Happy 91st Birthday To Les Paul

The name Les Paul has become synonymous with music. As well as being an incredible guitarist himself, he invented and manufactured incredible instruments and recording instruments. Virtually every musician will have had their musical lives touched in some way by this musical genius. Today, June 9th, he turned 91. The first Gibson Les Paul was produced in 1952 that brought an entirely new and unique sound and feel to guitar playing that was unbelievable in it’s day. New models of Les Paul guitars continued to make guitarists salivate for decades to come. The invention and introduction of the first electric guitar, however, was only one of Les Paul’s accolades but an intriguing one nonetheless. The first prototype he created was a hideously heavy piece of solid wood. This was christened the log and while it was unfeasible to use it as an instrument itself, it did give Paul the foundation for his first playable and, more importantly, lighter electric guitar. Inventing the first 8 track recorder also rocketed Paul into the record books and enabled him to record tracks with his wife that were heavily reliant on overdubbing. This had previously been impossible to achieve until Les Paul himself invented multi-track recording. He is also accredited with the discovery of various effects. Despite being 91 years of age and suffering from debilitating arthritis that has rendered almost his entire left hand useless he can still be seen and heard playing at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York. Happy 91st Birthday Les Paul.