Doc Bar Organization

The Les Paul – A Little History

The weapon of choice for many rock guitarists including Slash, Jimmy Page, and Zakk Wylde is the Gibson Les Paul. The Les Paul was a collaboration of Ted McCarty, the design engineers and Gibson, and Les Paul – who at the time was a famous jazz guitarist. Les had approached the Gibson company with a prototype solid body guitar that was effectively a hollow body guitar cut in two, a hunk of wood placed in the middle and the guitars two halves stuck back on to make it look like U Can Play The Guitar. Gibson subsequently laughed at the guitar dubbed "the log" and sent Les on his way. Right around 1952 however, another guitar designer named Leo Fender came out with a solid body guitar that was starting to be embraced by the guitar playing community. Not wanting to be left out, Gibson gave Les Paul another chance, and the rest – as they say – is history.