Early Years
Les Paul is the legendary guitarist responsible for the Les Paul guitar. The electric guitars of the 1930s were usually acoustic arch-top guitars fitted with pickups. They were prone to feedback due to the resonance of the guitar strings and open cavity of the guitar body and sound holes. Les Paul invented a solid body guitar called "The Log" which was just a 4x4 fence post with a bridge, pickup, and guitar neck attached. He also sawed an Epihone guitar body in half and attached it. This solid body guitar experiment reduced feedback and enhanced the sustain because the strings' energy wasn't dissipated by resonating the within a hollow guitar body.

Career
Les Paul was also a noted jazz guitarist. And as his fame grew he recorded with a number of popular artists. He also recorded solo efforts. And later he and his wife Mary Ford became a popular duo.

Electronics Innovator
Les Paul was also an early innovator in recording technology. He designed equipment to allow multi-track recording.

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The Les Paul Guitar
In the early fifties the Gibson Guitar Corporation designed a solid body electric guitar using Les Paul's ideas and suggestions. This guitar was the Les Paul. The designer was Ted McCarty from Gibson. The Gibson Les Paul features strings and bridge mountings on top of the guitar, as opposed to the through-the-guitar design of many Fender guitars. In addition, the Les Paul was offered in many wood finishes instead of the car-like paint finishes of the Fender guitars. The original Les Pauls had two single coil pickups. In 1954 a second-generation Les Paul was introduced that had the tune-o-matic bridge. And in 1957 the pickups were changed to double coil "humbucking" pickups. The Les Paul had a three position selector switch for the pickups. Later a third double coil "humbucking" pickup was added, but the three position selector switch was retained resulting in some pickup combinations that weren't available. The Les Paul guitar is very thick and hence is very heavy.

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