Les Paul
 

I remember starting to read about this guy when I heard he died somewhere a few years ago. The dude's pretty much a legend. He invented the Les Paul guitar with the Gibson company and pioneered a bunch of recording techniques. On top of that, he was a pretty slick guitarist with a neat sound and style that kinda reminds me of some stuff I've heard Wes Montgomery do. But it's very accessible, made more so by the use of nice melodic vocals (courtesy of wife, Mary Ford) and simple song structures. It sounds like they used a chorus affect on the vocals or something and I really like how it sounds. I can't find a tangible recording of their stuff anywhere and it's a habit of mine to start listening to a new artist with something I can hold/smell/gnaw on/etc. Broke muh rool cuz doggonit this ****'s hard to find, even on the almighteh and allknowin interwebz. youtube linx... nao:

My favorite song:


Goes good with a Corona or Rum. Translation: "Go With God". Not big on the whole God hoopla but it's still a lurvly tune:


Yay, class roles implied by creepy subliminal messages. Quite lurvly as well, neverthelesserwesserls:

I got a couple albums by Les Paul. He had great sound of Guitar in his recordings

"How High The Moon" was one of the very first songs to use the technique of multi-tracking.

Wanna send me some? I'll be your best friend and stuff.

It's a shame if this is the first thread started on the man. He was a genius. I love his work with fellow master, Chet atkins.

Les Paul didn't invent the Les Paul guitar, he is attributed to making the first solid body guitar. He showed Gibson and they laughed him out of the office it was after Leo Fender came out with his solid body guitar they were like find that man with the broom stick guitar. Les Paul hold the patent for the trapezoid bridge and gave other input, but then there are some features on the LP guitar that didn't come from Les. It was more of Gibson having Les Paul Signature series, using him to endorse the guitar because he was the greatest guitar player of all time.

The first was the "Log" that used a rail road tie just to prove you could use anything solid with electric pick ups but that proved too heavy so he used a 4x4 (four inches by four inches) he sawed a Epiphone Jazz guitar in half and made wings to the solid to make it look like a regular guitar. He modified a Broadway archtop in the Epiphone factory when it was closed he called that the "Clunker." He didn't record with the Les Paul guitar at least not in the early years, the guitar on those recordings was his Clunker and a Jazz arch-top guitar through an amp.

All the effects one would hear on a Les Paul recording were through from sound on sound recording. Phasing, Flanging, Pitch Shifting, Echo, Looping, he did it all and he did it first.

I buy any CD I see even stuff I can't play like vinyl. There are two box sets I know of and one is from Collectibles Records a PA company.

OLDIES.com : Direct Source for Collectables Records & Alpha Video - Oldies, Doo Wop, Jazz, Pop, Rock Music and Horror, Serials, Thrillers, Sci-Fi, Westerns Movies

Haven't heard much of his stuff. Remember the Google logo though.

Les Paul's 96th Birthday

Thanks for clearing that up, Neapolitan. I kinda just... skimmed wiki and posted in hopes of finding more materials/fans. I'll be sure to be more thorough next time around >.> And for posting that link, there are some really reasonably priced albums on there! O.O

If you ever get the opportunity watch American Masters: Les Paul - Chasing Sound! and Tom Dowd & the Language of Music. If you can either get the DVDs or find those episodes on-line somehow you won't regret watching them. There is so much music history in them - it's incredible.

i tell all my metalhead friends to respect les paul, he has all the technique and speed of any modern day metal guitarist, just no distortion. i literally thought my turntable jumped into 45 when i got my first les paul record