Key Of Grey

August 13th, 2009 – Today, the big news is that Les Paul passed away. Many of you may only know Les Paul from the guitar that bears his name. However, Les Paul’s legacy is greater than anyone can actually understand. Without hyperbole, I can say that Les Paul changed the face of music all by himself. He may have had the greatest influence on modern music, than any other one person in history.

Let’s go over some of his achievements. He pioneered the solid body electric guitar. He experimented with various reverb effects. He was one of the creators of multi-track recording. After the German magnetic tape technology was reverse engineered proceeding World War II, American broadcasters and musicians started experimenting with the format. Les Paul wanted to be able to layer guitar parts. Being the visionary he was, he used multiple tape heads to bounce down multiple tracks into one. He would do this over and over with two tracks until he had multiple layered guitars on a single piece of tape. He released the first multi-track recorded album.

Because trail-blazers like Les Paul began experimenting with multi-track recording, companies began developing commercial versions. Can you imagine what modern music would sound like without being able to layer tracks, and instruments? Can you imagine music without solid body guitars like the Strat, Telecaster, SG, and, of course, the Les Paul? Les Paul is so instrumental to the way music sounds today, it’s almost hard to imagine.

I’ve used the above picture in my “On Learning” post. It shows me a couple years ago playing the jewel of my guitar collection: a prototype Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul. Several years ago, Gibson released a signature guitar for Tak Matsumoto. Tak Matsumoto is one half of the Japanese super-group B’z. They have released 41 consecutive #1 singles, 23 #1 albums, and sold more than 78 million records in Japan alone. Tak was the first Asian artist to have a signature Gibson. The series only had 99 units created in the Gibson Custom Shop. They sold out immediately and are highly coveted. The one you see a younger me playing in the picture is number three of three prototypes used to make the 99 special edition guitars. I’m honored to own a small piece of Les Paul’s legacy. Rest in peace Les Paul.

via MusicRadar