Week 10 BOC: Les Paul

Les Paul was born on June 9, 1915, and his real name was Lester William Polsfuss.  He started playing guitar at 13 years old and dropped out of High School to play in a Radio Band at 17. He first began recording music, shortly after his radio fame, in 1936 by himself on an acoustic. He was going by the name Rhubarb Red. In 1937 he formed a trio and in 1938 he moved to New York to collaborate with the Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians. As a hobby he would work on electronics and amplifiers, prior to his first radio fame. In the late thirties, shortly after moving to New York, he began building his own electric guitar. His goal to build a vibration free top, because he was not happy with hollowbodies due to the thin tone, lack of sustain, and of course the feedback problems. His first guitar was “The Log”, which was released by Epiphone in 1941. After his first release, he continued to make music by producing radio music. He moved to Hollywood but was drafted into World War II, but was still permitted to stay in California. While still in California, he began to be a regular player for the Armed Forces radio Service. In 1944, he got very big in the Jazz scene by filling in for Oscar Moore. Everything was going great for Les Paul, and after World War II, his musical trio began to grow. In 1948 he was in a tragic car accident, which almost took his life, but that didn’t stop him. Later that year, Gibson teamed with Les Paul and funded the design of the guitar he’s always imagined. In 1950, they created the Les Paul guitar, which was the first solid body electric guitar. After that, he continued to pump out more guitars that amateurs and even very famous guitar musicians still use today.