followup, Rumours, became one of the
most successful rock albums of all time, and won the Grammy for Album
of the Year in 1978.
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 Alex Lifeson

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T hroughout his playing with Canadian rockers Rush, Alex
Lifeson has redefined the boundaries of progressive-rock
guitar. Embodying far more than that genre label often
implies, Lifesons playing soars beyond the drama and
the bluster to reveal truly stunning virtuosity that
has been praised and admired by fansand
playersof all stripes, and it has landed him
in the upper echelon of performance artists
as a result. As much as his playing cant be
pigeonholed, his status as a god of the Les Paul
also remains atypical: Lifesons tone and attack
might be pure high-gain, high-sustain LP territory,
but his frequent use of a Floyd Rose vibrato unit on
this otherwise hard-tail standard takes it all into
another dimension.
Lifeson was born Aleksandar Zivoji-
novic to Serbian parents in Toronto in
1953, changing his last name to the
literal translation of his family name
upon launching his career as a musi-
cian. Factually speaking, he is the only
remaining founding member of Rush,
having begun the band with two other
musicians in 1968, but the Rush as we
know it only took shape after Geddy Lee
OPPOSITE: Lifeson and his Les Paul on the
All The Worlds a Stage tour, December 1978.
Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images
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The Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess signature
model with royal crimson finish. Gibson
Musical Instruments
took over on bass and vocals just a few weeks laterand even
more so, following the bands first album, when drummer Neil Peart
joined in 1974. The bands first single was a cover of Buddy Hollys
Not Fade Away, and the early direction coalesced around a style
that followed in the footsteps of world-dominant Led Zeppelin, but
by the mid-70s Rush was forging a bold new
musical direction. The 1975 album Fly By Night
found Rush stretching out along five extended,
cinematic tracks. While not a commercial suc-
cess by any means, it somewhat foretold their
1976 breakthrough, 2112.
Curious listeners who lack the intestinal for-
titude for extended prog-rock motifs can sample
a taste of Lifesons abilities by dipping into the
poppier songs, such as The Spirit of Radio
or Freewill from 1980s Permanent
Waves, or Tom Sawyer or Red Bar-
chetta from 1981s Moving Pictures,
each among the bands more radio-
friendly tracks. To hear him really
stretch out, though, venture into any
of several sidelong, multi-movement
pieces that define the real Rush for
hardcore fans, and discover a guitar-
ist of immense talents and tone.
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 Gary Moore

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 OPPOSITE: Moore onstage at Alexandra Palace, London,
with the Burst he bought from Peter Green, August 1973.
David Warner Ellis/Redferns/Getty Images
L ooked at from one angle, the main Les Paul in question here has
already been coveredin the profile of Fleetwood Macera
Peter Green. But right up until his untimely death in 2011, Gary Moore
remained a prime exponent of sizzling British blues-rock Les Paul
tone, and he certainly earned his spot in the pantheon of Les
Paul greats. From his days with Skid Row and Thin Lizzy to his
incendiary solo work, Moore produced some of the most
electrifying performances known to stage and studio
from the mid-70s onward, evolving from straight-on
rock to become the torch-bearer of British blues-rock.
Moores gained-up and overamped Les Paul style
was typified by wide bends and near-endless sustain,
a voice probably best exhibited on his instrumental hit
Parisienne Walkways. Often the cornerstone of
his live show, that notethe long-held bend that
sustains into an emotive resolveeven became
something of a clich for the player himself,
perhaps typifying an overcooked style that the
guitarist was trying to move away from. In 2001,
he told The Guitar Magazine, There used to be
these two guys that followed me around who used
to sit there at the edge of the stage every night and
time the note with a stopwatch. Id come out after a gig
Gary Moore
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and theyd say, Well, Gary, you went for one minute and twenty-
seven seconds tonight. Are you going to go for the full two minutes
tomorrow . . . ?
Having established himself as a prime exponent of heavy electric
blues, played in a dramatic style typified by the example above (and
perhaps best exemplified on Still Got the Blues), Moore made a bid
for greater authenticity in his playing with the 2001 album Back to
the Blues. There was a lot of overplaying on Still Got the
Blues, he told The Guitar Magazine. I think Ive got
away from thatbut its taken me ten years to do it.
Gary Moore purchased his most famous 59 Les
Paul from Peter Green in the mid-1970s, some years
after Green had retired his position in Fleetwood Mac
and virtually abandoned guitar-playing altogether.
While Greens playing had embraced the subtlety
and nuance of which a great Les Paul is capable,
Moores arguably typified the power and punch
that is more commonly associated with the
Les Paul tone. He also acquired a second 59
Burst that was frequently used for recording
and touring. The legendary Moore/Green 59
Les Paul was sold at auction in 2006 for more
than $2 million.
The Gary Moore Les Paul Standard signature model.
Gibson Musical Instruments
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 Ace Frehley

The Ace Frehley Budokan Les Paul Custom signature model.

Gibson Musical Instruments

Ace and his first Burst, backstage. Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty Images

Gibson Les Paul

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 I n early 1973 a New York trio called Wicked Lester decided to add
a lead guitarist to their mix. Sporting the heavily made-up look of
contemporary acts like the New York Dolls and Alice Cooper, Wicked
LesterGene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Peter Crissbrought Paul
Daniel Ace Frehley on board in January 1973 and soon after changed
their name to KISS. By March of that year the band had adopted its
trademark demonic clown makeup and Satanic biker costumes.
But KISS wasnt all about pancake makeup, seven-inch heels, and
stage blood; with Frehley as a key component, the band knew how to
rock Detroit or any other city in which they performed. Though Frehleys
brother Charles was a trained classical guitarist, Ace never took a les-
son or learned to read a note of music. Instead the Bronxite spent his
youth in textbook hooligan fashion: as a member of a street gang that
went by the terrifying name The Duckies. Frehley received his first
electric guitar (along with a box of condoms) at the tender age of thir-
teen, though prior to joining KISS he focused more energy on juvenile
delinquency and sex than guitar playing.
Frehley used a late-1960s Gibson Firebird when he auditioned
for KISS, but as soon as the band had a record deal, he purchased a
1973 tobacco sunburst Les Paul Deluxe, beginning a love affair with
the instrument that continues unabated to this day. That first Les Paul
remained his number-one axe right through the recording of the bands
breakthrough album, 1975s Alive. When Frehley first started using the
guitar, it still had its original cream-colored pick guard and chrome-
covered, standard-sized pickups (as opposed to the mini humbuckers
Ace Frehley
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more common during that period). It didnt remain in stock form long.
The first modification was purely cosmetic: Frehley stuck a decal on the
headstock between the Gibson and Les Paul logos, star-shaped, of
course, to match his Space Ace stage persona. Between the record-
ing of the bands eponymous debut album and their sophomore effort,
Hotter than Hell, Frehley swapped the stock Gibson humbuckers for
a pair of DiMarzios. Not long after that he began working on built-in
smoke effects (pyrotechnics becoming an increasingly important part
of KISSs live show).
Frehley began using another Les Paul around that time, one that
would forever be associated with him. This was possibly a plain-top
two-pickup Standard that was painted black and modified with a third
pickup. Whatever its origins, its the guitar that appears on the cover
photo for the Alive album that broke KISS as a major rock band pretty
much everywhere. By the time KISS hit Japans Nippon Budokan stage
in in 1977, Frehley had graduated to a real Les Paul Custom, in all
its cherry sunburst, three-pickup glory. The Custom exemplified the
rock n roll excess that the band itself embodied, making it the perfect
instrument to be wielded by KISSs space-alien lead guitarist.
Today any budding Space Ace with $12,000 burning a hole in his or
her pocket can pick up an exact replica of the 1976 Les Paul Custom
that Frehley played at Budokan, set up to the exact specifications as
Frehleys original (or as exact as he can remember after four decades
of rocking and rolling all night and partying every day).
Darwin Holmstrom
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 Joe Walsh

The Joe Walsh 1960 Les Paul model.

Walsh cradles his 1960-issue Les Paul Standard at the Ahoy in Rotterdam, Gibson Musical Instruments
The Netherlands, May 1977. Rob Verhorst/Redferns/Getty Images

W ith so many early proponents of the Les Paul being either blues-rockers, Brit-rockers,
or both, Joe Walsh stands out as a good-old stateside rock n roller of the late 60s
who went on to great heights of fame on the instrument. He played a lot of slide, sure,
and his hot, vocal tone might have had plenty in common with that of the blues-influence
LP gods of the day, but his style and attitude were more good-time party-rock right from
that start, and that stance has continued to hold him apart from the crowd throughout an
impressive career.
Walsh also seems time and again to pop up as one of rocks great tone enablers.
Whether it was delivering Jimmy Pages erstwhile Number One Les Paul to the Zep guitarist

Gibson Les Paul

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 in San Francisco in 1969, or presenting Pete Townshend with the gift
of a Gretsch 6120 and tweed Fender Bandmaster amplifier in 1970
(a rig that recorded some of the Whos most seminal tones on Whos
Next and Quadrophenia, even if they were replaced by other ingredients
onstage), Walsh seems always not only to have cared deeply about his
own tone, but also to have been extremely generous in considering the
tone of others.
After attending Kent State University in Ohio in the mid-60s, Walsh
settled in nearby Cleveland, where he played in a number of popular
local bands before being tapped to join the James Gang as a replace-
ment for guitarist Glen Schwartz. Walshs thick, driving, and occasionally
squawky tone became a signature of the band, and was something he
carried over to his work with the band Barnstorm in 1972. This move
signaled the start of an on-again, off-again solo career, with the release
in 1973 of The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (technically the
Joe Walsh
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second Barnstorm album, but billed as a Joe Walsh record). A single
from that set, Rocky Mountain Way, was marked by his creative use
of a talk-box and brought him his first significant commercial success.
Following another well-received but not massive-selling (and this
time official) solo outing in 1974s So What, Walsh ascended to the
stratosphere of commercial-rock success as replacement for Bearnie
Leadon in the Eagles. In addition to trackingbehind Don Felders orig-
inal partthe harmony to the twin-guitar solo in the massive hit Hotel
California, Walsh co-wrote Life in the Fast Lane with Don Henley
and Glenn Frey, and is generally credited with bringing a harder-edged
rock sound to the Eagles erstwhile laid-back California country-rock.
His favored Les Paul throughout these years, and the one he didnt sell
to Jimmy Page, was a slim-necked 60 Burst, reproduced recently by
Gibson Custom as the Joe Walsh Les Paul Standard.
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 Joe Perry

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 A erosmith co-founder Joe Perry has been associated with a
number of specific guitars throughout his career, from a pair
of workhorse Stratocasters in the bands earliest years to a selec-
tion of B.C. Riches in the late 70s, and, more recently, the Bullet
and Bones custom. As was the wont of blues-based rockers in the
1970s, both Perry and his guitar foil in Aerosmith, Brad Whitford,
began partaking of Les Pauls as the band gained more recognition.
While Whitford was often seen (and heard) slinging 50s-vintage
goldtops, one of the mainstays in Perrys road case was a guard-
less Black Beauty Custom acquired around the time that the band
released their third LP, Toys in the Attic (1975). But the Les
Paul with the more interesting story would prove to be a
tobacco Burst Standard (serial number 9-0663) of the
much-coveted 1959 vintage that Perry picked up in
1976 for $2,500 from storied Nashville guitar broker
George Gruhn. The 59 was heavily gigged throughout
the late 1970s, but in the early 80s Perry, who by this
time had split from the band, sold it off to help ease
financial difficulties.
In the years that followed, Perrys tobacco Burst
apparently passed through several hands (including
those of Texas bluesman Eric Johnson, according
to Gibson, and Derek St. Holmes, according to
other sources) before coming into the posses-
sion of Guns N Roses guitarist Slash, a huge
Perry fan. Slash has recalled that the guitar
came to his attention circa 1989 while it was
OPPOSITE: Perry works his tobacco Burst and
talkbox at the 1977 Reading Festival. Peter Still/
Redferns/Getty Images
Joe Perry
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owned by Tut Campbell, a Georgia-based guitar dealer. After veri-
fying that it was indeed the Perry Burst by comparing photos he
had sent to him to an old poster of Perry, Slash struck a deal to
purchase the instrument. While Slash told Vintage Guitar maga-
zine in 2001 that he paid $800 for the guitar, other reports that
the price was $8,000 (a princely sum even for a 59 Burst in those
days) seem much more likely. Slash later used the Les Paul in
the filming of GNRs epic 1992 November Rain video. By some
accounts, Perry tried to purchase back the guitar over the years,
but Slash demurred, eventually giving it to Perry in 2000 as a
surprise gift on the occasion of Perrys fiftieth birthday.
As an interesting side note, the late luthier Kris Derrig, per-
haps most renowned for building the Les Paul replica
that Slash used to record much of GNRs 1987
debut LP, Appetite for Destruction, had extensive
access to the Perry Burst while it was in Camp-
bells possession.
As for the original, Perry told Gibson.com, Its got
everything a great Les Paul is supposed to have. The
neck isnt quite as fat as, say, a 54 goldtop, but
its still got a good, meaty neck. Its not a high-
output guitar, so its got a lot of tone. . . . And
its got all the natural sustain and warmth,
and when you turn it up it growls.
Dennis Pernu
The Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul signature model.
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 Tom Scholz

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 V ery likely the only MIT-trained engineer in our list of significant
Les Paul-wielding artists, Tom Scholz is unsurprisingly as well
known in guitar circles for his electronic wizardry as for his searing
guitar playing with Boston. Born in Toledo, Ohio, Scholz in his youth
was equally interested in playing music and taking things apart. He
moved east in 1965 to earn first a BA, and then a masters in
mechanical engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Given Scholzs parallel career as founder and
inventor of the Rockman line of guitar effects, ampli-
fiers, and accessories, its no surprise that his famous
Les Paul is heavily modified, but before probing its
guts, lets first dip into the music that it made.
Having settled in Boston as a senior product-design
engineer with Polaroid after graduating from MIT, Schulz
continued pursuing his interest in the guitar, simultane-
ously putting more and more effort into his notions for
generating high-octane guitar tones in the studio
environment. Various musical outfits revolving
around the core of guitarist/multi-instrumentalist
Scholz and singer/rhythm-guitars Brad Delp
eventually coalesced as the band that would
be called Boston, which was also the title of
the bands eponymous 1976 debut albumthe
biggest-selling debut release ever at that time,
with eventual sales of 17 million units. Tracks
OPPOSITE: Scholz and his late-60s goldtop perform with
Boston, 1987. Ebet Roberts/Getty Images
Tom Scholz
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such as More Than a Feeling, Foreplay/Long Time, and Rock
& Roll Band quickly becameand remainradio staples, and
they are all excellent examples of Sholtzs searing, saturated Les
Paul tone. The followup, 1978s Dont Look Back, went platinum
seven times over, and spawned a similarly massive radio hit in
its title track.
Scholzs multi-platinum-hit-making instrument is a little
different from many legendary Les Pauls in that it is not a
vaunted 50s model but a reissue model from
1968: the guitar that brought the single-
cutaway design back to the fold after eight
years of SGs. Prior to the recording of the
first Boston album, Scholz stripped the original
gold finish down to the natural maple, adding
a DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucking pickup
in the bridge position while retaining the gui-
tars original P-90 in the neck position. He
also replaced the original Kluson tuners
with the Schaller M6 tuners that were
popular at the time.
The Tom Scholz 1968 Les Paul, issued in
2013, was the first of Gibsons Collectors
Choice series of guitars to be modeled on
something other than a 195860 Burst.
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 Sister Rosetta Tharpe and her 52 goldtop, circa 1959. Harry Hammond/V&A Images/Getty Images

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 1952 goldtop. Photo by George Aslaender,
courtesy of Retrofret Vintage Guitars

P A RT I I

TONE & CONSTRUCTION

GUITARISTS WHO GIG OR RECORD WITH ANY SERIOUS INTENTIONS are
usually very much aware of the effect that every element in the signal chain has on their overall
tone: the guitar shapes the note, effects pedals might distort or modulate it, and the amplifier
makes it all louder and sweeter, often adding a little more hair on top. To some extent, the signal
chainbased analysis applies within the microcosm of the guitar itself, too, where so many ele-
ments shape the sound of the note that come out the jack and down the cableand, ultimately,
to your audiences ears. The difference is that the guitar is less of a chain and more of an explosion.
Several things happen, virtually all at once: pick hits string; string rings out while simultane-
ously vibrating against nut or fret at the neck end of the guitar and against bridge saddle at the
body end; body and neck woods vibrate, enhancing string vibrations; pickup translates it all down
a cable to the amplifier. As such, the sonic result of this explosion is still a composite of the effects
of myriad components, design points, and constructional techniquesits just that they dont
quite happen in series, as in the traditional signal chain. And if the sound of any electric guitar

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 is really just the product of all of these elements working together,
well, as the clich goes, the tone of a great Les Paul is surely much
more than just the sum of its parts.
Given the price of the most prized vintage Les Paulsand
even of high-end reissues and replicasnovice guitarists are fre-
quently asking their more experienced peers, What other guitars
will give me the tone and feel of a great Les Paul? If you want to
be picky about it, though, the simple answer is: None of them
will. Certainly, you can play the same music youd play on a Les
Paul on a vast number of other types of electric guitars, but as
anyone who has earned their bread and butter from that tone
will tell you, only a Les Paul really sounds like a Les Pauland
for a whole host of little reasons.
The funny thing is, much of why any great vintage electric
guitar sounds the way it does is often the culmination of one big
happy accident. High-end builders today will analyze to the nth
degree the construction of any 195860 Les Paul they can get
their hands onand go to great lengths to reproduce itand
players will intone about the subtle effects of one minor variable
over another. As we saw in our History chapter, however, the Les
Paul came together very much as a convergence of practicality,
functionality, and aesthetics.
The so-called tonewoods employed were used because they
were on hand, they were in use by Gibson already, and they worked
for the project. The top was carved to lend an air of tradition to the
new solidbody, and the pickups and hardware were, initially, simply
just the ones that were available. Sure, the entire effort was aimed at
producing a guitar that would play well and sound good, but not
necessarily at the finer points of resonance and tonal nuanceor
not to the extent that such thought would be put into a hand-
crafted, carved-top archtop acoustic of the day, for example. Put

Closeup views of a 1952 goldtop. Photos by George

Aslaender, courtesy of Retrofret Vintage Guitars

Gibson Les Paul

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 A 1952 patent for a combined bridge and tail piece for stringed instruments,
with a certain L. W. Polfuss listed as the inventor. Outline Press

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 another way, Gibson put less thought into designing the guitar in
the first place than most of the skilled luthiers who have sought to
accurately reproduce its magic have put into their own efforts. And
yet . . . the results were indeed magical, in very many cases.
The Elements of Les Paul
Design and Construction
In this chapter, well look at many of the ingredients that came
together in the happy accident that has resulted in the worlds
most valuable production-model electric guitar and assess their
impact on the overall feel and tone of the instrument. Working
on the theory that the guitars design, the parts that go into it,
and the way it is all put together work hand-in-hand to form its
sonic character, we will explore all of these in some detail. I have
already followed the evolution of the Les Paul chronologically in
the History chapter, so lets jump forward here to an examina-
tion of the archetypal Les Paul: the sunburst 195860 model with
humbuckers. Then we can track back, where necessary, to account
for some of the significant variables that have added breadth to the
Les Paul legend.
Set-Neck Construction
When you get down to analyzing the finer points of tone, the
difference between using a bolt-on neck and a glued-in neck on
two guitars that are otherwise identical constitutes a significant
variable. The process of fitting two pieces of wood together in a
mortise-and-tenon joint, and then gluing them together, as the
Les Paul neck is attached, has direct implications on the way
string vibration travels between neck and body; indeed, every
facet of the way this joint is constructed (along with the
veracity of its construction) will have an impact
on the guitars tone.
In the classic Les Paul neck joint, the
elongated end of the neck (the tenon)
is fitted into a pocket in the body (the
mortise) and glued in place, traditionally
with hot-hide glue (a glue rendered from
animal hides and commonly used in gui-
tar making in the 1950s and 60s). A firmly
glued-in, mortise-and-tenon neck joint clearly
provides a strong neck-to-body connection, and
transfers string vibration between these two vital
wood components very efficiently as a result. The
tightness of this joint leads to what is often heard as
enhanced warmth, thickness, and bodyelements of
the renowned rich, creamy Les Paul tone.
Since every variable makes a difference, you can
imagine that the length of the neck tenon has an impact
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on the sonic character of any set-neck guitar, the Les Paul included.
Les Pauls from 195260 were made with what is now commonly
called a long neck tenon, a long and tightly fitting joint that
extended about two-thirds of the way into the neck-pickup cavity.
These joints provided a lot of surface for the glue to adhere to,
yielding good wood-to-wood contact. The result is usually con-
sidered to offer optimum warmth, resonance, and sustainall of
which translates to a desired depth and smoothness in the classic
Les Paul tone.
The first reissue Les Pauls of 1968 into 69 retained the long
neck tenon, but some time in 69, Gibson introduced a shorter
tenon, although one that was still visible within the neck-pickup
cavity. As the mid-70s approached, a short neck tenon that
ended approximately at the top of the fingerboard was introduced.
For many years, all Les Pauls were made with short neck tenons,
and several models still are. The long neck tenon returned with the
Historic Les Pauls of the early 1990s, and it remains a hallmark of
a proper vintage Les Paul reissue. Even so, plenty of great music
has been made on Les Pauls with short neck tenons, which are
sometimes felt to have a brighter, snappier tone.
Neck Size and Shape
In addition to the nature of the necks attachment to the body, the
physical girth of Les Paul necks in the 1950s also has an impact
on the soundand, of course, the feelof the guitars. While the
larger neck profiles of early-50s Les Pauls dont tend to be quite as
club-like as Gibsons recent goldtop reissues (of the several 195257
A selection of handwritten notes
on guitar construction by Les Paul,
dating from 195675.
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 Les Pauls the author has played, none has had a neck as thick as the
average Custom Shop 54, 56, or 57 reissue), they are indeed on
the large side for contemporary guitar necks. Playability-wise, these
necks might present problems for some players with smaller hands,
but many guitarists enjoy the meaty feel of the larger Les Paul
necks and appreciate the fact that they offer plenty to grab onto
when theyre digging into bends and solo runs.
Les Paul necks were hand-shaped throughout the 1950s,
and were therefore never entirely consistent, but they did tend
to run just a little smaller through 1958, and somewhat smaller
still in 1959, while retaining a rounded C or D profile that work toward enhancing their bright, cutting tone; conversely, a
sits extremely comfortably in the hand. As such, the accurate 59
profile has become the shape to which many boutique makers
today aspire. Through the course of 1960, Les Paul neck profiles
generally grew thinner and flatter. These tend to be less appealing
to the majority of contemporary players, although someboth
today, and back in the 60senjoyed what they perceived as the
improved speed afforded by these slim necks.
Issues of feel aside, the sheer physical size of a guitars neck
clearly has an impact on its tone. Since, as discussed above, the
exchange of vibrational energy between neck and body plays a
major part in shaping any guitars tone, the mass of the neck will
act as a notable variable within this equation. Many players feel
that larger necks elicit a deeper, richer tone from a Les Paul, all
else being equal; the difficulty of assessing this accurately lies in
the fact that all else rarely is equal, and many other variables take
part in shaping that overall sonic impression. That said, there does
seem to be some veracity to the big neck equals big tone theory.
The 24 3/4-Inch Scale Length
The traditional Les Paul scale length has a considerable impact on
both the tone and the feel of the guitar. Often referred to as 24
inches, the scale length of the Les Paul, and most other Gib-
son solidbodies, is actually closer to 24 inches. Whatever other
components and design factors are involved in a guitars construc-
tion, its scale length influences the character of its sound long
before anything else even gets into the game. The strings length
determines where their overtones, or harmonics, occur (and how
tightly packed they are), and therefore determines the voice of the
guitar in the most fundamental way.
The greater spacing of harmonics on longer strings gives an
impression of greater chime and shimmer, and yields tighter low
notes; conversely, shorter strings more closely packed harmon-
ics increase warmth, thickness, and fur in the tone. When we
talk about the overtones affected by scale length, we mean all the
harmonic elements that make up the sound of any note, not just
the individual harmonic nodes (or natural harmonics) that you
hear when lightly touching a string above the fifth, seventh, or
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twelfth fret. While the difference of just over three-quarters of an
inch between the traditional Fender scale length of 25 inches
and the Gibson scale length of 24 inches might not seem like
much, every little variable plays its part. Just as it can be difficult to
obtain that smooth, thick, warm, and creamy tone from a Strato-
caster or a Telecaster, it can be sometimes hard to get classic twang
and shimmer out of a Les Paul.
Of course, several other factors contribute greatly to these
sonic archetypes. It just so happens that the Fenders narrow
single-coil pickups, bridge designs, and neck and body woods all
Les Pauls glued-in neck, thick mahogany elements, and hum-
bucking pickups all play a part in what we perceive as classic Les
Paul tone. But it is all very much rooted in scale length, too.
Tone aside, scale length contributes greatly to the playing
feel of any guitar. The lesser string tension brought about by the
slightly shorter scale length of the Les Paul (when compared,
again, to its main counterpoint, the Fender Stratocaster or Tele-
caster) elicits an easy, pliable feeling under the fingers. This in turn
just happens to lend the guitar to the types of music for which it
has become best known: heavy-bending electric blues and fleet-
fingered rock soloing.
Les Paul Tonewoods
Woods used to manufacture musical instruments are commonly
referred to as tonewoods, and the three employed in the con-
struction of the Les Paul are among the real classics. Each of the
more popular individual tonewoods has its own particular sonic
characteristics, although these arent entirely consistent, and can
vary according to the woods age, variety, density, and other fac-
tors. When several different tonewoods are combined, as in the
Les Paul, the sonic result is usually a marriage of these compo-
nents varied characteristics.
The majority of the Les Pauls neck and its relatively thick, solid
body are made from mahogany. Harvested in Africa and Central
America, mahogany is a fairly dense, medium-to-heavy wood that
yields a wide range of guitar-body weights, depending upon stock
sources. Used on its own (as in the Les Paul Special, Junior, and
SG models), its characteristic tone is warm and somewhat soft but
well balanced, with good grind and bite. There is usually good
depth to the sound of mahogany, with full but not especially tight
lows and appealing, if restrained, highs.
A big part of the character of any Les Pauls tone, however,
comes not simply from the presence of so much mahogany but
from the quality and condition of that timber. In the 1950s,
Gibson had plentiful stocks of well-aged, relatively light mahog-
any that was ideal for use in guitar making, and more wood of a
similar quality was easy to obtain when necessary. As these stocks
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 Johnny Thunders

W henever he was accused of being a punk originator,

Johnny Thunders scoffed at the tag. Iggy was punk, the
Ramones were punk, but Thunders (born John Anthony Genzale,
Jr.) was rock n roll. That said, its hard not to credit his band, the
New York Dolls, and their unhinged early-70s recordings and per-
formances as pacesetters for a scene that was ultimately claimed
more vociferously by the Sex Pistols and the Clash on the other side
of the pond several years later. As for Thunders, he was just making
the music the way he made it: hard, raw, driving, and four-to-the-
floor. And there was no better guitar to make it on than a Gibson Les
Paul Junior.
Or, to be precise, a Les Paul TV Model. Those 1950s Les Paul
Juniors or Specials with an off-white limed mahogany finish are often
described as having a TV finish, but the TV suffix actually denoted a spe-
cific model in itselfthe Les Paul TV Modelthat was, for all the world, a
Junior, but with a light-blond finish that showed up well on black-and-white
TV sets. Introduced in 1955, it was a way to add a little glamour to the entry-
level Les Paul Junior, which had arrived the year before in a basic sunburst
finish. Both carried just a single P-90 pickup and volume and tone controls,
and for years they languished as beginners guitars and pawnshop prizes
until rockers and, yes, punks of the 70s discovered the simple beauty of
this solid, no-frills format (and the pocket-friendly price tags they could nab
them for). We called them automatic guitars, like a car with an automatic
transmissioneasy to use, Sylvain Sylvain, Thunderss fellow guitarist in
the New York Dolls, told Ted Drozdowski for Gibson.com in 2009. You didnt
need to control two volumes at the same time. It was the perfect guitar for
the New York Dolls because it was stripped downlike the band was and
like our songs were.
After a brief flirtation with a mid-50s Les Paul Junior (two pickups!),
Thunders adopted a TV Model with a double-cutaway body, an update
applied in 58. He used the guitar through most of his work with the Dolls
and, afterward, his own band the Heartbreakers, occasionally picking up
other guitars for variety, notably a pair of Lucite-bodied Dan Armstrongs
that he also owned.
Like too many rock n roll legends, Thunders descended into drug and
alcohol abuse, but was believed to have been kicking his heroin habit with
the help of methadone when he died in a New Orleans hotel room in 1991
amid suspicious circumstances.

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 Thunders and the Heartbreakers at Camden Palace,
London, 1977. Erica Echenberg/Redferns/Getty Images
Johnny Thunders
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 Steve Jones
Steve Jones and his custom Custom.
Robert Knight Archive/Redferns/Getty Images

M ore than just a founding father of punk guitar, Steve Jones of

the Sex Pistols was arguably the ultimate antiguitar heroa
stance he was happy to ram home himself by stenciling the ironic dec-
laration Guitar Hero on the grille cloth of his silverface Fender Twin
Reverb amp just months after hed learned to play the guitar. The
instrument that he most famously injected into this combo, though,
was not the usual punk Mosrite, Mustang, or Les Paul Junior, but
a surprisingly exotic offering: a Gibson Les Paul
Custom. Of course, when youre slinging such an
upmarket model, its easier to play down any accusations
of being a well-heeled muso or a punk in poseurs clothing if
you bandy about an assortment of apocryphal tales of how you
pilfered said guitar from a famous rock star, which is exactly how
the Pistols played it.

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 The Steve Jones Les Paul Custom signature
model. Gibson Musical Instruments

Research Joness gear and youll encounter widely accepted stories of how he allegedly
stole the Les Paul from Mick Ronson backstage at a David Bowie concert (or perhaps from Paul
McCartney), and of how the Twin Reverb was likewise allegedly lifted from either (a) the back
of Bob Marleys equipment truck or (b) backstage at a Bowie concert. (Bandmate Johnny Rot-
ten Lydon was purported to have stolen PA equipment from Keith Richardss house.) Word
is, thoughand straight from the mouth of a sober, latter-day Jones himselfthat the Les
Paul Custom in question landed in his hands via a totally legitimate route. After declaring
that, sure, he did swipe other guitars in his late teens, even before learning to play the
instrument, Jones told Jerry McCully of Gibson.com: The one that I started playing was
the one that Malcolm McLaren actually brought back from New York that he got off Sylvain
Sylvain, which was the white Gibson Les Paul. A 74, I think it was, a white Custom. Sylvain,
the New York Dolls guitarist better known for playing Les Paul Juniors, purportedly added the
two famous pinup stickers to the guitar and removed its pickguard and pickup covers before
sending it across the Atlantic with McLaren, but Jones himself helped to expose it to the
nicotine haze that would further yellow its original Arctic White finish.
Having originally been recruited by McLaren to sing lead vocals in the Sex Pis-
tols, Jones moved to guitar when Rotten joined the band. The only problem was he
couldnt really play the thing yet. Taking the 74 Les Paul Custom, Jones worked
out the basics in only three months before the band started gigging, and he had
only spent a year with it before carrying it into the studio to record the legendary
Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols LP. Regardless of his apparent
beginner status, Joness tone throughout the Pistols studio recordings is big,
fat, gnarly, and downright infectiousand certainly sweeter and juicier than that
of many punks of the day.

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 Mick Jones

Jones and mate Joe Strummer at Frances Mont De Marson Punk

L ike his fellow bandmates in the Clash, Mick Jones seemed an Rock Festival, August 1977. Ian Dickson/Redferns/Getty Images
unlikely guitarist for a band labeled the only band that matters.
The Clash received that title from their record label; whether or not they
lived up to the hyperbole of CBSs promotion machine and were the only
band that mattered is open for debate, but without a doubt the band did
matter. The same could be said for its young guitar player.
Born into the gray existence of mid-1950s working-class London,
Michael Geoffrey Jones fell in love with the rock n roll world at an
early age. The flash of the periods glam rockersespecially Bowie,
Mott the Hoople, and T. Rexcaptivated him, but it was exposure
to the New York Dolls when he was thirteen or fourteen years old
that made him want to pick up a guitar. And which guitar was that?

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 What else but the axe favored by Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders: Gibsons
Les Paul Junior. Even though the Junior was considered a beginners gui-
tar and priced accordingly, buying one still required a lot of quid from a
working-class kid. It took Jones months to save enough to purchase the
American icon. Jones took his investment seriously and sequestered him-
self in his bedroom learning to play his prized new possession. After a year
spent learning the licks and tricks of his idols, Jones emerged with his own
unique style that would make him one of the early punk rock guitar heroes.
Jones and his Gibson auditioned with as many bands as possible,
but without much success. He played in a band called London SS, but in
the entire time they were together the band never played a single gig or
recorded a single song. Things started to gel when he hooked up with Paul
Simonon and a revolving lineup to form bands with names like Psychotic
Negatives and the Weak Heartdrops. By then they brought Joe Strum-
mer, who played and sang with a band called the 101ers and was already
something of a celebrity on the London underground music scene. The out as many songs as quickly as possible, and get off. The perfect
roaring twang of Strummers Fender Telecaster combined with the howl of working conditions for the Clash, the right band for the right time.
JonesP-90-equipped Junior to create a sound that helps define punk rock The band rose from origins that were even more humble than the
guitar to this day. Les Paul Junior student guitar to become one of the most popular
At the time the music wasnt called punk rock. Rather, it was con- bands in the world. Four decades later, the Clash is possibly more
sidered a violent and intense subgenre of pub rock, a fast, loud, and raw popular than ever. Jones went on to play ever more expensive and
music played by bands allowed just short sets in pubstwenty or thirty extravagant guitars, primarily Les Paul Standards and Customs, but
minutes to bang out as many songs as possible before clearing the stage he never lost his love for his original Gibson model and continues to
for the next act. There just wasnt time for self-indulgent solos, beautifully favor Les Paul Juniors to this day.
crafted transitions, or anything resembling finesseget up on stage, bang Darwin Holmstrom

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 Randy Rhoads

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 OPPOSITE: Rhoads pushes his Norlin-era
Custom to the limit during the Blizzard of Oz
sessions at Ridge Farm Studios, May 1980.
Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images

W ith an impressive two songs in Guitar World magazines

100 Greatest Guitar Solos readers poll (Crazy Train and
Mr. Crowley) and a legion of fans still worshiping his unparalleled
Rhoads was born in Santa Monica, California, to a pair of
music teachers, and music was a primary way of life in the
Rhoads family right from the start. Randy formed the band that
shredding abilities more than three decades after his blazing would become Quiet Riot while still just sixteen years old,
career was cut short, Randy Rhoads is firmly established and he quickly became a central figure on the West Coast
as one of the brightest stars in the metal-guitar heav- metal scene.
ens. After forming Quiet Riot while still in his teens, Amid copious tales of rockers who have
Rhoads stepped up his game when Ozzy Osbourne died too young, the story of Rhoadss death
asked him to audition for his band in 1979. Along is a particularly tragic one. Neither a heavy
came Rhoadspractice amp in one hand, beloved drinker nor a drug abuser, he was killed
white 1974 Les Paul Custom in the otherand when riding in a small Beechcraft plane in
before the young guitarist had even finished his which Ozzy Osbournes tour-bus driver, Andrew
warmup licks, Osborne had told him, Youve got the Aycock, was attempting a low pass over the bus
gig. What followed was an incendiary ascentand to wake sleeping crewmembers. A wing clipped
a too-swift endingthat burned Randy Rhoads the top of the bus, and the plane crashed
indelibly into the pages of rock history. into a nearby garage, bursting into flames
Like Lindsey Buckinghams similar upon impact. Aycock, who was also
Custom, Rhoadss was a Les Paul of the killed in the crash along with tour
oft-derided Norlin era, but these are gui- makeup artist Rachel Youngblood,
tars that made classic-rock records and was later found to have been tak-
helped fill arenas around the world when ing cocaine through the night. An
wielded by decibel-pushing stars of the image of the white Les Paul Cus-
day. With his Custom slung low, the young tom is engraved into the marble of
guitarist forged a sound and style that have Randy Rhoadss tomb in San Ber-
remained touchstones for the more popu- nardino, California.
lar breed of metal, and a reference point for
heavy-rock guitarists to this day.
The Randy Rhoads Les Paul Custom
model. Gibson Musical Instruments

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 Mark Knoper

Mark Knopfler onstage with Dire Straits, 1985.

Gibson Les Paul
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I f we picture Mark Knopfler with a Fiesta Red Stratocaster first and
foremost (and a gleaming nickel-plated National resonator guitar sec-
ond and secondmost), its worth remembering that a Les Paul triggered
the first significant change of direction in this versatile artists career
and brought his band Dire Straits its greatest famein the mass-
media sense, at least. Knopfler now owns at least two vintage Bursts: a
heavily faded 58, purportedly his favorite, and a 59 that retains much
of its original red sunburst. But the sound that propelled Money for
Nothing, from the 1985 album Brothers in Arms, to unprecedented
MTV fame was created by a 1983 reissue of a 1959 Les Paul. That, and
the notched tone produced by a cocked wah-wah pedal into a vintage
Marshall JTM45 and 4x12 cabinet.
Brothers in Arms reached No. 1 on album charts the world over and
went platinum nine times in the United States. It also signaled a major
change of sonic direction for Knopfler as a player. Having been associ-
ated with the lithe, snappy, and largely clean Stratocaster tone ever since
Mark Knopfler
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the breakout success of the single Sultans of Swing in 1978, Knopfler
could now be found gleefully rocking it up with his Les Paul on several
of the albums tracks (hey, we all need a change now and then, right?).
While he would often return to his Fender-fueled rootsand spice up
the stew with atmospheric resonator playing here and there, toothis
period launched a lifelong love affair between Knopfler and the Les Paul,
and his various examples would remain go-to guitars both in future Dire
Straits performances and in his bountiful solo work.
Knopfler acquired his first vintage Les Paul, the faded 58 iced tea
burst, in 1995, the year Dire Straits called it quits. Having previously left
his vintage Strats at home, favoring repros and custom-made Pensa-
Suhr alternatives to preserve the originals value, he took the Les Paul
along on the extensive tour for his 1996 solo debut, Golden Heart, and
used it to record several tracks for the followup, 2000s Sailing to Phila-
delphia. By now, a second vintage Les Paul, the cherry sunburst 59,
had joined the team as the main backup to Knopflers 58. As of his
latest solo release, 2012s Privateering, he was still using the 58 Les
Paul extensively.
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 Zakk Wylde

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 A 1999 press ad featuring three
of Gibsons new signature
models. Outline Press

however, he was somewhat bummed to find his prized fiddle

painted with the now-famous bulls-eye design.

I n addition to being one of the most straight-talkin figures in rock

n rolland one whose musical palette makes it impossible to
pigeonhole himBlack Label Society frontman and longtime Ozzy
and a roadie forgot to latch the gear trailer. As the guitarist later
told Vintage Guitar editor Ward Meeker in 2005, God forbid
Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde is also owner of perhaps the
most instantly recognizable Les Paul in the world. And it
all came about quite by accident.
Wylde, of course, is the infamous guitar-slinger
behind The Grail, that famous Alpine White Cus-
tom sprayed with black concentric circles. And
like any star guitar worth its salt, this 81 model
comes with a story that nearly rivals all the great
music thats been played on it. Wylde, the story goes,
received the Les Paul as a high school graduation pres-
ent. Shortly afterward, he was hired by Ozzy Osbourne
to replace Jake E. Lee, who had himself replaced
Wyldes idol, the late Randy Rhoads, five years
earlier. Hoping to differentiate his guitar from
Rhoadss own crme-colored Custom (see
pages 192193), Wylde was inspired by a
cable TV commercial for the Alfred Hitch-
cock film Vertigo to bring his Les Paul to a
friend in L.A. and have the movie posters
iconic Spirograph-like rings painted on it.
When he returned to retrieve the guitar,
OPPOSITE: Armed and dangerous: Wylde with several
of his guitars, including his signature Bullseye
model. Robert Knight Archive/Redferns/Getty Images
Fast-forward a few years when Wylde was on tour in Texas
we wouldve f***in killed anybodyweve got SVT cabinets
in the back of that thing. . . . Then [the tour manager] told me
that a couple of the guitars fell out. . . One of those guitars
wasyou guessed itThe Grail. But in
one of those rare twists of a guitar being
reunited with its owner (e.g., Joe Perry,
pages 176177), a fan stumbled upon a
bulls-eye bedecked Les Paul in a Texas
pawnshop. Assuming it was a reissue, he
plopped down $250, brought it home, began to
puzzle over the authentic relicing, and pulled
out a pickup to find Wyldes initials etched
on it. He contacted Wyldes website, and
player and guitar were soon reunited.
Wylde, incidentally, has had
several guitars painted with the
bulls-eye theme. And in 2012,
Gibson issued the Wylde signa-
ture Vertigo model, which more
closely cops the Master of Sus-
penses famous film poster.
Dennis Pernu
The Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom Vertigo.
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 (Continued from page 185)
were used up, guitars made from younger, greener, and heavier
stocks of mahogany in the 1970s tended to have quite different
voices from their 50s forebears. And, of course, mahogany isnt
the only player in the game.
Although it constitutes a relatively small proportion of the
Les Pauls overall body mass, the guitars carved maple top alters
its voice in a noteworthy way. The majority of these carved
tops were originally made from somewhat softer eastern maple,
which was generally sourced from Michigan lumber mills not
far from Gibsons home in Kalamazoo. This tonewood tends to
lend some bite, snap, and clarity to the overall tone of the guitar,
but it doesnt have the harshness or brittleness or glassy highs of
the hard-rock-maple tops that occasionally crept in, and which
predominated at times in later years.
The thick, glued-in mahogany neck lends further depth to the
Les Paul tone, while its rosewood fingerboard enhances both clarity
and sustain. The Brazilian rosewood used for the fingerboards of
original Les Pauls (and most Gibsons in general) into the late 60s
was a dense, hard variety with a dark hue and, often, an extremely
attractive grain. An ebony fingerboard, as featured on the Les Paul
Custom, is even harder than rosewood, and therefore tends to
exhibit even greater high-end definition and excellent sustain.
Nitrocellulose Finish
In the History chapter, we looked at the change from goldtop
(metallic bronze) to sunburst finish in some detail, and considered
its future impact on the collectability of vintage Les Pauls today.
But the finishing process, whatever the color, deserves a few words
here in the context of tone, too.
Gibson used a hard, thin nitrocellulose finish (also called lac-
quer) on its guitars in the 1950s and 60s, and while theres much
debate over the sonic contribution of this process to the overall
sound of the guitar, devotees of vintage Les Pauls tend to scoff at
the application of any other type of finish to even the most rudi-
mentary of reissues.
The theory goes that a traditional nitrocellulose finishwhich
is applied fairly thinly, dries hard, and thins further over time
resonates with the wood, allowing the instruments full tone to
bloom. It is often said that nitro allows the wood to breathe,
and therefore doesnt impede or choke the sympathetic vibra-
tions of the body and neck. This wasnt considered much of an
issue until some makers began using thickly applied polyester
finishes in the late 1960s and 70s, which did at times seem to
cloak their guitars like a plastic coat. In truth, many makers of
high-end guitars today use polyurethane finish with great success.
Urethane, for short, is a thinner and more natural-feeling finish
than the polyester that gave poly a bad name, and there is little
Gibson Les Paul
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hard evidence to suggest that, when used right, it makes a guitar
sound any worse than a traditional nitrocellulose finish. In addi-
tion, polyurethane is less damaging to the environment, and to
the health of the builder who applies it, so it also has those marks
in its favor. It does, however, tend to wear better than a thin tra-
ditional nitro finishwhich, conversely, is a mark against it for
many purists, who relish the faded and well-aged look of a thin
nitrocellulose finish.
Gibson still uses nitrocellulose today on the majority of its
guitars. On those other than a few special-run (and occasionally
hand-aged) Custom Shop reissue-type Les Pauls, however, this
tends to be a slightly thicker formulation, with plasticizers added
for improved durability.
Traditional Les Paul Hardware
Whatever woods are used in a guitars construction, the hardware
bolted onto and into it plays a big part in forming its overall voice.
The bridge and bridge saddles, tailpiece, nut, and even tuners, to
some extent, serve to anchor the strings and translate their vibrations
through the wood, shaping the instruments tone in the process.
Gibsons ABR-1/Tune-o-matic bridge was developed in large
part by company president Ted McCarty in 1954, and first appeared
on the Les Paul Custom, then the Les Paul Model (a.k.a. goldtop),
in 1956. While Gibson initially boasted of this components facility
for individual intonation adjustment of each string, the design also
has its own sonic characteristics. Partnered with a stud-mounted
aluminum stopbar tailpiece (essentially the same piece of hardware
used for the wraparound bridge, but loaded differently), the Tune-
o-matic offers a solid body-end anchor point for the strings. By
providing a sharper break angle (or takeoff point) for the strings
than that of the wraparound bridge that preceded it, the peaked,
notched saddles of this bridge lend a little more clarity and preci-
sion to the notes than was generally heard in pre-56 goldtops. The
results are usually apparent in the form of a little more high-end
shimmer and improved note definition within chords.
Original Tune-o-matics were made from zinc and plated in
nickel, with nickel-plated brass saddles. Units made to this for-
mula are preferred by purists, largely for their ability to enhance
resonance without being too heavy and sucking too much of the
strings vibrational energy from the overall sonic brew. Similarly,
the original lightweight aluminum stopbar tailpiece is considered a
must-have for connoisseurs. Plenty of great music has been made
on later renditions of the Les Paul loaded with die-cast Zamak
bridges and heavier steel tailpieces, but these arent considered vin-
tage spec by aficionados.
A guitars nut is often listed as a component of its neck con-
struction, but since it works in partnership with the bridge and
bridge saddles to anchor the strings and translate their vibration
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 into the wood, it seems worthy of inclusion in the Hardware
section (or semi-hardware, in the case of the original Les Paul
nut) of this book. Gibson used a specific formulation of nylon
nylon 6/6for its Les Paul nuts in the golden years. While this
might seem an odd choice up against the traditional bone that had
often been used for nuts on archtop and flattop guitars of the day,
nylon 6/6 was plentiful, consistent, and somewhat easier to work
with, and it has actually come to be known as a small yet essential
component of the vintage Les Paul tone. The nylon nut yields a
warm, rich tone, with just enough fur around the edges to help
thicken up the notes, yet without blurring clarity. Its slightly slick
properties also do a decent job of preventing strings from hitching
in the nut slots during deep bends, thereby aiding return-to-pitch
accuracy somewhat.
Up beyond the nut, a guitars tuners are usually considered
mainly in the context of their ability to do the job of bringing
the strings up to tension smoothly and efficiently. But these con-
stitute the final neck-end anchoring point of any guitar, as well
as contributing to the overall mass of the headstock, so they also
play a marginal role in shaping the instruments tone. That said,
this role can be difficult to quantify: many players in the 60s and
70s upgraded their Les Pauls original Kluson tuners to heavier,
fully enclosed Grover or Schaller tuners in the belief that these
enhanced sustain. However, most students of original vintage Les
Pauls will declare that their prized instruments sound best with
the original, lightweight Klusons installed, and plenty of high-end
contemporary makers of Les Paulstyle electrics feel the lighter
headstock enhances resonance, and therefore tone.
and manufacture seems to have hit right on the mark to produce
the small miracle that is the original Gibson PAF humbucker. That
said, not all PAFs were created equal, although players who know
them well will tell you that examples of each type are capable of
sounding just about as glorious. And while thats true, there are
also those failed efforts that simply arent particularly inspiring.
Seth Lover specified alnico V for use in his new humbucker design
way back in 1956 or so, but for the first five years of these pickups
existence, Gibson variably used alnico II, III, and V, with a fervent
disregard for any pretense of consistency. The varying strengths
of these types of alnico (from lesser to greater, respectively) con-
tributed to slight differences in strength and character between
pickups of otherwise similar specs.
After 1961, the pickup department went with the plan and
stuck with alnico V. At around the same time, Gibson also
changed to shorter bar magnets, using magnets of around 2 5/16
inches wide rather than the 2 1/2-inch magnets used from 1956
to early 61. Some say the reduction in magnet size was enacted
to compensate for the consistent use of alnico V, a slightly stron-
ger magnet. Most authorities on pickups would likely confirm,
however, that other variables would still see post-61 PAFs coming
off the line with greatly varying output levels, and a range of fac-
tors would make any efforts to tweak power levels by shortening
magnets by a quarter or an eighth of an inch a rather futile exer-
cise. Also, rather than just using shorter versions of the same bar
A 1958 Burst, complete with original instructions on how to use the
Tune-o-matic bridge. Rumble Seat Music

Pickups and
Electronics
Of all the elements that contribute to
the magic of the vintage Les Paul, the
PAF humbucking pickup undoubt-
edly retains the greatest mystique.
Despite a considerable cottage
industry having grown up around
efforts to accurately reproduce this
Holy Grail component, most
players who have been intimate
with a selection of good PAFs will
tell you that, as close as the better
efforts might come, that enigmatic
2 or 3 percent by which they still
fall short contains a vast world of
sonic wonder.
Each of the variables at play in
the broader world of pickup design

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 Closeup views of the Tune-o-matic
bridge from a 1957 Les Paul Custom.
Olivias Music

magnets, the post-61 short magnets are

also slightly bit narrower and thinner than
the longer magnets used before.
Further and considerable variables in
the accuracy of the number of turns of
42 AWG (American wire gauge) plain
enamelcoated wire around each coil
in this dual-coil pickup can also lead
to significant differences in output and
sound between two otherwise identi-
cal PAFs. The machines used to wind
the coils were automated, to an extent,
but were manually operated, and not
always especially accurate in count-
ing the turns of wire around each
coil. Since the amount of wire around each coil, when totaled,
accounts for the total DC-resistance reading of the pickup as a given each coil also affects PAFs from two perspectives. As already
whole, these winding variances resulted in PAF humbuckers that mentioned, it makes each new pickup a little different from the
measured anywhere from just under 7k ohms to more than 9k next one on the line, but it also makes each coil a little different
ohms, which is quite a spread. In theory, Gibson standardized its from the one lying next to it in the very same pickup. The use of
humbuckers resistance at 7.5k ohms around 1961, but post-61 slightly unbalanced coilscompounded by the fact that one coil
PAFsjust like those made from 1956 to 61will still give a used adjustable steel pole pieces while the other carried fixed steel
range of readings. slugsmeant that these could never achieve perfection in their
In addition to the varying amounts of wire in these pickups hum-canceling duties, since the very definition of the true hum-
as a whole, the inconsistency in the number of turns of wire bucker requires two equal but opposite coils to get the job done.

Gibson Les Paul

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 On the plus side, however, this imbalance is also attributed The color itself has no effect on the sound of the pickups in
with some of the PAF magic and helps a good PAF sound a little and of itself, although theres some indication, as reported by
richer and more complexly textured than a similarly constructed David Wilson in his intensive study of the Gibson PAF in the
pickup with perfectly balanced coils. Better-balanced coils will Tone Quest Report of April 2008, that Gibson was also supplied
contribute to what a lot of players describe as smoothness in a with some off-spec coil wire at around the same time, and many
humbucker, but a good PAF is pretty smooth already; what the white bobbins were consequently wound with plain enamel wire
imbalance helps to achieve, on the other hand, is a little more that was actually a little finer than the specified 42 gauge. Since
bite and edge, and therefore clarity and texturesomething a lot finer wire allows you to fit more windings around the bobbin,
of players value in a pickup like this. Note too that the coils in this theory seems to be borne out in the fact that many zebra and
original PAFs were not wax potted (wax potting being the pro- double-cream PAFs do measure on the high side, in the upper-8k
cess of dipping pickups in a bath of melted wax or paraffin to and even lower-9k range.
seal the coils, thereby combatting microphonic vibration at high A good two years after receiving its patent for the new hum-
volumes); the slight microphony (the feedback caused by vibra- bucking pickup, Gibson started replacing the Patent Applied
tion within the coils or metal parts) that this sometimes imparts For stickers on the bottoms of its pickups with stickers that read
to their performance is often credited with contributing to their Patent No 2,737,842, which was actually the patent awarded in
famous liveliness. 1956 for the combined trapeze tailpiece and bridge used on the
The PAFs mild-steel base plate also plays a part in its sound, original version of the Les Paul in 1952 and early 53 (the pat-
although the German silver covers play a greater rolea factor that ent for the pickup, awarded in July of 59, is number 2,896,491).
players soon discovered they could tweak to their own tastes. These Theres a considerable crossover period between the PAF pickups
metal covers raise the capacitance of the pickup and darken the tone and the Patent Number pickups, as they have come to be known,
slightly. Lover has stated that he designed the pickup with this fac- and I have seen examples of the latter cited from late 1961, with
tor very much in mind, but many players quickly learned that they examples of the former from late 1962. Regardless of the sticker,
could eke out a little more high-end response by loosening the two for the first year or so of what we consider to be the era of the Pat-
solder connections between the cover and the base, and then remov- ent Number humbuckers, from around mid-62 to mid-63, the
ing the covers entirely. Gold-plated covers, its worth noting, raise pickups were all still made the same.
the capacitance further still, so removing these will have an even
greater impact on the sound of a PAF-style humbucker. Research notes from Les Pauls archive of Guitar Schematics from the
late 1950s and early 1960s. Juliens Auctions
A purely cosmetic variable, but one that is often made
much of, is found in the color of the bobbins
beneath these covers, which were made
from a form of plastic called butyr-
ate. Black bobbins were the
norm from the begin-
ning, but in early
1959 the bobbin
suppliers occasion-
ally ran out of the
dying agent used to
make the black butyr-
ate, so supplied them
in cream instead.
Lifting the covers off
PAFs from this period
occasionally reveals one
cream and one black bob-
bin, a configuration known as
zebra coils, orthe most prized
of alldouble-cream bobbins.

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 Research notes from Les Pauls archive of Guitar Schematics
from the late 1950s and early 1960s. Juliens Auctions

Gibson Les Paul

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 Tone & Construction
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 Blueprints and bill of material for a Les Paul
Carved TopElectric dated April 4 1968.
Juliens Auctions

Parts list for a 1968 Les Paul Standard.

Juliens Auctions

Gibson Les Paul

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Sometime after 1962, however, a number of changes were
gradually made to these units. The wires between the coilsvisible
between the bobbins from the end where the black paper covers
each individual bobbin, rather than both bobbins together
now comprised one black wire and one white wire, rather than
the two black wires used up until this point. Another alteration
occurred during the course of 1963 when Gibson started using
a copper-colored, polyurethane-coated coil wire in place of the
purple-colored plain enamelcoated wire. Although the wire
within the coating was, in theory, the same stuff, many toneheads
will claim that a change in the insulating coating can itself affect
the sound of a coil; more practically speaking, a change in coating
also means a minute change in the thickness of the wire, and this
might affect the way the wraps fall into place as the coil is wound.
Many of these contributing factors to the tonal palette of the
PAF fall into the realm of minutiae, certainly, but when youre
Tone & Construction
205
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A full-scale blueprint for an L.P. Custom electric guitar dated July 9, 1984.
Juliens Auctions
discussing a component as revered and rarified as Gibsons hum-
bucker from 1956 to 1962, every little piece of the puzzle has
significance. With a pickup so specialand when no one has quite
achieved an entirely accurate and sonically satisfactory recreation of
the originalyouve got to consider the importance of every little
factor, however microscopic.
Early Patent Number pickups are still very highly regarded,
with players in the know fully aware that the only thing standing
between these units and late PAF pickups is the sticker . . . and quite
a bit of extra cash. Later Patent Number pickups are still highly
regarded, too, although toward the mid-60s these humbuckers had
evolved far enough from the original PAF formula to no longer ben-
efit from the beatifying glow reflected off the originals.
Patent Number pickups were made into 1965, during the
course of which year Gibson changed the pickups again and began
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 An assortment of copper pickup wire. Juliens Auctions

using a different style of black plastic bobbin notable for the dis-
tinct T impressed into the top. Known as T-top pickups, these everything related to vintage guitar gear, it seems, Gibson hum-
carried the same decal reading Patent No 2,737,842 but had
white wires between the coils, rather than the white and black wires
of the later Patent Number pickups. Gibson humbuckers were also
now being wound to a more consistent 7.5k ohms, thanks to a new
fully automated coil-winding system that was introduced some-
time after 1965.
T-tops of this configuration were made until 1975, when Gib-
son started stamping the pickups steel base plates with the real
patent number for their humbucking pickup, rather than sticking
on the decal with the misleading tailpiece patent. As with just about
buckers follow a chronological curve that represents the depletion
of desirability of these parts. From PAF, to early Patent Number, to
later Patent Number, to first-generation T-top, to second generation
T-top, the lust factor traces a significant decline from version one to
version two, then a sharp and sharper fall-off after that. Come the
arrival of the 70swith the era of the T-tops well entrenched, and
Gibson, under Norlin, producing guitars to put them in that are
among the least well-regarded of the companys historypickups
that still follow the basic form and dimensions of the PAF have been
reduced to just an ordinary humbucker status.

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 Putting the specs aside and considering the sound and feel
of these hallowed pickups for a moment, its worth noting that
many players who spend some quality time with a good set of
PAFs after a lifetime of familiarity with standard modern hum-
buckers come away with the feeling that these things dont sound
like humbuckers at all. They can sound clear, bright, even slightly
janglyand with a tantalizing metallic edge to the notesbut
also rich, vocal, and multi-textured, and without the prominent
midrange hump that so many contemporary humbuckers exhibit.
They arent hot pickups, in the modern sense, but theyll get
behind your hot playing in short order, especially when rammed
through a tweed Twin or a cranked Marshall JMP50. And thats
because, well, in terms of specifications, theyre not hot. As evi-
denced by Gibsons guide specs for original PAFs, they fall very
much in the same range as the average P-90 from the same era,
and very often below the P-90s nominal 8k mark, too. They
are different pickups, surevery differentso just comparing
DC resistance only gets us so far, but any player who has had
his hands around guitars carrying pickups of each type knows
an original P-90 will hit your amp as hard as an original PAF
any dayand will in some cases sound muddier and fatter
because of its increased grit factoralthough the humbuckers
wider magnetic window will often have a PAF sounding a little
warmer, too, which sometimes fools the ear into thinking its
hearing a higher-output pickup.
Looked at in one sense, the single-coil P-90 pickups that pre-
ceded the humbuckers in the Les Paul (and which still have plenty
of fans to this day) carried much the same ingredients as would
be used in these rarified PAFs, but in different proportions. Lack
of hum-canceling capabilities aside, they were wound to approxi-
mately the same number of turns of 42 AWG plain-enamel-coated
wire as the two humbucker coils put together, and carried two
similar bar magnets positioned beneath the single wide coil, with
the adjustable steel pole pieces between the magnets threaded
through a steel guide bar.
The P-90s wide coil and the configuration of dual magnets
feeding steel poles produces a fatter tone than is heard from thin-
ner Fender-type single-coil pickups, along with a meaty overall
voice and a slightly gritty edge that a lot of rock and blues players
love. P-90s characteristically tend to have round lows, sweet highs,
and a prominent midrange, but since they span a similar range of
resistance readings to those found for PAF humbuckers (from just
under 7k ohms to more than 9k ohms), any two pickups to have
come off the winder on the same day can still sound remarkably
different. These pickups contribute to the aggressive yet nuanced
tone of a good goldtop, a variation in the vintage Les Paul that
some players still prefer over the humbucker-loaded model to this
day. The change of pickups makes otherwise identical Les Paul
Tone & Construction
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(Text)
Model goldtops from 1956 and 57 quite different animals, yet
within their altered sonic presentation remains a core voice that
links them as siblingsand once you crank up that tube amp
good, and get it driving hard, they can often perform many of the
same tricks.
While they might be less significant than the pickups them-
selves, the rest of the electronic components used in vintage Les
Pauls are still deemed essential, by many, to vintage-certified
tone. Gibson originally used IRC potentiometers for the volume
and tone controls of its Les Pauls, but transitioned to Centralab
pots by the mid-50s, using both makes of pots during much of
the period up to that time. Late-50s Bursts should carry Cen-
tralab pots exclusively, as far as we know, and all vintage Les
Paul pots should be 500k ohms in value (sometimes marked as
0.5 Meg).
The earliest Les Pauls used Grey Tiger tone capacitors with
a value of .02 F. These were printed with either black or red
ink (which can fade to near-invisibility over time), but they
were essentially the same components on the inside. Around
the mid-1950s, Gibson began using Sprague Black Beauty
paper-in-oil caps, commonly known as bumblebee caps for the
colored stripes that denote their value, giving them the look of a
large resistor. Sometime in 1959, the makeup of these Spragues
changed to a molded Mylar construction, although their appear-
ance remained much the same. Les Pauls from 1959 and 60 also
occasionally carry Astron caps of a type more commonly seen
in vintage tube amplifiers, while some stocks of these and the
Spragues alike ran over into guitars from the early 60s.
The three-way Switchcraft toggle switch used as a pickup-
selector switch also changed in minor ways over the years, but its
function and sound really werent altered to any significant extent.
***
Add them up, and these myriad bits and piecesfrom the wood
to the hardware to the electronicsaccount for the near-mythic
sonic quality and unparalleled playing feel of a great vintage Gib-
son Les Paul. You can remove a piece or two from the puzzle and
still end up with a stunning instrument, but devotees of the real
thing will tell you that each ingredient plays a role, large or small,
in rendering the glorious whole of the vintage Burst.
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 Slash

Slash and his Derrig replica, Bayshore, New York,

October 1987. Larry Marano/Getty Images

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 I ts easy to forget that the popularity of Gibsons seminal Les Paul
models was at a low ebb in the mid-1980s, when, on one side of the
rock coin, heavier players were turning to Deans, B.C. Riches, Kramers,
Working in Atlanta, Southern California, and in his native Boston,
Kris Derrig made only a handful of his highly regarded Les Paulstyle
repros before he died shortly before his thirty-third birthday in 1987
and a variety of super Strats, and, on the other, indie and alternative from cancer believed to have been contracted from chemical poison-
players were championing Fender Telecasters and Jazzmasters and a ing. Slashs repro was built while Derrig was working at MusicWorks in
variety of Rickenbacker and Gretsch models. Then along came Slash Redondo Beach, California.
with his own guitar of the moment, and the Les Paul was born again In addition to the Derrig, Slashs main stage guitars also included
as the ultimate rock icon, thankswith no small bit of ironyto a Les another reproduction 59 Burst made by Peter Max Baranet of Max
Paul copy that saved the day. Guitars in Hollywood, and a plain old 1987 Gibson Les Paul Standard. In
While recording Guns N Roses seminal debut, Appetite for later years, with Slashs Snakepit and Velvet Revolver, Slash has more
Destruction, in 1985, Slash (born Saul Hudson) was having trouble get- often turned to Gibson Slash Signature Les Pauls, and although he still
ting a satisfactory tone from the B.C. Rich and other guitars that had owns the Derrig that came to his rescue way
been his mainstays for some time. With the allotted studio sessions back when it all got started, he now keeps
nearing their end, and nearly engulfed in panic at the prospect of blow- the road warrior safe from the
ing the bands big break, he picked up a reproduction of a late-50s rigors of touring.
Les Paul Burst that manager Alan Niven had acquired for him try out.
The faux Paul nailed the tone that this hard-rocking riffmeister was
seeking, and Slash laid down the bulk of the legendary lead work for
the album in a flurry of overdubs at a small studio.
It became my main guitar for a really long
time, Slash related in an interview for his
website, SlashsWorld.com. And because
I couldnt afford a whole handful of that
sort of thing, I took it out on the road for
all of Guns early touring. During one show,
a careless moment of crowd surfing nearly
lost the star his Derrig Les Paul, when a fan
slipped it from him and made for the exit, only
to be stopped by the bands security crew.

2000 sunburst Les Paul Standard, signed by Slash

and given to Les the Man. Juliens Auctions

Slash
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 Buckethead

Buckethead performs in San Francisco in October 2011.

Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
Gibson Les Paul
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 T hrough his prolific solo work, as well as his tenures with
supergroup Praxis and rock legends Guns N Roses, Bucket-
head has established one of the most inventive artistic personas
Having transitioned from regulation pointy-headed shred gui-
of our time and proved himself as a player gifted with muy chops.
tars to Gibson Les Pauls quite early in his career, Bucketheads
Equally as attention-grabbing as his incendiary riffage, his stage
signature squeeze has long been a highly modified and custom-
show and visual presence are unique in the field, and a highly
ized take on the form. With its 27-inch scale length, increased
modified Les Paul plays a major part in it all.
nut width, and enlarged body, this Les Paul is better
Behind all the imagery, Bucketheadborn Brian Pat-
suited to the artists tall, six-foot-four-inch frame.
rick Carroll in Huntington Beach, California, in 1969is
An all-white finish keeps it firmly in Bucketheadland,
an extremely hard-working musician. His official bio, at
looks-wise, while arcade-style kill switches enable
the time of writing, tells us he has released sixty-one
his trademark stutter effect. The bucket, by the way,
studio albums of his own, as well as having played on
is regulation KFC, adorned with a bumper sticker read-
more than fifty albums by other musicians and com-
ing funeral, and a rather funereal white facemask
posed and performed on several movie soundtracks.
beneath it. Whether your own musical tastes are
Through it all, the unbridled speed of his playing
adventurous or traditional, you cant help but
and the innovative nature of his style have marked
admire this talented performers very individual
him as one of the most accomplished guitarists
take on what was perhaps becoming a rather
on the shred and metal scenes today.
staid genre; and whether you know it or not,
The Buckethead Les Paul Studio, one of two custom
given his prolific output you will have undoubt-
models Gibson has produced in the guitarists name, edly heard his work somewhere.
this one featuring an extended 27-inch scale length
and various other mods including two arcade-style kill
switches. Gibson Musical Instruments
Buckethead
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 Mike Ness

Mike Ness rocks his P-90s at Chicagos Congress Gibson Les Paul
Theater in October 2011. Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images
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W hen it comes to punk rock, few guitars are more iconic than
Les Paul Juniors, those formerly econo student models that
have been wielded by the likes of Johnny Thunders, Mick Jones, Paul
Westerberg, and Billie Joe Armstrong. Mike Ness, founder of legendary
punk outfit Social Distortion, took a different road, however, discovering
the sonic bliss of a Les Paul Deluxe in the late 1980s, after several years
of playing SGs. That Ness would find his own way with his gear should
come as little surprise. Even in his early-80s hardcore punk years, Ness
was eschewing the scenes de rigueur political and social manifestos,
instead grounding Social Distortion in roots-based hard luck tales
inspired more by Muddy, Hank, and Keith than by his contemporaries.
The two main guitars in Nesss arsenal are a sunburst 1971
Deluxe and his more iconic 76 Deluxe goldtop (instantly recogniz-
able by its Orange County and Clay Smith Cams decals, nods to Nesss
SoCal roots and love of hot rods, respectively). Ness also counts two
Mike Ness
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1975 Deluxesalso a goldtop and a Burstamong his touring gui-
tars. According to Ness, he resisted Les Pauls for years because he
believed they would prove heavy and uncomfortable, but once he finally
strapped into a Deluxe he was hooked, especially after ditching the
mini-humbuckers for P-90s.
All four of Nesss Les Pauls are outfitted with P-90s, whose creamy
tone Ness picked up on when Social Distortion toured with Neil Young
in 1991. I watched his tech [Larry Cragg] pull the thin mini-humbucker
out of a Les Paul Deluxe, drop it in the trash can, and put a P-90 in it.
Ive been using P-90s ever since, Ness told Guitar World magazine in
2011. Notably, Ness keeps his guitars selector switches taped down in
the bridge position to avoid accidental switching mid-song.
Ness is also enamored with the maple necks found on post-1974
goldtop Deluxes, believing the maple, in combination with the paint and
a capowhich he often uses because of an accident that limits the
flexibility of the index finger on his fretting handresult in superior
open chord tones.
For several years, Nesss rig has included a modded 67 blackface
Fender Bassman head atop two 4x10 Marshall cabs, the perfect com-
plement, he believes, to his Les Paul Deluxes and their P-90s. As Ness,
the unrepentant gearhead, has stated, building a rig is a lot like building
a hot rodyou find the parts that work together and stick with them.
Dennis Pernu
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 Billie Joe Armstrong

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 Armstrong and Floydhis favorite of the twenty or so Les Paul Juniors
he ownson the American Idiot, 2004. KMazur/WireImage/Getty Images

G reen Days Billie Joe Armstrong is another in the line of

punk and punk-inspired guitarists who have taken a
shine to the econo simplicity of the Les Paul Junior. The Billy Joe Armstrong Les Paul Junior Double Cutthe
In his 2012 history of the band, Alan diPerna second of two signature models Gibson has produced in the
reports that Armstrong strummed his first chords Green Day front mans name. Gibson Musical Instruments
on a Hondo Les Paul copy. And longtime Green
Day fans will, of course, be quick to remind us International in 2011. Dog-ear 50s P-90s are
that the guitar arguably most associated with the punchiest pickup ever made. It is perfect for
Armstrong is another copycat: the be-stick- my style of playing. Theyre dirty but have great
ered baby-blue Fernandes Strat that his mom string definition.
acquired for Billie Joe when he was just eleven. That may be the case, but when Gibson hon-
Though Blue remained Armstrongs main axe ored Armstrong with a signature model in 2006, the
until 2000 and still tours with him today, he largely pop-punk icon couldnt refuse a bit of tinkering. In
made the switch to Juniors that year. His first addition to a thinner 60s-profile neck (and a
figured prominently in the bands Warning LP. case lined with faux leopardskin, natch), the
Since then, Armstrongs been seen onstage Armstrong model forsakes the originals
playing a number of collectible Juniors punchy P-90s for Gibsons hum-cancel-
and reports owning about twenty vin- ing H-90, a stacked single-coil with the
tage Juniors. I pretty much got all of outward appearance of Gibsons classic
the ones that they made basically from dog-eared pup.
1955 to 19591960, he told Gibson. In addition to owning a 56 Black
com in 2012. That first Junior, however, Beauty, Armstrong has used other
remains his most beloved. Floyd is a non-Junior Les Pauls, including Slash
1956 single-cut Burst that he acquired and Jimmy Page signature models in
at a guitar show in San Rafael, Califor- the studio.
nia. I love Les Paul Juniors, he told Guitar Dennis Pernu

Billie Joe Armstrong

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 Sean Costello

Gibson Les Paul Sean Costello and his trusty goldtop at the Northside Tavern,
Atlanta, Georgia, late 2007. Delta Groove Productions
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 A n artist who burned brightly and was taken from us well before his
time, Sean Costello dug deep into the soulful power of a 5354
goldtop with P-90s and wraparound bridge to remind the music world
what a versatile instrument this seminal Les Paul could be. Costello
was born in Philadelphia in 1979 and showed an interest in music at
an early age. He took up the guitar shortly after his family relocated to
Atlanta when he was nine, andfollowing an initial interest in rock
got bitten bad by the blues, an immersion that won him the Memphis
Blues Societys New Talent Award at the age of fourteen. His debut
album, Call the Cops, followed shortly after, and Costello quickly hit his
stride as an adept and authentic performer.
While his vocals were soulful and heartfelt, and his songwriting
trenchant and sincere, his ability on the guitar itself is what ultimately
garnered the most attention. Ostensibly a blues artist, Costello wove
in elements of jazz and roots music et al. to make a powerful state-
ment of any tune he attacked. From a slow burner like Take It Easy
(from 2005s Sean Costello) to a lightning-fingered instrumental like
his popular live rendition of The Hucklebuck, his playing never failed
to impress. Using bare thumb and fingers to squeeze every ounce of
tone out of his weather-checked and road-worn goldtop, Costello left
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any listener present with the impression that this was a music coming
from deep within. He released five studio albums of his own dur-
ing his lifetime and also logged a number of guest appearances that
stretched his craft. In addition to touring as a guitarist for Susan Tede-
schi early in his career, Costello performed with Levon Helm, Bobby
Little, Ollabelle, Tinsley Ellis, B. B. King, Buddy Guy, Donald Fagan,
Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, and many others.
Amid Costellos heightened musical acuity was the great trouble
and difficulty rendered by a bipolar disorder not adequately diagnosed
or treated until late in his life. Several of his original songs appear to
address this struggle, notably No Half Steppin, which includes the
lines, Ive got a light / It keeps on shining in my mind / Day and night /
It just keeps burnin all the time. On April 15, 2008, one day before his
twenty-ninth birthday, Sean Costello died of an apparently accidental
overdose. In a statement following his death, the heads of Costellos
label, Delta Groove Music, said: Sean Costello was a genius. He was
destined to go down in music history as a blues legend. His musical
legacy will live on through his music forever.
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AC/DC, 95, 125
Adams, John W., 10
Aerosmith, 177
Toys in the Attic, 177
Allison, Luther, 4445
Soul Fixin Man, 45
Allman, Duane, 154155, 156, 157
Melissa, 155
Midnight Rider, 155
One Way Out, 155
Whipping Post, 155
Allman Brothers Band, 154, 156
Jessica, 156
Alnico V pickup, 26, 35, 199
American Music Masters concert, 137
Ampex, 20
Ann Arbor Blues Festival, 44
Aria, 126
Armstrong, Billie Joe, 213, 214215
Armstrong, Dan, 109, 186
Astron caps, 207
Aycock, Andrew, 193
Babiuk, Andy, 108
Back Street Crawler, 107
Bacon, Tony, 20, 25
Baker, Mickey Guitar, 8
Baldwin Company, 35
bar magnets, 199200
Baranet, Peter Max, 209
Barnstorm, 175
Barth, Paul, 13
Batey, Rick, 73
Baxter, Jeff Skunk, 105
B.C. Riches, 177, 209
Beard, Frank, 158
Beatles, 95, 108
While My Guitar Gently Weeps,
109
Beatles Gear (Babiuk), 108
Beatles Monthly, The, 109
Beauchamp, George, 13
Beck, Jeff, 95, 107, 118119, 153
Blow By Blow, 119
Becker, Alex, 158
Bellson, Julius, 25
Benedetto, 10
Benedict Music, 142
Benny Goodman Orchestra, 12
Berlin, Maurice, 20, 21, 26,
99, 117
Berry, Chuck, 42, 57
Berryman, David, 127
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INDEX
Bold numbers indicate artist profiles. Italics indicate photos.
Betts, Dickey, 155, 156157 Christian, Charlie, 12, 1415 Dynasonic pickup, 26
Highway Call, 157 Chubbys Home of the Stars, 30
Betts, Duane, 157 Clapton, Eric, 47, 49, 5051, 53, 74, 95, Eagles, 141, 175
Bigsby, Paul A., 18 109, 127, 153, 158 Hotel California, 175
Bigsby Accessories, 126 John Mayall Blues Breakers with Eric Life in the Fast Lane, 175
Bigsby tailpiece, 95, 108, 111, 115, 132 Clapton, 51, 74 Ecuadorian Company Limited (ECL),
Black Cat Bones, 107 Clark, Steve, 125 117
Black Keys, 151 Clash, 34, 186, 190, 191 Ed Sullivan Show, The, 49
Black Sabbath, 87, 95 Collins, Allen, 163 Eddy, Duane, 137
Bloomfield, Michael, 7475, 95, 127 Cooper, Alice, 173 Edge, The, 114
Super Sessions, 75 Costello, Sean, 216217 Electric Flag, 75
Bob Marley and the Wailers, Call the Cops, 217 Electric Light Orchestra, 120
Exodus, 165 The Hucklebuck, 217 Electro-String
bobbins, 201, 205 No Half Steppin, 217 Frying Pan, 14, 20
Bolan, Marc, 150151 Sean Costello, 217 Hawaiian electrics, 15
Bonamassa, Joe, 71, 143, 144145 Take It Easy, 217 horseshoe pickup, 13
Bordowitz, Hank, 18, 117 Cotton, James, 4041, 44 Rickenbacker Spanish, 15
Boston, 179 Cragg, Larry, 111, 213 Ellis, Tinsley, 217
Boston, 179 Cream, 51, 95, 109 Epiphone, 10, 18, 20, 38, 99, 108
Dont Look Back, 179 Criss, Peter, 173 Zephyr, 19
Foreplay/Long Time, 179 Crocker Motorcycle Company, 18 Erlewine, Dan, 75, 95
More Than a Feeling, 179 Crosby, Bing, 20, 24 Evans, Mal, 109
Rock & Roll Band, 179 Crow, Sheryl, 133
Bowen, John, 49 Fagan, Donald, 217
Bowie, David, 117, 161, 189, 190 Dale, Dick, 82 Farmers Music Store, 49
The Jean Genie, 161 DAngelico, 10 Farrar, Jay, 136
The Man Who Sold the World, Dann, David, 75 Felder, Don, 141, 175
161 Daughtry, Charles A., 81 Fender, 82, 108, 117
Panic in Detroit, 161 Deans, 209 Bandmaster amplifier, 175
Suffragette City, 161 DeArmond Model 200, 26 Bassman, 213
Ziggy Stardust, 161 Def Leppard, 125 Broadcaster, 2021
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Delp, Brad, 179 Deluxe amplifier, 111
Mars, 161 Deluxe Vibrato, 82, 86, 87 Duo-Sonic, 75
Bradford, David K., 11 Derek & the Dominoes, 155 Esquire, 20, 119
Bruce, Jack, 53 Layla, 155 Jazzmaster, 209
Buckethead, 210211 Derrig, Kris, 177, 209 Nocaster, 20, 21
Buckingham, Lindsey, 117, 166167, Derringer, Rick, 108109 Showman, 155
193 Deurloo, Jim, 126 Stratocaster, 25, 45, 119, 165, 167,
Buffalo Springfield, 110 Dickey Betts and Great Southern, 157 177, 195
Bullet and Bones custom, 177 DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucking Telecaster, 2021, 34, 49, 50, 75, 95,
bumblebee caps, 207 pickup, 179 112, 119, 191, 209
Burton, James, 82 Dire Straits, 194195 Twin Reverb amplifier, 188
Butterfield Blues Band, 75 Brothers in Arms, 195 Fender, Leo, 15, 18, 20, 2021, 26, 34
Money for Nothing, 195 Festival del Mil.lenni, 146
Campbell, Tut, 177 Sultans of Swing, 195 Fife and Nichols Music Store, 19
Carter, Maybelle, 11 Dobros, 13 Fleetwood, Mick, 72, 167
Carter, Walter, 10, 13, 21, 126 Dopyera, John, 13 Fleetwood Mac, 72, 107, 117, 167, 171
Cash, Johnny, 42 double-cream bobbins, 201 Albatross, 72
Cedrone, Danny, 42 Drink Mamba Beer Custom Shop, 34 Black Magic Woman, 72
Centralab pots, 207 Drozdowski, Ted, 186 Fleetwood Mac album, 167
Chicago Blues Festival, 45 Duchossoir, A. R., 13 Landslide, 167
Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI), 20, Dunlap, Slim, 54 Need Your Love So Bad, 72
21, 26, 80, 99, 117 Dylan, Bob, 53, 75 Oh Well, 72
Gibson Les Paul
218
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 Over My Head, 167
Rhiannon, 167
Rumours, 167
Say You Love Me, 167
World Turning, 167
Foley, Pat, 113
Fool, The, 51
Ford, Mary, 20, 24, 25, 28, 30, 57, 87
Frampton, Peter, 152153
Baby I Love Your Way, 153
Do You Feel Like We Do, 153
Frampton Comes Alive!, 153
Performance: Rockin the Filmore, 153
Show Me the Way, 153
Fraser, Andy, 107
Free, 107
All Right Now, 107
Fire and Water, 107
Free, 107
Tons of Sobs, 107
Frehley, Paul Daniel Ace, 172173
Fuller, Walter, 14, 35
Gaillard, Slim McVouty, 12
Gaines, Steve, 163
Gibbons, Billy F, 30, 34, 71, 74, 89, 95,
127, 137, 158159
Gibson
20th Anniversary 1959 Les Paul
Standard Reissue, 149
20th Anniversary Historic
Specifications, 127
Ace Frehley Budokan Les Paul
Custom signature model, 172
The Babe, 81, 144145
The Beast, 149
BFG, 137
Bigsby Burst, 134
Black Beauty Custom, 177
Buckethead Les Paul Studio, 211
Burst, 45, 5051, 53, 70, 71, 73,
74, 7677, 81, 8182, 84,
86, 107, 112113, 119, 154,
171, 172, 175, 176177, 195,
199, 207
Burst Standard, 177
Byrdland, 26
Collectors Choice series, 127,
144145, 148149, 179
Custom Shop, 89, 119, 127, 149,
154, 156, 185
Custom Shop Don Felder Hotel
California EDS-1275, 141
Darling Nicky, 7677
Derrig replica, 208
Dickey Betts 1957 Les Paul goldtop,
157
Dickey Betts From One Brother to
Another SG, 157
Dickey Betts Redtop model, 156
double-cut Special, 87
Duane Allman 1959 Cherry
Sunburst Les Paul, 154
E-150 lap steel, 14, 15
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EHG, 15 Les Paul Custom 57 Mickey Baker Number Two, 113
ES models, 99 signature model, 8 nuts, 199
ES-5, 26 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty, Orville Yamano Les Paul, 128
ES-5 Switchmaster, 42, 43 153 Oxblood Les Paul, 118119
ES-100, 15 Les Paul Custom Lite, 127 PAF humbucker, 35, 71, 75, 86,
ES-125, 12 Les Paul Custom Recording, 37 199, 201, 205, 207
ES-150, 12, 14 Les Paul Deluxe, 38, 99, 102, 103, Patent Number humbucker, 201,
ES-175, 15, 24 104, 113, 173, 213 205206
ES-225, 24 Les Paul GA-40 tube amplifier, 27 Pearly Gates, 158
ES-250, 15 Les Paul Heritage, 122 Pearly Gates, 71, 95, 158
ES-295, 24, 2829 Les Paul Historic 1959 Reissue, 136 Rosie, 148
ES-300, 15 Les Paul Junior, 26, 34, 45, 60, 61, SG, 51, 88, 95, 108
ES-335, 47, 51, 153 62, 66, 67, 68, 87, 103, 136, SG Junior, 96
Explorer, 82 186, 189, 191, 213 SG Reissue, 127
Explorer 90, 127 Les Paul Junior Double Cut, 215 SG Special, 95, 97
Firebird, 82, 95, 111, 173 Les Paul Junior Floyd, 214215 SG Standard, 82, 87, 9293,
Flying V, 82, 89 Les Paul Junior TV Special, 9091 95, 98
Flying V 90, 127 Les Paul K.M., 121 SG-62, 125
Gary Moore Les Paul signature Les Paul Model, 22, 25, 26, 28, SG/Les Paul Custom, 89
model, 171 3435, 35, 38, 71, 82, 86, 95, SG/Les Paul Standard, 89
Golden Boy II, 44, 45 198, 207 SGs, 179, 213
goldtop, 23, 2425, 30, 31, 3233, Les Paul Old Black, 110111 Slash Signature Les Paul, 209
4041, 54, 69, 142, 143, 156, Les Paul Personal, 26, 38, 101, 117 Smartwood series, 133
180, 216217 Les Paul Pro Deluxe, 122 Spotlight Special, 124
goldtop Standard, 99 Les Paul Professional, 26, 38, Standard 82 Les Paul, 124
Greg Martin 1958 Les Paul, 148 102103, 117 Standard Burst, 113
Guitar Trader Les Paul, 126 Les Paul Recording, 26, 38, 100, Super 400, 11, 13
Hart-Fuller unit, 1415 115, 117 Tom Scholz 1968 Les Paul, 179
Heritage Series, 127 Les Paul Reissue, 135 Ultima goldtop, 132
Historic Collection, 124, 127, 184 Les Paul Robot Ltd, 138139 ViviTone, 13
Historic Reissue Series, 149 Les Paul Signature, 105 Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom
humbuckers, 69, 82, 113 Les Paul signature model, 150 Vertigo, 197
Joe Perry 1959 Les Paul signature Les Paul Special, 34, 64, 65, 87, 133, Gibson, Amy, 10
model, 177 164165 Gibson, John W., 10
Joe Walsh Les Paul Standard, 175 Les Paul Standard, 51, 70, 72, 75, Gibson, Orville H., 1011
Kalamazoo factory, 19, 21, 24, 35, 82, 83, 86, 87, 94, 107, 117, Gibson Guitars (Carter), 10, 21, 126
38, 95, 99, 109, 117, 121, 126, 121, 127, 128, 133, 138139, Gibson Mandolin-Guitar
127, 198 141, 144145, 165, 173, 174, Manufacturing Company,
Keith Burst, 49, 53 191, 204, 209 Limited, 11
L-4, 11 Les Paul Standard 58 50th Gods, 5253
L-5, 9, 16 Anniversary model, 140 Gourmet Guitars, 26
L-5CES, 26 Les Paul Standard Number One, Grateful Dead, 153
L-7, 11 112113, 174 Great Southern, 157
L-12, 11 Les Paul Studio, 127, 136 Green, Peter, 49, 53, 7273, 99, 107,
Leos Les Paul, 126 Les Paul Studio Lite, 127, 128 113, 127, 167, 171
Leos Reissue Les Paul, 123 Les Paul TV, 34 Green Day, 215
Les Paul #9, The Bearded Lady, 83 Les Paul TV Model, 186 Gretsch, 10, 20, 26, 42, 108, 209
Les Paul 25/50 Anniversary model, Les Paul TV Special, 63, 64 6120, 50, 175
123 Les Paul XR-1, 125 Broadkaster, 20
Les Paul 1960 Classic Golden Boy, Les Paul/SGs, 82, 86, 157 Grey, Glenn, 175
44, 45 Limited Edition Gary Rossington Grey Tiger tone capacitors, 207
Les Paul Artisan, 120 Les Paul, 162 Grohl, Dave, 167
Les Paul Artist, 122123 L.P. Custom electric guitar blueprint, Grover tuners, 23, 75, 113, 151, 199
Les Paul Bob Marley Special 205 Gruhn, George, 177
signature model, 164 Lucy, 108109 Guild, 10
Les Paul Burst, 209 Master Model L-5, 11 Guitar Magazine, The, 18, 20, 24, 73,
Les Paul Carved TopElectric Melody Maker, 85, 87, 147 117, 171
blueprint, 204 Minty, 7879 Guitar World magazine, 112, 156, 193,
Les Paul Classic Premium Plus, 132 Modernist Series, 82 213
Les Paul Custom, 24, 26, 35, 38, 55, Moore/Green 59 Les Paul, 171 Guitarist, 73
56, 57, 58, 59, 82, 86, 87, 99, Music Rising Les Paul, 137 Guns N Roses, 177, 211
104, 114, 117, 129, 132, 153, Nashville factory, 121, 126, 127 Appetite for Destruction, 177, 209
161, 167, 173, 188189, 191, Nitrous Les Paul Studio, 144145 November Rain, 177
192193, 198, 200 Number Three, 113 Guy, Buddy, 217
Index
219
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 Hall, F. C., 13 KISS, 173 McVie, John, 72, 167 Blue Suede Shoes, 42, 43
hardware, traditional, 198199 Alive, 173 Mellencamp, John, 161 Honey Dont, 42
Harrison, George, 95, 108109 Hotter than Hell, 173 Jack & Diane, 161 Perkins, Clayton, 42
Hart, Guy, 11, 13, 14, 15 Kluson tuners, 26, 199 Memphis factory, 140 Perkins, J. B., 42
Heartbreakers, 186, 187 Knoblaugh, Armand F., 35 Messina, Jim, 110 Perkins, Pinetop, 217
Heavy Metal Kids, 49 Knopfler, Mark, 194195 Mickey & Sylvia, 8 Perry, Joe, 176177
Helm, Levon, 217 Golden Heart, 195 Mike Dean & the Kingsmen, 49 Peter Green Splinter Group, 73
Hendrix, Jimi, 44 Privateering, 195 Miller, Steve, 37 PHASE switch, 115
Henley, Don, 175 Sailing to Philadelphia, 195 Million Dollar Les Paul (Bacon), 20, 25 pickups, 199200, 205207. See also
Henry, Richard, 49, 53 Kooper, Al, 75 Mini-Humbucker, 99, 117 humbucking pickups; P-90 pickup
Heritage Guitars, 19, 126 Kossoff, David, 107 Moats, J. P., 126 Polsfuss, Lester William, 11, 18, 183
Highway 61 Revisited, 75 Kossoff, Paul, 99, 106107, 127 Mont De Marson Punk Rock Festival, 190 Praxis, 211
Hill, Dusty, 158 Kramers, 209 Monterey Pop Festival, 44 Presley, Elvis, 42, 43
Holland, W. B., 42 Krieger, Robby, 87 Moore, Gary, 73, 170171 Psychotic Negatives, 191
Holly, Buddy, 82 Kutalek, John, 13, 14 Back to the Blues, 171
Not Fade Away, 169 Parisienne Walkways, 171 Quiet Riot, 193
Hollywood House of Blues, 147 Lam, Marv, 126 Still Got the Blues, 171
Hornbeck, Leroy, 10 Lang, Eddie, 11 Moore, Scotty, 42 Randall, Don, 20
Howe, Steve, 103 Lawrence, Robb, 24 Motown, 44 Ready Steady Go!, 49
Howlin Wolf, 35, 4041, 44 Leadon, Bernie, 175 Mott the Hoople, 161, 190 Reams, Sylvo, 10
Humble Pie, 153 Led Zeppelin, 47, 113, 169 Mountain, 87 Reed, Lou, 161
humbucking pickups, 35, 71, 82, 87, Lee, Geddy, 169 Murphy, Dan, 142 Rendell, Stan, 99
95, 99, 111, 117, 119, 159, 179, 185, Leos Pro Audio, 123 Murphy, Tom, 157 Replacements, 54, 68
199, 201, 206 Les Paul Legacy, The (Lawrence), 24 MusicWorks, 209 Rey, Alvino, 13, 14
Lifeson, Alex, 168169 Rhoads, Randy, 192193
Ibanez, 126 Little, Bobby, 217 Nakadate, Nate Riverhorse, 82 Richards, Keith, 4849, 53, 56, 95, 107,
Iommi, Tony, 87, 95 Loar, Lloyd, 11, 13 Napier-Bell, Simon, 151 119, 189
Island Records, 107 London SS, 191 National Resophonic, 13 Richardson, John, 82
long neck tenon, 184 neck size and shape, 184185 Rickenbacker, Adolph, 13
Jamboree, 42 Lover, Seth, 26, 35, 199, 201 Ness, Mike, 212213 Rickenbacker guitars, 108, 209
James Gang, 175 Lovin Spoonful, 108 New York Dolls, 34, 173, 186, 189, Rock + Roll Gearhead (Gibbons), 71, 158
Jeff Beck Group Low, 146 190191 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 47
Becks Bolero, 119 Lydon, Johnny Rotten, 189 Newport Folk Festival, 75 Rogers, Paul, 107
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, Lynne, Jeff, 120 Nicks, Stevie, 167 Rolling Stones, 49, 53, 95
119 Lynyrd Skynyrd, 163 nitrocellulose finish, 198 Exile on Main Street, 49
Over, Under, Sideways, Down, Free Bird, 163 Niven, Alan, 209 Get Off My Cloud, 49
119 Gimme Three Steps, 163 Norlin, 117, 126, 192193, 206 Get Yer Ya-Yas Out, 53
Truth, 119 Second Helping, 163 Lets Spend the Night Together, 49
Jett, Joan, 147 Simple Man, 163 Oldfield, Mike, 53 Little Red Rooster, 49
John Mayall & the Blues Breakers, 49, Street Survivors, 163 Ollabelle, 217 Satisfaction, 49
53, 72, 158 Sweet Home Alabama, 163 101ers, 191 Ronson, Mick, 99, 117, 160161, 189
Crusade, 53 That Smell, 163 Osborne, Ozzy, 193 Rose, Floyd, 128, 138139
Johns Children, 151 Lyon & Healy, 13 Blizzard of Oz, 193 Rosen, Steve, 153
Johnson, Eric, 177 Crazy Train, 193 Rossington, Gary, 162163
Johnson, Johnnie, 57 Maestro Vibrola, 86, 87 Mr. Crowley, 193 Rundgren, Todd, 51
Jones, Brian, 49, 53, 95 Mariana, mark, 153 Owens, Buck, 82 Rush, 169
Jones, Gloria, 151 Marley, Bob, 164165, 189 Fly By Night, 169
Jones, Mick, 34, 190191, 213 Marriott, Steve, 153 P-90 pickup, 21, 24, 26, 34, 35, 41, 47, Freewill, 169
Jones, Steve, 188189 Marsden, Bernie, 49, 149 63, 87, 99, 111, 119, 165, 179, 186, Moving Pictures, 169
Jopp, Mike, 49 Marshall amplifiers, 95, 99, 117, 155, 191, 206207, 212, 213, 217 Not Fade Away, 169
Journey, 116 161, 195, 213 PAF humbucking pickup, 199, 200201 Permanent Waves, 169
Juskiewicz, Henry, 127 Martin, Greg, 148 Page, Jimmy, 99, 112113, 127, 153, Red Barchetta, 169
Martino, Pat, 37 174 The Spirit of Radio, 169
Kauffman, Doc, 15 Marvin, Junior, 165 Parker, Mimi, 146 Tom Sawyer, 169
Kentucky Headhunters, 148 Max Guitars, 209 Parnell, Lee Roy, 155 Rush, Otis, 45
King, B. B., 35, 44, 47, 217 Mayer, Roger, 165 Paul, Les, 910, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, Russell, Leon, 47
King, Ed, 163 McCartney, Paul, 84, 189 25, 26, 30, 3639, 57, 87, 88, 100,
King, Freddie, 35, 44, 45, 4647 McCarty, Ted, 21, 24, 25, 26, 35, 71, 99, 117, 121, 129, 130131, 134, 137, Santana, Carlos, 59, 87
Freddy King Sings the Original Hits, 126, 198 184, 201 Satriani, Joe, 37
47 McCully, Jerry, 189 John Mayall Blues Breakers with Eric scale length, 185
Lets Hide Away and Dance Away with McHugh, Ted, 11 Clapton, 95 Schaller tuners, 179, 199
Freddy King, 47 McLaren, Malcolm, 189 Peart, Neil, 169 Scholz, Tom, 178179
Kirke, Simon, 107 McLaughlin, Mahavishnu John, 102 Pensa-Suhr, 195 Schon, Neal, 116
Kirwan, Danny, 72, 167 McVie, Christine, 167 Perkins, Carl, 35, 4243 Schwartz, Glen, 175

Gibson Les Paul

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 Sealfast tuners, 26 Sumlin, Hubert, 35, 4041, 217 Turner Model 1, 167 Williams, Hank, 43
Sebastian, John, 108 Goin Down Slow, 41 Tyrannosaurus Rex, 151 Williams, Lewis A., 10, 11, 13
Selmers Music, 49, 107, 119 Killing Floor, 41 Wilson, David, 82, 201
set-neck construction, 184 Shake for Me, 41 U2, 114 Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival, 5051
Sex Pistols, 186, 188, 189 Smokestack Lightning, 41 Womack, Bobby, 66
Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Three Hundred Pounds of Joy, 41 Van Halen, Eddie, 128 wraparound/wrap-over bridge, 25, 31,
Sex Pistols, 189 Wang Dang Doodle, 41 Van Horn, Samuel H., 10 34, 198, 217
Seymour Duncan humbucker, 113 Sun Records, 42, 43 Van Zant, Ronnie, 163 Wurlitzer, 21
Shelter Records, 47 Sunset Strip Music Festival, 147 Vanderpool, Sylvia, 8 Wylde, Zakk, 196197
short neck tenon, 184 Sunshine 72 festival, 59 Vaughan, Stevie Ray, 47
signal chain, 181 Sylvain, Sylvain, 186, 189 Velvet Revolver, 209 XLR microphone input, 115, 117, 132
Simmons, Gene, 173 Verico, Cosmo, 49
Simonon, Paul, 191 T. Rex, 190 Vintage Guitar magazine, 126, 177 Yamaha, 126
Sinatra, Frank, 16 Bang a Gong (Get It On), 151 Viola, Al, 16 Yardbirds, 50, 95, 112, 119, 151
The Godfather, 16 Children of the Revolution, 151 The Godfather, 16 Yes, 103
Skid Row, 171 Get It On, 151 Vox Tone Bender pedal, 161 Young, Angus, 95, 125
Slash, 137, 177, 208209 Jeepster, 151 Young, Neil, 110111, 213
Slashs Snakepit, 209 Metal Guru, 151 Wagner, Phil, 24 After the Gold Rush, 110
Slubowski, Mike, 126 Ride a White Swan, 151 Wailers, 164 Cinnamon Girl, 110
Small Faces, 153 Solid Gold Easy Action, 151 Walsh, Joe, 112, 113, 127, 174175 Cowgirl in the Sand, 110
Social Distortion, 213 Telegram Sam, 151 The Player You Get, 175 Down by the River, 110
Soul Asylum, 142 Taylor, Mick, 49, 5253, 83, 95 Rocky Mountain Way, 175 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,
Sparhawk, Alan, 146 Tedeschi, Susan, 217 The Smoker You Drink, 175 110
Spencer, Jeremy, 72 Texas Pop Festival, 47 So What, 175 Harvest, 110
Sprague Black Beauty paper-in-oil Thank Your Lucky Stars, 48 Waters, Muddy, 43, 44 Neil Young, 110
caps, 207 Tharpe, Sister Rosetta, 180 Weak Heartdrops, 191 Ragged Glory, 110
St. Holmes, Derek, 177 Thin Lizzy, 73, 171 Welch, Bob, 167 Rust Never Sleeps, 110
Stanley, Albert, 99 Thomas, Renee, 158 West, Leslie, 87 Zuma, 110
Stanley, Paul, 173 Thunders, Johnny, 34, 186187, 191, Westerberg, Paul, 68, 213 Youngblood, Rachel, 193
Steely Dan, 105 213 Wheeler, Tom, 21, 24
Stevens, Norman, 117 Tone Quest Report, 82 White Stripes, 151 Zamak bridge, 198
Stills, Stephen, 75, 110 tonewoods, 182, 185, 198 Whitesnake, 49, 149 Zappa, Frank, 54
Stine, Rick, 155 Took, Steve Peregrin, 151 Whitford, Brad, 177 zebra coils, 201
Stone Balloon, 155 Townshend, Pete, 87, 95, 175 Whizzer, The, 111 Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from
Strawberry Alarm Clock, 163 Travis, Merle, 18 Who, 95 Mars, 161
Strings and Things, 118, 119 Trentino, Sal, 111 Live at Leeds, 95 Zubrowski, Gary, 127
Stromberg, 10 T-top pickups, 205206 Quadrophenia, 175 ZZ Top, 47, 71, 158
Stromberg-Voisinet, 13 Tune-o-matic bridge, 25, 34, 35, 41, 71, Whos Next, 175 Rhythmeen, 30
Strummer, Joe, 190, 191 99, 111, 165, 198, 199, 200 Wicked Lester, 173

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dave Hunter

D ave Hunter is a writer and musician who has worked extensively in the United States and the United
Kingdom. His previous books include The Guitar Amp Handbook, Guitar Effects Pedals, Star Guitars,
The Fender Telecaster, The Fender Stratocaster, Amped, The Home Recording Handbook, 365 Guitars,
Amps & Effects You Must Play, and several others. Hunter is a regular contributor to Guitar Player and
Vintage Guitar magazines, and lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with his wife and their two children.

About the Author

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 FRONT: A 1958 Les Paul Standard. Outline Press

FRONTIS: Mistress Pearlys abode. Have mercy! David Perry

TITLE PAGE: The Coasters feel the power of guitarist Adolphi Jacobss goldtop. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

CONTENTS PAGE: Marc Bolan and T. Rex get it on, circa 1971. The Estate of Keith Morris/Redferns/Getty Images

THIS PAGE: Luther Allisons Golden Boy II. Michael Dregni

LAST PAGE: As the poster for The Kids Are Alright famously declared, This guitar has seconds to live. Pete
Townshend smashed his 1973 Les Paul Custom at the end of the Whos gig at the Newcastle Odeon in November
that year. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

First published in 2014 by Voyageur Press, a member of Quarto Publishing Group Inc.,
400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA

2014 Voyageur Press

Text 2014 Dave Hunter

All images from the collection of Voyageur Press unless noted otherwise.

All rights reserved. With the exception of quoting brief passages for the purposes of review, no
part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the Publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge.
All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the part of the author or Publisher,
who also disclaims any liability incurred in connection with the use of this data or specific details.

This publication has not been prepared, approved, or licensed by Gibson Musical Instruments.

We recognize, further, that some words, model names, and designations mentioned herein are
the property of the trademark holder. We use them for identification purposes only. This is not
an official publication.

Voyageur Press titles are also available at discounts in bulk quantity for industrial or sales-
promotional use. For details write to Special Sales Manager at Quarto Publishing Group Inc.,
400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA.

To find out more about our books, visit us online at www.voyageurpress.com.

ISBN: 978-0-7603-4581-8
Digital edition: 978-0-76034-581-8
Softcover edition: 978-1-62788-139-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hunter, Dave, 1962 author.

The Gibson Les Paul : the illustrated story of the guitar that changed rock / Dave Hunter.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-7603-4581-8 (hardback)
1. Gibson Les Paul standard guitarHistory. 2. Electric guitarHistory. I. Title.
ML1015.G9H8617 2014
787.871973dc23
2013048694

Acquisitions Editor: Dennis Pernu

Photo Research and Captioning: Tom Seabrook
Design Manager: Cindy Samargia Laun
Cover and Page Design: John Barnett/4 Eyes Design

Printed in China

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