Perhaps the most touching aspect of the announcement of the death of one of modern popular music’s most important contributors is that it came from the Gibson Guitar Corp. For many years, there was no stronger word association for electric guitarists than “Gibson” and “Les Paul.”
Paul died a few days ago at 94 of pneumonia in White Plains, N.Y. Every reputable guitar store in the Western world has at least one of his “Les Paul” guitars by Gibson hanging on the wall. The older it is, assuming it’s in good condition, the more it will cost. They are distinctive in shape, rounded and solid because of their mahogany and maple bodies. There have been many imitators.
But it was the Les Paul that gave the electric guitar a voice so powerful it could lead bands instead of just chunking along on fat rhythm chords.
Pick your genre. It has always been a great blues guitar, a commonly spotted rock guitar and even a jazz favorite for some because its neck and action can be tweaked to give the instrument lightning speed.
Debates rage about who actually invented electric guitars back in the murky American music world of 1940 (or was it 1941?).
Paul had deep roots. He was drafted into Armed Forces Radio and accompanied Rudy Vallee and Kate Smith. He toured later with the Andrews Sisters. Bing Crosby encouraged him to build his own recording studio, which he did. But his big challenge was what to do about guitars.
Some players used microphones to amplify their acoustic guitars, but that’s not the same thing. The problem was one of holding notes beyond the point at which an acoustic guitar, which depends on vibrating wood and moving air, simply stopped resonating.
Paul solved the mystery of sustain (a guitar’s capacity to hold a note) by putting a guitar neck on a block of wood, and mounting some pickups. There was nothing acoustic about it. He called it “the log,” and people hated it. But as the first solid body electric guitar, it worked quite well. You could play a note on it and walk away and it would just sit there, resonating.
To make it a little more acceptable, Paul glued some sides on the log so it looked more guitar-like. A distinctive shape evolved, along with an instrument that has inspired everyone from jazz greats to Eric Clapton and Keith Richards and beyond.
Some of the Les Paul guitars are music veterans, as worn and crinkly as Paul, who suffered a variety of accidents and conditions that should have made him stop playing, but didn’t.
In that sense, he was like one of the players he admired the most, Django Reinhardt, the Gypsy genius of Parisian jazz who created a distinctive style even though he had only two functioning fingers on his left hand because he had been burned in a fire.
Paul’s right elbow was fused after a car wreck in 1948. He asked the doctors to set the elbow at an angle that would allow him to continue playing. Later in life, he played his way through arthritis, at one point relearning how to play despite his ailments.
It has been decades since Paul had any music at the top of the charts. Perhaps his most popular period came when he played alongside his wife, Mary Ford. They had their own TV show that ended in 1958. The couple had a string of million-seller hits.
Paul’s lasting contribution came when he was hired by Gibson Co. to develop the “Les Paul” model in 1952. The guitar was so successful, The New York Times reported, that it once accounted for half the company’s total sales. It remains a big seller to this day.
These guitars have developed their own mystique. The language of electric guitar love, of course, is generally technical, like something out of a production manual. Still, there is some romance there for people who are fond of humbucking pickups and vintage pots.
The best ones sometimes come up for sale. What is said about them would make any electric guitar player salivate.
“EC except the gold hardware has faded from the instrument being played, this fine example of a 1960 Black Custom has that unique ring that only the all mahogany single cut Pauls can get, black finish, double bound carved mahogany body, mahogany neck, bound ebony fretboard, block inlays, 22 frets, 3 PAF humbucking pickups, pots date 50th week of ’59, electronics, stop tailpiece, ABR-1 tune-o-matic bridge, Grover Rotomatic tuners … .”
You can get that one for $120,000. Many others are a lot cheaper, but less spectacular. New ones can start at around $1,800. Used is usually cheaper, until you get to very used, where they get expensive again because of their age.
Paul’s story is one of persistence. Way back in the 1920s when he was Lester William Polsfuss of Waukesha, Wis., his piano teacher sent a note to his mother saying he would never learn music.
He played harmonica and banjo in addition to guitar. His obituaries noted he performed on WLS as “Hot Rod Red” or the “Wizard of Waukesha.” In his more modern performing career, he was known for speed and complexity. He was a sophisticated arranger and probably cleared the way for development of the modern recording industry by inventing multitrack recording.
He will forever be remembered as a person who forged a love for music with a love for tinkering.
What that led to literally rocked the world.
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A guitar player for 40 years, Charles M. Madigan is presidential writer in residence at Roosevelt University.
