the true guitar hero

les paul.

there perhaps exist few names as distinctly iconic as this one. like a stradivarius or a steinway, the name emblazons a stark image in people's minds of an instrument synonymous with beauty.

my first real electric guitar, one that belonged to me. it was an epiphone les paul, a copy. it's far from identical to the ones that gibson make, but it satisfied my hunger of finally owning that iconic instrument.

without the man behind that guitar, there perhaps wouldn't have been modern music. he was a true visionary who had the audacity to fashion a guitar out of a solid piece of wood. at the time people ridiculed him. but little did they know that it was the beginning of a revolution.

yet after decades of "improvements" and "evolutions", the electric guitar we are familiar with today are exactly the same in it's fundamental design as the one that les paul had dreamed up more than half a century ago. it wouldn't be brash to say that the les paul is the ford model t of the electric guitar world, except the original gibson les paul model is still one of the best selling guitars of all time. it is a timeless design that captured the imagination of generations.

jimmy page, paul mccartney, pete townsend, slash, ace frehley, frank zappa. it was a sound that shaped the course of blues and rock music and the newer waves that emerged thereafter.

he was a true pioneer and an amazing showman.

rest in peace LP.


+listening to: while my guitar gently weeps by the beatles