The History Of The Gibson Les Paul Electric Guitar
In 1945, guitarist and inventor Les Paul took his idea for a solid body electric guitar to the Gibson guitar company. They turned him down calling his invention a “broom-stick with a pickup on it”.
Seven years later, the growing popularity of Fender’s Telecaster prompted Gibson to produce the Les Paul as the first solid body guitar made by Gibson.
There are different versions of who designed what when it comes to the first models. However, once the dust settled, the result was a guitar that proved to be what the market was looking for.
In 1954, Gibson released the Les Paul Custom which sold for $325.00 and the Les Paul Junior that went for $99.50. Today, these guitars go for thousands of dollars.
The humbucker (aka PDF) pickup came into use in 1957. Engineer Seth Lover designed them to eliminate the hum and interference caused by single coil pickups.
In 1958, the cherry red sunburst Les Paul replaced the Les Paul Gold Top. The ‘bursts’ have become the most sought after and expensive Les Pauls of all time.
There have been many different models of the Gibson Les Paul electric guitar since it’s release in 1952 including the Robot model which tunes itself. In December 2008, Gibson will take the Les Paul one step further with the introduction of the Dark Fire Les Paul-style digital guitar.
However, the one thing that remains constant is it’s position as guitar of choice for some of the world’s greatest guitarists.
