Les Paul & Friends

Les Paul Born Lester William Polsfuss On June 9 1915 Is An American Jazz Guitarist And Inventor. He Is A Pioneer In The Development Of The Solid-Body Electric Guitar Which "made The Sound Of Rock And Roll Possible." 1 His Many Recording Innovations Include Overdubbing Delay Effects Such As "sound On Sound" And Tape Delay Phasing Effects And Multitrack Recording. In 2003 He Was Named The 46th Best Guitarist Of All Time By Rolling Stone.He Was Born In Waukesha Wisconsin To George And Evelyn Polfuss. 2 His Birth Name Was First Simplified By His Mother To Polfuss Before He Took His Stage Name Of Les Paul. He Also Used The Nickname Red Hot Red. Paul First Became Interested In Music At The Age Of Eight When He Began Playing The Harmonica. After An Attempt At Learning To Play The Banjo He Began To Play The Guitar. But Before He Played Guitar He Played Piano. By 13 Paul Was Performing Semi-Professionally As A Country-Music Guitarist. At The Age Of 17 Paul Played With Rube Tronson's Cowboys. Soon After He Dropped Out Of High School To Join Wolverton's Radio Band In St. Louis Missouri On KMOX. But His Fame Almost Came To An End When He Was Hurt In A Near-Fatal Car Accident. After The Crash Doctors Told Paul That They'd Have To Set His Arm Such That He Would Not Be Able To Bend It Again. He Had Them Position His Arm At A Ninety Degree Angle So He Could Still Play Guitar. In The 1930s Paul Worked In Chicago In Radio Where He Performed Jazz Music. Paul's First Two Records Were Released In 1936. One Was Credited To Rhubarb Red Paul's Hillbilly Alter Ego And The Other Was As An Accompanist For Blues Artist Georgia White.Electric Guitar Innovations Paul Was Dissatisfied With The Electric Guitars That Were Sold In The Mid 1930s And Began Experimenting With A Few Designs Of His Own. Famously He Created "The Log " Which Was Nothing More Than A Length Of Common 4" By 4" Fence Post With Bridge Guitar Neck And Pickup Attached. For The Sake Of Appearance He Attached The Body Of An Epiphone Hollow-Body Guitar Sawn Lengthwise With The Log In The Middle. This Solved His Two Main Problems Feedback As The Acoustic Body No Longer Resonated With The Amplified Sound And Sustain As The Energy Of The Strings Was Not Dissipated In Generating Sound Through The Guitar Body.In 1938 Paul Moved To New York And Landed A Featured Spot With Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians Radio Show. Paul Moved To Hollywood In 1943 Where He Formed A New Trio. As A Last-Minute Replacement For Oscar Moore Paul Played With Nat King Cole And Other Artists In The Inaugural Jazz At The Philharmonic Concert In Los Angeles On July 2 1944. Also That Year Paul's Trio Appeared On Bing Crosby's Radio Show. Crosby Went On To Sponsor Paul's Recording Experiments. The Two Also Recorded Together Several Times Including A 1945 Number One Hit "It's Been A Long Long Time." In Addition To Backing Crosby And Artists Like The Andrews Sisters Paul's Trio Also Recorded A Few Albums Of Their Own On The Decca Label In The Late 1940s.In 1941 Paul Designed And Built One Of The First Solid-Body Electric Guitars Though Leo Fender Also Independently Created His Own Solid-Body Electric Guitar Around The Same Time And Adolph Rickenbacher Had Marketed A Solid-Body Guitar In The 30s . This Prototype Guitar Is Known As "The Log" Because The Solid Core Is A Pine Block Whose Width And Depth Are A Little More Than The Width Of The Fretboard. 3 Gibson Guitar Corporation Designed A Guitar Incorporating Paul's Suggestions In The Early Fifties And Presented It To Him To Try. He Was Impressed Enough To Sign A Contract For What Became The "Les Paul" Model Originally Only In A "gold Top" Version And Agreed Never To Be Seen Playing In Public Or Be Photographed With Anything Other Than A Gibson Guitar. That Persisted Until 1961 When Gibson Changed The Design Without Paul's Knowledge. He Said He First Saw The "new" Gibson Les Paul In A Music Store Window And Disliked It. Though His Contract Required Him To Pose With The Guitar He Said It Was Not "his" Instrument And Asked Gibson To Remove His Name From The Headstock. Gibson Renamed The Guitar The "SG" And It Also Became One Of The Company's Best Sellers. It Has Been Said That Les Had Ended His Endorsement Contract With Gibson Because He Was Going Through A Divorce And Didn't Want His Wife To Get All Of His Endorsement Money. Later Paul Resumed His Relationship With Gibson And Endorses The Instrument Even Today Though His Personal Gibson Les Pauls Are Much Modified By Him — Paul Always Uses His Own Self-Wound Pickups On His Guitars . To This Day The Gibson Les Paul Guitar Is Used All Over The World By Both Novice And Professional Guitarists. Also Designed Was The Epiphone Les Paul With The Same Outer Look And Much Cheaper.In 1947 Capitol Records Released A Recording That Had Begun As An Experiment In Paul's Garage Entitled "Lover When You're Near Me " Which Featured Paul Playing Eight Different Parts On Electric Guitar Some Of Them Recorded At Half-Speed Hence "double-Fast" When Played Back At Normal Speed For The Master. "Brazil" Similarly Recorded Was The B-Side. This Was The First Time That Multi-Tracking Had Been Used In A Recording. These Recordings Were Made Not With Magnetic Tape But With Wax Disks. Paul Would Record A Track Onto A Disk Then Record Himself Playing Another Part With The First. He Built The Multi-Track Recording With Overlaid Tracks Rather Than Parallel Ones As He Did Later. There Is No Record Of How Few "takes" Were Needed Before He Was Satisfied With One Layer And Moved Onto The Next. Paul Even Built His Own Wax-Cutter Assembly Based On Auto Parts. He Favored The Flywheel From A Cadillac For Its Weight And Flatness. Even In These Early Days He Used The Wax Disk Setup To Record Parts At Different Speeds And With Delay Resulting In His Signature Sound With Echoes And Birdsong-Like Guitar Riffs. When He Later Began Using Magnetic Tape The Major Change Was That He Could Take His Recording Rig On Tour With Him Even Making Episodes For His 15-Minute Radio Show In His Hotel Room. In January 1948 Paul Was Injured In A Near-Fatal Automobile Accident In Oklahoma Which Shattered His Right Arm And Elbow. Doctors Told Paul That There Was No Way For Them To Rebuild His Elbow In A Way That Would Let Him Regain Movement And That His Arm Would Remain In Whatever Position They Placed It In Permanently. Paul Then Instructed The Surgeons To Set His Arm At An Angle That Would Allow Him To Cradle And Pick The Guitar. It Took Him A Year And A Half To Recover.After World War II Jack Mullin Brought The German Magnetophon Tape Recorder Back To The USA In Pieces Reassembled And First Presented It To Bing Crosby Who Used It For His Radio Program In The Late 1940's. The Ampex Company With Crosby's Backing Created The Ampex Model 200 The World's First Commercially-Produced Reel-To-Reel Audio Tape Recorder. Bing Crosby Gave Les Paul What Was Only The Second Model 200 To Be Produced And Les Immediately Saw Its Potential Both For Special Effects Like Echo And Flanging And Its Suitability For Multitrack Recording For Which He Is Considered The Father. Using This Machine Paul Developed His Tape Multitrack System By Adding An Additional Recording Head And Extra Circuitry Allowing Multiple Tracks To Be Recorded Separately And Asynchronously On The Same Tape. Paul's Invention Was Quickly Developed By Ampex Into Commercially-Produced Two-Track And Three-Track Recorders And These Machines Were The Backbone Of The Professional Recording Studio Radio And TV Industry In The 1950s And Early 1960s. In 1954 Paul Continued To Develop This Technology By Commissioning Ampex To Build The First Eight Track Tape Recorder At His Expense. The Machine Took Three Years To Get Working Properly And Paul Says That By The Time It Was Functional His Music Was Out Of Favor And So He Never Had A Hit Record Using It. His Design Later Known As "Sel-Sync " Selective Synchronization In Which A Specially-Modified Recording Head Could Either Record A New Track Or Play Back A Previously-Recorded One Was The Core Technology For Multi-Track Recording For The Next Thirty Years. Like Crosby Paul And Ford Also Used The Now-Ubiquitous Recording Technique Known As Close Miking Where The Microphone Is Less Than Six Inches From The Singer's Mouth. This Produces A More Intimate Less Reverberant Sound Than Is Heard When A Singer Is A Foot Or More From The Microphone. It Emphasizes Low-Frequency Sounds In The Voice Due To The Microphone's Proximity Effect And Can Give A More Relaxed Feel Because The Performer Isn't Working So Hard. The Result Is A Singing Style Which Diverged Strongly From Un-Amplified Theater-Style Singing As Might Be Heard In Musical Comedies Of The 1930s And 40s. In The Early 1950s Paul Made A Number Of Revolutionary Recordings With His Wife Mary Ford Who Sang. These Records Were Unique For Their Heavy Use Of Overdubbing Which He Did By Recording To Disc And Bouncing From One Disc To The Other. The Couple's Hits Included "How High The Moon" "Bye Bye Blues" "The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" And "Vaya Con Dios". These Songs Featured Mary Harmonizing With Herself Giving The Vocals A Very Novel Sound. read less