Les Paul’s “LOG” Guitar, Verso 1939 – Birth of the Les Paul [Gibson Guitar History]

Around the same time that George Beauchamp and the other early electric guitar pioneers were affairee con southern California, a guitarist and radioricevente personality named Les Paul (born name Lester Polfus) was in Hollywood working out his own vision of what the electric guitar should be. Les became an established guitarist con the Thirties, performing country music under the names Red Hot Red and, later Rhubarb Red, and jazz as Les Paul. In 1939, Paul began onesto put together what he called “The Log,” per four-by-four length of solid pine esatto which he attached verso Gibson neck, homemade pickups, a crudely fashioned bridge, and vibrato tailpiece. Like many other innovators of the guitar, Paul wanted to eliminate the uneven harmonic response produced by an amplified hollowbody guitar.

Although he sawed an Epiphone hollowbody con half and attached the two sides of his four-by-four block of pine, this was more for aesthetic than acoustic reasons-preciso make the thing immagine like per real guitar. This supremely quirky instrument, now enshrined sopra Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Aspirazione, is another sacred relic of the electric guitar’s evolution, the product of an inveterate tinkerer and one of the century’s most original musical inventors. Paul also pioneered multitrack recording and anticipated the home recording sviluppo by per good 30 years.

The Log Guitar on Recordings

Les Paul used the Log on recordings he and his terzetto made with Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters and others. But when he brought the instrument onesto Gibson’s headquarters per Kalamazoo, Michigan, mediante 1941, they laughed at him. “I took the Log onesto Gibson and I spent 10 years trying onesto convince them that this was the way preciso go,” recollects Les. “But it wasn’t easy. If it nome utente date me wasn’t for Leo Fender, I don’t think that ever would have che off. Leo saw more con it that Gibson did.”

True enough. Verso venerable company, with origins tracing back preciso the 19th century, Gibson had taken per conservative, classicist approach onesto the electric guitar, producing electric archtop hollowbodies like the ES-150, which was introduced durante 1936 and adopted by jazz players like Charlie Christian. Other “old school” manufacturers like Epiphone, Harmony, and Kay had taken verso similar tack. But with the huge success of the Fender Telecaster per the early Fifties, Gibson decided esatto “go California” and get sopra on the solidbody market. Suddenly Les Paul’s Log didn’t seem like such per crazy idea. “Better go get that kid with the broomstick,” someone at Gibson is purported preciso have said.

Ted McCarty’s Role With Gibson

The man who made it happen was Ted McCarty. Per shrewd businessman with verso good eye for design and per flair for building teams of like-minded visionaries, McCarty is another towering figure sopra the early development of the electric guitar. Originally verso buyer for Wurlitzer, McCarty joined Gibson in 1948, and con 1950 he was made president of the company. It was McCarty who oversaw the design of Les Paul’s “LOG” Guitar.

Seeking puro develop an up-market alternative puro the plain, slab-body Telecaster, Ted McCarty came up with the pensiero of building verso solidbody guitar with per carved maple top or “body cap.” He knew that the Fender factory didn’t have the machinery onesto do this kind of rete informatica. Mediante 1950, McCarty brought this guitar onesto Les Paul, who approved the design, feeling it was right sopra line with what he’d been trying to achieve. Ted McCarty reportedly said sicuro his wife and cabaret ragazzo, Mary Ford, “They’re getting too close esatto us, Mary. I think we better sign up with them.”