I remember Les Paul and Mary Ford from when I was very little in 1952. My mom was a fan Of Mary Ford. Paul was "just her musician husband". Little did she know that Les Paul revolutinized the entire music industry.Electric guitars had been around since the 30's,but they were big concert Gibsons and Gretschs with pickups added. Paul took a big Gibson concert guitar,sawed it apart, and inserted a shaved down 4X4 as a stable bed for the pick-ups.Gibson showed no interest, but Epiphone did and built a model. THAT became so popular that Gibson bought Epi and began the "Les Paul" studio guitar line. You can buy an exact copy,made by Gibson now,for about $3,500. I wish I had one. Until his inventions, the way you recorded a band was to strategically place mcs around the band while they recorded. Paul was a genius (and somewhat of an egomaniac) who couldn't accept less than HIS playing on his wife's albums,so....he developed "loops" and background dubbing. Loopers would use a short piece of recording tape to record the input and then quickly play it back to create a concert hall, "echo" effect. I actually handled one of these in 1964. A primitive but effective device later supplanted with spring reverb devices and now done electronically. All recorded music uses echo now to create that effect. But more importantly, he made sure HE was the only recorded guitarist by using several tape machines that would allow him to play rythm,melody,lead,base,etc. He would later mix the recordings to get a final,and sometimes amazing,result. His intial 4 track device is now supplanted with 92 track mixing consoles with every possible instrument represented. All music uses these and expansion of their capabilities is an ongoing endeavor. Les Paul was a genius allright,but at heart,a musician who played into his 90's. To say he will be missed is hardly adequate to describe his loss to the music industry. An aside to Tyler: ABC news just did a short piece on LP and showed 3 musicians they said were influenced by him. They were right, but ironically, they showed Ron Wood playing a Les Paul, Eric Clapton playing a Fender Strat, and Kieth Richards playing a Gibson SG. He is probably splendidly spinning in his morgue vault. RIP

Yeah, they could have at least found 3 people that all played Les Paul's, no doubt. I think from the band "BOSTON" the guitar player "Tom Scholz" would have been a worthy mention. He is notorious for only playing a Les Paul, he even marketed his own distortion effects box called "The Rockman" you could buy, http://www.rockman.fr/Menu/Menu.htm I had a friend that had one and it sounded awesome.

Anyway, Les Paul will be missed, his guitar will live on and all his contributions never forgotten.

ok yall got me ,lol,, i have never heard of Les Paul.. but im still so young, lmao.. take care

Oh come'on now you've heard of the Gibson Les Paul guitar haven't you!?.lol Actually, "Lester William Polsfuss" was his real name but Les Paul was his stage name.

Here's more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Paul