Gibson Les Pauls

The Gibson Les Paul electric guitar has a long and interesting history. It was first conceived in the early 1950s in response to the runaway success of Fender’s first solid-body electric guitar, later to be named the Telecaster. The Les Paul began as a design collaboration between Gibson and jazz guitarist Frean Donni. Later, Gibson would invite jazz legend Les Paul into the design process.

It is worthy to note that the Les Paul was not, in fact, Gibson’s first electric guitar. Gibson had been manufacturing hollow-body electric guitars, such as the ES-150, since the 1930s. These early electric models would be used for design cues in the Les Paul guitar. Gibson was developing a new solid-body electric, but one that was very distinct from Fender’s design. It was to have a more traditional shape than the Telecaster, and use a set (glued-in) neck instead of a bolt-on design like Fender’s.

Les Paul was already well-respected at the time – not only as a jazz musician, but as an innovator, having developed a variety of experimental guitar designs for his own personal use. In fact, he had already approached Gibson around 1945 with a solid-body electric guitar design of his own, but was rejected. This initial rejection may have kept the door open for him to be invited back as a collaborator on the guitar that would later bear his name. Read the rest of this entry »