Les Paul Gibson. Four forests of the floor, or how to look for ways of self-justification

2015 Gibson Les Paul Custom

Text - Sergey Tynku

Almost in the middle of the year, Gibson finally decided on the new Custom Shop 2015 models, publishing the most complete information on their website. There is nothing fundamentally new there, and, most likely, it cannot be. It may be noted that the words True Historic appeared in the title of many reissues. It looks a little comical because for many years (even more than one decade) Gibson has been constantly releasing more and more accurate (true) copies of old guitars.

If it goes on like this, then we will eventually get reissues that will be more real than the original old guitars. However, Gibson marketers do not seem to be bothered by this in any way. Therefore, if after some time we see the words total true or ultimate true in the names, we won’t be surprised. However, until this happens, let's return to our sheep and try to find something really new and interesting in the fresh line. No matter what, it still exists. And it's called Les Paul Custom.

It so happened that this guitar has long ceased to be just a model, turning into a larger and very complex family of different instruments, which are not always easy to understand. Last year, Gibson had just one Les Paul Custom ($4,799) in five colors - Alpine White, Ebony, Heritage Cherry Sunburst, Wine Red, Silver Burst. This model did not have any special additional names, so we can say it was a model that was positioned as a standard normal version of the LP Custom of our time. As for all other LP Custom models (such as, for example, 54 Re-Issue, 57 Re-Issue, etc.), they were not in the regular catalog, although some limited editions and special orders of dealers contained some deviations from the standard LP custom.

According to many guitar experts and just fans of Gibson, the current version of the LP Custom is one of the worst in history. As a rule, she is presented with two claims. Firstly, the working surface of the neck is loose instead of ebony. Secondly, facilitating cavities in the body. These two things for real Gibson maniacs are almost sacrilege and a reason to go for “normal custom” to the secondary market. In this regard, 2015 was expected with a great deal of anxiety. They were afraid that “self-tuning” tuning pegs and other modern horrors from the line of “ordinary” (non-customshop) models of 2015 would be put on the “new custom”. However, this did not happen, thank God. What's more, Gibson has introduced some very interesting new models to complement its line of "standard custom" models.

Les Paul Custom Figured

This model ($6,199) in two highly controversial colors (Centipede Burst and Rattler Burst) is the same as the standard LP Custom. The same pickups, cavities in the body, frills on the neck, etc. But for some reason, almost one and a half thousand dollars more expensive. For what? Just for the maple color and pattern? There are very big suspicions that this model is among the “one-year” ones - that is, it will not be available next year, as it constantly happens with dozens of new Gibson models.

True Historic 1957 Les Paul Custom "Black Beauty"

Despite the fact that people like to call the phrase “Black Beauty” almost any black LP Custom, these words are officially assigned to LPs from 1954-1960, or their reissues. A distinctive feature of these guitars is a thick neck and a body with a mahogany top, not maple. As a rule, these models are more expensive and prestigious. The first official reissues of the 1957 model were released in 1991. Since then, this model has been either discontinued or re-released. This time the guitar ($7,699) has the words True Historic in the title. However, it is extremely difficult to find something new and more accurate in it.

In particular, if we compare its descriptions and photos with the 2009 VOS (vintage original specs) version we have, we can only find differences in the tuning pegs. The 2015 version has the Reissue Waffle Back, while the 2009 version has the Reissue Kluson Deluxe, the same as the 58-59 reissues. And by the way, if you dig deeper, in the 90s there were reissues of 1957 Les Paul Custom with Grover tuners. That is, the reissues of this model constantly had fluctuations in terms of tuning pegs. The current ones are most similar to what stood on the guitar in 1957. However, it is extremely difficult to imagine that anyone in their right mind would refuse to re-release earlier years just because of the pegs. Especially the pegs if it comes to that, you can always change.

In general, 1957 was not chosen by chance. This was the first year Les Pauls were fitted with humbuckers. Therefore, the fact of new sensors on this reissue is quite interesting. Previously, this model was equipped with 57 Сlassic with Alnico II magnets, and now some Custom Bucker with Alnico III magnets. The new pickups will be a bit more powerful and would be quite interesting to listen to. Many buyers of 1950s Les Paul reissues trade in Gibson stock pickups for something boutique (Lollar, Bare Knucle, etc.). Apparently Gibson took this fact into account and tried to make new "improved" sensors. How successful? It doesn't matter. Buyers of these guitars will always have enough money to replace the pickups.

1968 Les Paul Custom Re-Issue

I must say that this is not the first LP Custom model with the number 68 in the title. And there is a story there. In the early 2000s, the regular standard LP Custom (and Plus models) were made at the Gibson USA factory (non-custom shop), while the Gibson Custom factory (which is in the same city but at the other end) made the 1954 and 1957 Les reissues. Paul Custom. In the future, a model of the standard LP Custom will also be made at the Custom Shop, but that wasn't the case at the time. Therefore, the Custom Shop decided to “get” their own standard LP Custom, sort of improved on the background of those LP Custom that were made at the Gibson USA factory. Such is the internal competition of factories and traditional Gibsonian chaos.

The result was the 68 Les Paul Custom. Based on a 1957 Re-Issue, but just a maple top. And the neck remained exactly the same. The pegs were Grover. The sensors were different - sometimes they put 57 Classic, and sometimes BurstBucker. Since then, a lot has been made of the 68 Les Paul Custom in a wide variety of variations. Different iron (white, gold), different degrees of aging (there were Custom Authentic options), different colors (up to all sunburst options with fire maple).

The whole point of the 68 Les Paul Custom was that it was not a reissue of the original 1968 models. Despite the fact that the people (mostly illiterate) constantly called it a reissue, Gibson themselves tried not to do this and the word Re-issue was not in the title. And there were a lot of reasons for that. If only simply because the guitar was very different from what it really was in 1968. It was just an LP Custom fantasy, a beautiful number in the title that helped sell the guitar. It can be said semi-fraud on the part of Gibson. Although the guitar itself was wonderful and indeed, by many, it can be called the best Les Paul Custom in history.

In 2015, Gibson decided to correct the focus and released a guitar that is actually called the 1968 Re-Issue and it is not at all like the 68 model. Purely externally, you immediately notice the knobs and tuning pegs. They are different compared to the 68 model. Plus, the guitar has its own special 68 Custom pickups with Alnico II magnets, its own neck profile. This is no longer a “1957 with a different top” model. The main design difference is the angle of articulation of the head with the bar. On guitars from the 50s, as well as instruments from the nineties and two thousandths, they are connected at an angle of 17 degrees. But in the late 60s and 70s, Gibson made necks with a 14-degree head. It's hard to spot in photos, but if you've handled enough Les Pauls, you'll immediately notice the difference when you see a live guitar. So the 68 LP Custom had a 17 degree angle, while the 1968 LP Custom Re-Issue had a 14 degree angle like the original 1968 guitar.

Of course, a sea of ​​theorists considers this to be the wrong angle and allegedly it gives a different sound. I think this is nonsense. Seventies guitars sound absolutely normal. For that matter, James Hetfield's most famous Les Paul, his Iron Cross is from 1973. You can also remember John Frusciante from the 1968 LP Custom. It would be interesting, of course, to compare three guitars - the real 1968, the 2000s model 68 and this fresh reissue. Blindly. Usually the Gibson Custom Shop is as good as the 70s models and people often argue until they lose their pulse as to which is better. If we talk about the Les Pauls of 68-69 years, then it is extremely stupid to argue about them - they were made so little that almost no one even held them in their hands. Although there are always a lot of fans to wag their tongues.

1974 Les Paul Custom Re-Issue

This is an incredibly interesting reissue ($6,699) that attempts to recreate the instruments of the second half of the 70s, which were very different from what was done before and after them. Many Gibson purists see these changes as blasphemous to the classics. However, there were such guitars, and they still go on the market in huge quantities. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in this reissue. Unlike the previous two models, this instrument is made in three colors (Ebony, Classic Vintage White and Wine Red). But thank God that on this reissue, as well as on 1957 and 1968, the working surface of the fretboard is made of ebony. And the folks at the Custom Shop emphasize this fact in their marketing materials.

The main features of the 1974 reissue are the body and neck construction. First, the maple top is made from 3 pieces instead of 2 as usual. Secondly, the base of the body is made in the “sandwich” style - instead of one piece of mahogany there are three layers of wood - two pieces of mahogany with a thin layer of maple between them.

Secondly, the neck is made from three longitudinal pieces of mahogany, and not from one as usual. The headstock articulates at an angle of 14 degrees and at the point of its articulation there is a characteristic “outgrowth” protrusion (volute). These are the vultures made at that time. And if we talk about the second half of the 70s, then there will also be maple necks, which Zakk Wylde loves so much. But thank God on the reissue of 1974 mahogany neck.

Of course, Gibson made their own Super 74 pickups with Alnico III magnets for this model. The tuning pegs are Schaller M6. The whole thing looks quite in the spirit of that time. And I think that if you have a tendency to collect reissues, then this model may seriously interest you.

In general, of course, all three reissues of the years 1957, 1968, 1974, which are significant for the model, seem to hint that if all three are collected, then it will be beauty, diversity and joy for the soul. And there is no doubt that there are quite a few people in the world who will do just that.

In the early 50s, in light of the total "electrification" of guitar building, Gibson began to master solid body instruments. Their production was not associated with any special technological difficulties and did not require capital investments. The process started almost painlessly.

Today, it is problematic to establish with a 100% guarantee who invented the "board" guitars. There is an opinion that the idea belongs to Rickenbacker, who threw on the market in 1931 the so-called "frying pans" ("frying pan"), and then in 1935 - a series of Spanish Electro guitars.

Things are moving on as usual, and as ironic as it may sound, the name of the man who pushed Gibson to release solid body guitars is Clawrence Leo Fender! If you look at the first "Gibson" "boards", like Paul Bigsby, then you can easily find a lot of outright borrowings and unveiled plagiarism from Leo Fender.

The "Fender" Broadcaster, introduced in 1948, sparked a heated debate in the guitar world. Experts believed that such guitars are nothing more than a tribute to fashion, they say, their production does not require special skills from guitar makers. However, due to their clear sound, portability, and playing comfort, Fender's solid bodies have been highly acclaimed by many guitarists. In particular, country music performers.

In 1950, Gibson finally recognized the solid body as a viable and competitive direction. Time required new solutions. As Ted MacCarty, who took over Gibson in 1950, recalls, "Fresh ideas were needed, and Mr. Les Paul came in handy!"

LESTER DOUBLE-U POLTUS

L es Paul (Les Paul) - nee Lester William Polfus (Lester William Polfus) - was born on June 9, 1916 in the town of Waukesha (Wisconsin). I wanted to become a pianist, but my love for the guitar turned out to be stronger.

In the early 30s, Lester moved to Chicago, where, under the pseudonym Les Paul, he performed in local bands that performed the then Top40. Having earned a reputation as an impeccable musician, Les Paul begins experimenting with amplifying the sound of the guitar, for which he uses a gramophone pickup. By trial and error, it is possible to find the optimal location of the sensors and minimize the "feedback" effect. In 1934, Les Paul received a patent for his invention. His guitar pickups proved to be quite suitable for live and studio work.

In 1937, the musician decides to try his luck in New York, going there with his trio, which included Jimmy Atkins (Jimmy Atkins), brother of Chet Atkins. Thanks to his talent and ingenuity, he gains recognition in artistic circles.

In 1941, Les Paul negotiated with Epiphone to provide him with a workshop for one of the weekends, where our hero could continue his experiments. This is how The Log ("Log") appeared - a guitar with a huge body and a "Gibsonian" neck.

In 1943, Les Paul moved to the West Coast, to Los Angeles, to collaborate with Bing Crosby. And then connects his musical career with vocalist Mary Ford (real name - Colin Summers (Coleen Summers).

After the Second World War, the guitarist approached Gibson with a request to make an instrument for him in accordance with the original designs, but there was no interest. His guitar was even called "mop"! The image of the company at that time was distinguished by pompous respectability. Gibson couldn't go below the bar they set themselves.

In the late 1940s, recordings by the Les Paul-Mary Ford duo began to climb the charts. "Lover", "How High the Moon", "Brazil"... They all became hits, and Les Paul is one of the most popular artists.

PROTOTYPE CONCEPT

The prototype appeared around the beginning of the 50s and was called "The Les Paul Guitar". It was not difficult to make a "board" guitar, it was only necessary to choose the material. The problem was solved by the method of "scientific poke". We even tried railroad tracks!

There were no standards at that time. For the manufacture decided to use maple and mahogany. With this combination, a compromise was found between the mass of the instrument and the sustain. Both species were glued together, but different cuts were used: mahogany was sawn along the vertical fibers, and maple was sawn along the horizontal.

Ted McCarthy and his team designed the dimensions of the prototype in such a way that it did not differ much from the usual semi-acoustics. To increase the filling, the upper maple part of the soundboard was made convex (carved).

The prototype used a solid mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard. There were only 20 frets, and the neck was connected to the body at the 16th fret. Access to the upper registers was facilitated by the adoption of the Venetian cutaway.

The guitar was equipped with two P90 single-coil pickups with independent tone and output control, and a three-position switch made it possible to use both pickups separately, or both at the same time.

The original performance of the "Gibsonian" prototypes features the traditional trapezoidal taipiece, which was also found on electroacoustics of that period.

Les Paul once remarked that a guitar should look expensive. However, Ted McCarthy was ahead of him: when the musician first saw the guitar, it was already covered in gold paint (this finish later became the standard, known as "gold top"). Gold plating was also required in order to hide the top of the maple, so as not to "tease" the competition. Moreover, the Les Paul model that appeared in 1952 catalogs was listed as made of mahogany. Not a word about maple!

After the prototype was ready, Gibson management began to think about how to link together the reputation of a "respectable company" that does not trade in small things, with the need to release a new model. Some good reason was needed, some reason ... And they remembered Les Paul. He was an excellent guitarist, a popular artist, but it is obvious that, holding a grudge, he fundamentally does not want to play Gibson guitars! And Ted McCartney, having appointed Phil Braunstein as his financial adviser, decides to use heavy artillery. Together with Brownstein, they travel to Pennsylvania, where Les Paul and Mary Ford are recording.

After a brief introduction to the instrument, Les Paul, according to Ted McCartney, told Mary Ford the following: "You know, I think their offer is worth it!". Ted McCarthy suggested that the new guitar be named, and for each model sold, he would receive a percentage. The contract was signed that evening. Under the terms of the agreement, Les Paul was obliged to appear in public exclusively with Gibson guitars for 5 years, becoming an endorser.

McCarthy then asked if Les Paul had any wishes for the guitar? He suggested a bridge-tailpiece combo. The design is an ordinary tailpiece with a cylindrical blank behind, through which the strings were threaded. The offer was accepted.

So, the contract is signed. And the first Les Pauls debuted in the spring of 1952.

The logo of the manufacturer, made of mother-of-pearl, adorned the head. And the inscription "Les Paul Model" in yellow letters was placed perpendicularly. And finally, Kluson tuning pegs (at that time they were produced without any markings) with plastic "tulip" hats were put on the guitar.

While paying tribute to historical justice, guitar enthusiasts point out that despite all his many talents, Les Paul still did little for the guitar that bears his name. According to Ted McCarthy, the guitar was completely designed and engineered by Gibson. Except for the tailpiece that Les Paul suggested. However, Les Paul himself in all interviews makes it clear that it was he who, having rich experience, participated in the development of the legendary model.

Complementing the Les Paul line were 12-watt Les Paul Amplifiers with the initials "L.P." on the grille.

That's how it was...

THE FIRST LES PAUL MODEL GUITAR

From 1952 to 1953, sales of the Les Paul surpassed Gibson's 125-piece Gibson range on every count. Debut successful! During the 50's there would be several Les Paul variants and reissues (there were 5 to be exact). The legendary Standard will appear.

The first series (in other words, the original) is characterized by the following:
- two single pickups with white plastic shells (known as "soap bars" - "soap bars"). On the first plastic is thinner than on the next;
- trapezoidal bridge-string holder;
- finish "gold top". Plus a one-piece mahogany body-and-neck construction.

Usually the first releases of Les Paul are called Gold Top. This term is used to draw a watershed with the well-known Sunburst model, the fifth and final variation. Some guitars were completely opened with "gold" - both the neck and the body. They are called Solid Gold. However, such models are much less common than gold tops. Until 1953, Les Paul guitars were not serial-numbered, as labeling guitar "boards" was not practiced. The very first releases of the Les Paul are also distinguished by the diagonal arrangement of the screws that adjust the height of the bridge pickup, the large knobs of the potentiometers in "pale gold" (they received the unofficial name "hat box knobs" or "speed knobs" - "handles speed") and the lack of piping on the fingerboard.

It soon became clear that the trapezoidal bridge-tailpiece created problems: it was difficult to jam with the right hand. On top of that, those who liked to play with their hand fixed on the tailpiece found that the strings were too low. Thus, at the end of 1953, the Les Paul model was modified with a new tailpiece. It soon earned the nickname "stop tailpiece" or "stud" due to its angle to the heel of the neck. The design was thought up in such a way that it made it possible to simply change the "old" threshold.

The "stud tailpiece" officially appeared in early 1953. The rest of the first issue was completed by him.

LES PAUL CUSTOM

Early in 1954, the Les Paul Model split into two branches. Modified versions were called "chic" and "modest".

The "chic" model, dubbed the Les Paul Custom, featured an ebony fretboard with mother-of-pearl rectangular block markers and a multi-ply binding on the body. Both from the front and from the back. All fittings were opened "for gold".

As opposed to the predecessor model Les Paul Custom - all mahogany. No maple top. This decision can be explained by three reasons. First, oddly enough, appearance. Custom was opened with black lacquer. So the need for a textured maple upper was no longer necessary. Secondly, the price. The mahogany guitar was cheaper. Thirdly, sound. As you know, in comparison with maple, mahogany has a "ripe", "velvet" and "soft" sound. Thus, the Custom was mainly intended for jazz players. In fairness, it should be noted that this remark is very controversial, since the first gold tops were also opened with gold paint, under which it was hardly possible to appreciate all the charms of maple. Undoubtedly, the second and third points deserve attention. And yet, we note that the maple that was used for the top of the Les Paul Gold Top (or rather, was under the gold paint) was of excellent quality, chic texture, etc. Although the upper part could consist of two or three parts. Therefore, there is no reason to blame Gibson for saving money on the Custom.

Another important innovation of the Custom model was the use of a pair of different types of pickups. In the neck position was a pickup with six oblong Alnico V-shaped magnets, and in the bridge position - a P90 single, familiar to us from the Les Paul Model. The tone characteristic was improved by varying the parameters of the sensors.

The Les Paul Custom was introduced in 1954 with an Ebony ("opaque dark") finish. This finish has been nicknamed "Black Beauty" and the low-set frets have given the Custom the informal name "Fretless Wonder". The trim used on the original Custom models differs from the reissues that began after 1968. The original was "blacker", but not as "deep". Black paint has less gloss. But where the Custom model really differed from its relatives more favorably was the tune-o-matic bridge (on the rest of the guitars of the Les Paul series until 1955, a stop-tailpiece was used).

Tune-o-matic was invented around 1952 by Ted McCarthy and his team. The tailpiece parameters have been designed in such a way that it can be placed on any type of guitar - with and without a protruding top. With the help of tune-o-matic, it was possible to accurately tune the scale. Regardless of string size and other factors. Soon he was found to be used on other models.

And finally, the Custom head was slightly wider than on the Les Paul Model. There was also an inlay in the form of a "split diamond".

In the original version, the guitar was equipped with Kluson tuners, the same as the Les Paul Model. They were later changed to "sealfast". As for the designation of the model, it adorned with a bell covering the anchor rod.

Since the release of "Black Beauty", the model has gained numerous fans and admirers. Among them - Frank Bisher (Frank Beecher), lead guitarist Bill Hailey (Bill Hailey), author of the first rock and roll "Rock Around The Clock", as well as many blues and jazz musicians.

LES PAUL JUNIOR

An "economy" model called the Les Paul Junior appeared in 1954. It also has a number of differences from the basic model. First of all, it's a flat top. The guitar is equipped with one single-coil with a black body and two screw lugs, with which you can adjust the height and ratio to the strings. The circuit solution is represented by two knobs - volume and tone.

The neck and body are mahogany with a rosewood fretboard. Position markers - pillboxes made of mother-of-pearl. The neck is slightly wider than the rest of Les Polov - 43 mm (nut) and 53 mm (12th fret). The same bridge-taipiece combination was used as on the other models. However, the Gibson logo on the head was not lined with mother-of-pearl - the most ordinary yellow letters. Les Paul Junior lettering is perpendicular. The tuning pegs are Kluson.

This model had a "dark mahogany" finish with a sunburst that faded from brown to yellow. There was also a black false panel. In 1954, the decision was made to use the "ivory yellow" finish, which would later become official for the TV model (its release was launched in 1957).

The Les Paul Junior, which appeared on the shelves of music stores, began to sell very well, which can be explained mainly by the price.

In the Gibson catalog for September 1, 1954, you can read the following:
- Les Paul Deluxe: $325.00
- Les Paul Model: $225.00
- Les Paul Junior: $99.50 (!).

Note: Custom and Deluxe are the same.

The heavy, overdriven tone at high volume was enthusiastically received by the guitarists. Among the owners and connoisseurs of this model - Leslie West (Leslie West).

LES PAUL SPECIAL

After the "economical" and "chic" models, Gibson management decided to launch an intermediate version into orbit. It appeared in 1955 and was called the Les Paul Special.

In essence, the Special model is the same as the Junior, but with two singles, separate volume and tone controls. Plus 3 position switch. The pickups had the same rectangular bodies found on the Les Paul Model. But black plastic.

Like the low-budget Junior, the guitar has a flat top. The fretboard is made of rosewood with mother-of-pearl dot markers. The Gibson logo is laid out on the headpiece in mother-of-pearl, as it should be, and the Les Paul Special lettering is in yellow paint.

The finish of the instrument is really very "special" - straw yellow. But not orange. She received the name "limed mahogony" - "clarified mahogany". Very soon it was adapted as "official" for the TV model.

The Special also featured a horn cutout and, like the Junior, was fitted with a stud tailpiece.

The appearance of the tool was announced in the catalogs on September 15, 1955. It was priced at $169.50, while the Custom, Standard and Junior prices were $360, $235 and $110, respectively.

Note: The Les Paul Model, which began to be produced in the second half of 1955 in a somewhat modernized form, is commonly called the Standard. Although the name itself was adopted only in 1958, when the third reprint of the original appeared.

THE ARRIVAL OF HUMBUCKER PICKUPS

1957 is a particularly important year for Gibson. It was then that the presentation of a new type of pickup - humbuckers - took place. Let's talk more about this type of pickup, which today, after so many years, is used not only on "Gibson" guitars, but also on other modern instruments.

The culmination of numerous experiments with single coil pickups was the introduction of the "Alnico" with six height-adjustable magnets. In 1953, the decision was made to work on a new type of pickup. On the one hand, they had to meet the then requirements, and, on the other hand, to save them from the main drawback - too strong sensitivity to electric fields.

Using the principle when two coils are connected in parallel or in antiphase, Walter Fuller (Walter Fuller) and Seth Lover (Seth Lover) came to the conclusion that in this way you can get rid of harmful interference from external sources. The work took about a year and a half, and on June 22, 1955, Seth Lover received a patent for his own invention (it was officially confirmed on July 28, 1959), which was called a humbucker, from "bucking hum" - something something like "resisting noise". And although the invention is officially attributed to Seth Lover, it is known for certain that three patents on a similar topic were registered before him. However, none of Lover's predecessors made claims, and the patent was registered in his name in 1959.

The first humbuckers were two black plastic spools with 5,000 turns of plain 42-gauge enameled copper wire with maroon insulation. Under the coils were two magnets, "Alnico II" and "Alnico IV" - one of which had adjustable poles. And no identifying marks. The coils were fastened with four brass screws to a nickel-plated plate. The design is placed in a metal box, which was soldered to the bottom to completely shield the block.

Although work on the new pickup was completed in 1955, it did not officially appear until 1957, replacing the P-90 and Alnico single-coil pickups, the installation of which was practiced on almost all Gibson models.

Until 1962, humbucking pickups were placed on various models of electric guitars. Their cases were marked with the inscription "Patent Apllied For" - "The patent is attached." Starting from 1962, the patent number also appears on the bottom platform.

Up until the 1970s, humbuckers mounted in the bridge and neck positions differed little in their specifications.

It would be useful, I think, at this point to dispel the mystical halo that surrounds "Patent Applied For" (abbreviated as "P.A.F.") and is considered the best type of pickup ever made. On the one hand, nostalgia, on the other hand, snobbery play a decisive role in such judgments. However, one thing is undeniable - the original design has stood the test of years. Thus, the "original sound of a humbucker" is characterized by relatively weak alnico magnets - "Alnico II" and "Alnico IV" - and two coils with 5 thousand turns each. In the 1950s, Gibson didn't have stop counter machines. This is why early pickups differed in their sound. Sometimes winding standards even changed. There could be 5, 7, or even 6 thousand turns in the coils! Accordingly, the resistance also changed: from 7.8 kOhm to 9 kOhm.

It cannot be discounted that when creating humbuckers, Seth Lover and Walter Fuller resorted to M-55 magnets, which were used for single-coils and had dimensions of 0.125"x0.500"x2.5". In order to simplify the construction, in 1956- Gibson began to use M-56 magnets, shorter and less wide, which of course reflected in the performance, then the intensity of the magnets reached the V mark, and in 1960 the number of turns in the coils decreased, thereby marking a new leap from the original sound.

And, finally, it is worth mentioning another important change that took place in 1963 - the improvement in the quality of the wire. The wire diameter remained the same (number 42), but the insulation became thicker than the previous one. The old wire is easy to identify due to its maroon color, while the new one is black. In addition, thanks to the emergence of new machines, the pickup winding system has changed.

All of the above has led to differences in the types of P.A.F. pickups. Without a doubt, it may seem to someone that some pickups are better than others. Pickups like "P.A.F." became a legend. That is why, in 1980, Gibson released a faithful reissue of the original humbuckers. With the exception of the "Patent Applied For" decal, which is easy to fake, the original "P.A.F." can be distinguished by the following features:
1. a special square hole on the top and bottom of the coil with a ring around the perimeter. Coils designed by Seth Lover were used without any upgrades until 1967. With the advent of new equipment, the coils began to be marked with the letter "T" on the top;
2. maroon sheath and black sheath of two output wires. Starting in 1963, the wire sheath became even darker, and the outgoing wire instead of black was white.

In 1957, the Les Paul model was equipped with two humbuckers, which replaced the original pickups with a white plastic body. The fourth version of the original series existed from mid-1957 to mid-1958. One year in total. Note that several gold tops with white P-90s were produced in 1958 as well. The rest of the model is not much different from its predecessor.

Some gold tops of that period were made exclusively from mahogany, without a maple top. Probably, both the shortage of maple and the Les Paul Custom motifs affected. According to connoisseurs, the result was terrible.

A little later, in 1957, the Les Paul Custom was modified with three humbuckers at once instead of two single-coils. The sensor switching system has also changed. A three-position toggle switch gave the following choice of pickups:
1. neck pickup ("front");
2. bridge and central sensor in antiphase;
3. bridge pickup ("rear").

Such a system did not allow using either the middle sensor separately, or three at once at the same time. In some cases, instead of the second combination, a center and neck pickup were used. However, the guitar was equipped with a traditional set of controls - two timbres, two volumes. Some rare Les Paul Customs have only two humbuckers. This version was not mass. The guitar was made to order. As before, the finish is "opaque black". The tuning pegs are Grover Rotomatic.

LES PAUL STANDARD

In 1958, the Les Paul Model was again modified. This fifth and final option is being chased by collectors of old Gibsons. This is perhaps the most expensive piece on the vintage guitar market.

First of all, the "gold top" finish was replaced by "cherry sunburst" (top of the deck) and "cherry red" (head). Cherry fading to yellow, these guitars appeared in catalogs in 1958 for $247.50. On the Sunburst (as they are now called), the top of the body is made from two fitted pieces of wavy or tiger striped maple. She really could not leave anyone indifferent. However, there were options when the upper maple part was made from one piece. Maple, which was used on different guitars, was very different from each other. On some guitars, the wavy finish was very weakly defined, on others it was more pronounced, somewhere you could find huge bands ...

In most cases, the finish has faded a little over time, and has taken on an orange tint, more like a natural mahogany color.

Something like this happened in 1960. The owner of one of the Sunbursts accidentally scratched the lacquer on the case. The damaged area was smeared with red paint. To not be so conspicuous. Over time, the red paint began to fade and the unpainted place was very conspicuous!

The change in finish of the Les Paul Model, now called the Les Paul Standard, was announced in December 1958 by the Gibson Gazette, the company's corporate publication, which featured new models and musicians.

Beginning in 1960, the neck of the Les Paul Standard became flatter. Paradoxically, you won't find the Les Paul Standard in the March 1959 catalog! The model appeared only in May 1960 at a price of $265.00!

LATEST MODIFICATIONS

In 1958, in the same December issue of the Gibson Gazette, more radical versions of the Les Paul Junior and TV were announced. As with the Standard, the new style of Junior and TV guitars went into production long before the announcement. In fact, we are dealing with a completely new model, with two horns that gave access to 22 frets. The soundboard and neck are the same mahogany with a rosewood fingerboard.

Pickups and controllers also remained unchanged. However, instead of the "Cherry" finish, "Sunburst" appeared - a flow from brown to yellow. A little later, in 1961, it adapts to SG models. The new Junior features a neck-to-body connection at the 22nd fret, making it easier to access the upper registers.

The TV model experienced the same innovations. However, there are slight differences in the finish - from "straw yellow" to "yellow banana".

Like the Les Paul Standard, the new Les Paul Junior and TV did not appear in catalogs until 1960.

The Les Paul Junior 3/4 version also has two symmetrical cutout horns. This model only has 19 frets. The neck connects to the body at the 19th fret.

The early double-cutout Les Paul Specials had the neck pickup almost flush with the neck, and the pickup switch just opposite the volume and tone knobs. Later, the rhythm pickup moved closer to the nut and the pickup selector moved behind the stud taipiece. The second version had 22 frets. Since 1959, the 3/4 version has been produced in rather modest editions.

On various models with two horns, the edges are more or less rounded. Between 1958 and 1961, the heel of the neck changed.

In 1959, as a result of a small shortage of black plastic humbucker spool bodies, cream ones began to be used. That's why from 1959 to 1960 pickups can be found with two black coils, and two pink ones, or one black and one pink. According to their technical parameters, these pickups do not differ from each other. However, completely black and white and white bobbins (they are nicknamed "Zebra") are rare.

In 1960, without any changes, the Les Paul Special and Les Paul TV are renamed SG Special and SG TV, respectively. Having lost the name Les Paul in the name, these models also lost the Les Paul mark on the head. Nevertheless, these models are always remembered in connection with the Les Paul line and are rarely referred to by their real names - SG ("Solid Guitar"), which was staked out in the double cutaway series, which began to be released in 1961.

THE END OF THE ORIGINAL LES PAUL SERIES

In the 50s, oddly enough, wood floors were out of place. As the statistics eloquently testify, a decline in interest began to be observed from 1956, and in 1958-1959 it fell to almost zero. Today it's hard to believe, but the reason is precisely in the "internal" competition between solid models that the company began to produce starting from 1952. Let's not discount competitors - Fender, Rickebacker, etc.

At the end of 1960, a decision was made to revise the Les Paul line, which effectively led to the introduction of two-horn versions in early 1961, which later became known as the SG. Theoretically, the original Les Pauls continued to be produced into early 1961. However, today we will not find a single Les Paul with a serial number of 1961, while Custom, Junior and Special - as much as your heart desires.

According to the Gibson Book, the last original Les Paul was registered in October 1961 (Les Paul Special 3/4). Then the first SGs had already begun to be produced.

Today, it is completely useless to argue about the sonic merits and value of the "old" Les Pauls that musicians like Eric Clapton (Eric Clapton) or Mike Bloomfield (Mike Bloomfield) began to use with great success, as a result of which the original series, with one cutaway, began reprinted seven years later, in 1968. And there is absolutely no need to name all those who played the old Standard, Gold Top or Custom: Al DiMeola (Ol DiMeola), Jimmy Page (Jimmy Page), Jeff Beck (Jeff Beck), Joe Walsh (Joe Walsh), Dewan Allman ( Duane Allman, Billy Gibbons, Robert Fripp...

CHRONOLOGY OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE LES PAUL SERIES

1951 - Gibson begins to master the "solid body", taking Les Paul as an endocer;
1952 - release of the first Les Paul guitars with a trapezoid bridge-tapes combination (the first version);
1953 - Les Paul Model modified with "stud" tailpiece (second version);
1954 Les Paul Custom and Les Paul Junior introduced. The first Les Paul TVs are released;
1955 Les Paul Special released. The Les Paul Model is modified with a tune-o-matic bridge (third option);
1956 - 3/4 Les Paul Junior version released;
1957 - Les Paul equipped with humbuckers (fourth version). They are also put on the Les Paul Custom;
1958 - The Les Paul Model is renamed the Les Paul Standard. Instead of "Gold Top" trim, "Cherry Sunburst" appears (fifth variant). Les Paul Junior and Les Paul TV come with two horns. Release of the 3/4 Les Paul Special;
1959 - new design - double cutaway - of the Les Paul Special models, as well as a 3/4 version with two horns of this model;
1960 - Les Paul Special is renamed SG Special and Les Paul TV becomes SG TV
1961 - The original Les Paul series is discontinued. Instead, the double cutaway model appears, which will later be called SG.

Legendary guitars Les Paul originate from the 1950s. The original model had a one-piece body and was developed by Gibson with the participation of the famous guitarist and innovator - Les Paul. In his honor, the model got its name. guitars Gibson Les Paul had a huge impact on music, especially rock music - many even consider them one of the symbols of this style of music. To this day, this model is one of the most popular electric guitar models.

Les Paul

During all this time Les Paul produced in various configurations by companies Gibson and Epiphone, as well as other brands that either make their replicas or simply use the "Les-Polovskaya" form when creating their instruments.

The sound of these guitars has become signature for Slash, Zakk Wylde and many other great guitarists.

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Zakk Wylde

In our showrooms and online store, which delivers to all regions of Russia, you can buy new tools in a variety of configurations: from economical models Studio, to expensive custom shop tools. We also have guitars from many other brands that make instruments of this shape, or simply replicas of Les Pauls. In addition, we have a thrift store where you can buy used guitars. Les Paul. Well, if you did not find among the variety of models presented by us the very tool that would hook you exactly - do not despair, because in our workshop you can order Les Paul, which will be made especially for you, taking into account your wishes.

The biggest trouble that can happen to a family where a guitarist is wound up is not loud music and not the degradation of his brain. And the fact that he will rush to collect an infinite number of guitars. Although the first two points also take place.

Personally, during the first four years of study, I tried with a thousand instruments, and purchased 19 copies for personal use. Here is the full case history:

2010
Fender Highway One Telecaster White Blonde ().
Gibson Les Paul Studio Cherry

2011
Fender Highway One Stratocaster Blue
Epiphone Casino Cherry (Chinna)

2012
Fender American Vintage Telecaster 1952 Reissue Butterscotch Blonde
Gibson Firebird Sinburst
2012 Gibson Custom Shop ES-330 VOS Sunburst
Gibson Custom Shop ES-335 Satin Cherry
Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster HSS Teel Green
1979 Fender Stratocaster Black
2012 Gibson Melody Maker Flying V Black

2013
2012 Fender American Standard Telecaster Red
2009 Heritage H-157 Black w/Natural Top (refinished to red)
2012 Fender American Vintage Telecaster Thinline 1972 Reissue Natural
2001 Gretsch G6128T-1962 Duo Jet Black
Traveler Guitar EG-2 Black
1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black
2012 Gibson Les Paul Standard sunburst

2014
2004 Gibson Les Paul Custom 68 reissue burst

What for? Well, first of all, it's fun and beautiful. Secondly, I want to try everything at once. Thirdly, you are looking for your sound. But the main thing is that while you don’t know how to play properly, you have a dream that you are about to find a guitar on which everything will play by itself.

Almost four years passed before I realized that my instrument was a banal ordinary Les Paul. Yes, it is massive, uncomfortable and it hurts my back, but at some point I really started to play on it by itself. And he makes such uuuuhhh, zhzhzhzh, trrrrrrrrr and tygdym-tygdym, which nothing else can pronounce. The only problem is that Gibsons can't do tryyyyyn! To do this, you definitely need a telly or a strat.

I ended up keeping a couple of lever guitars (Gretsch and Stratocaster) and one traveler Traveler Guitar EG-2. And he left three Les Pauls as the main tools of labor. A couple of months ago, a fourth unexpectedly joined them - he appeared in the house quite by accident, they failed to sell on time, as a result, he registered in the apartment. But it's a long and dark story, let's not talk about it.

Any fool can have four Les Pauls, even a bass player. But modern man is a rational and conscientious being. And if he has several almost identical tools, I want to come up with some kind of moral justification - why you need each of them so much.

In addition, there is a common misfortune - if you have a lot of guitars, sooner or later there will be those on which you do not play. That's why I set myself the task - to provide work for all four Les Pauls. And moreover - to make them functionally different. Well, so that when the wife asks "why do you need so much?" you answered: "This one is for blues, this one is for metal, and with this one I will go to the synagogue ... to party meetings, that is."

So let's solve the following problem:
Parallelization of tasks for four Les Paul guitars

Gibson Les Gibson Custom made in 1978.

Black "customs" of the 70s are the main fetish of metal guitarists, since in those years Gibson massively put maple necks on Les Paula, which made these evil guitars even more evil. In addition, maple is a durable material, even very thin maple necks do not break or bend very much, and therefore such a configuration is most welcome for a saw blade.

Usually people buy them and put a set of active "hedgehogs" (most often EMG 81/85) and live happily drinking beer. Actually, this is what I did.

I say right away - with the 81/85 set you get a hell of a lot of things, but at the same time you lose the same amount - the classic vintage sound becomes uncut, what can I say if it’s hard to unscrew the usual AC / DC on a lamp. Therefore, the presence of an "active" custom in the house implies the presence of other tools.

Plus, it's an incredibly heavy guitar. Even sitting does not press like a child.

Heritage H-157

This is a Les Paul Custom, but not from Gibson, but from the former old Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, which still makes small batches of Heritage branded instruments. The instrument is insanely cool, the best Les Pauls non-Gibson makes. Although many are infuriated by the shape of the head. But I quickly got used to it, besides, when you play, you still don’t see the head.

Initially, it was a natural color, but in Shamrai it was repainted to a surprisingly high quality in a translucent cherry.

I quickly found a special use for "Heritage" - I put on thick strings and lowered all six strings a tone lower. I put "zebra" pickups for beauty - in the Wolfgang EVH neck, and in the bridge the well-known Seymour Duncan JB.

In general, in a lower tuning it is interesting to cut not only death-grind (for which everything was started), but also on a light gain with some kind of heavy grunge-like alternative. And on the wedge, it’s generally dark.

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Tyncu always says that using a Gibson for pure sound is a crime and a sexual perversion. For a long time I did not believe him - because it's beautiful strumming on the couch! But not so long ago I bought an audio card for recording guitars and after a long fuss I was convinced that, indeed, the Les Paul is a completely unconvincing instrument on the wedge, and the Stratocaster or Telecaster tears it to shreds. Here is distortion and high gain - there are already other hands, right. And for the wedge, Gibson has separate instruments - numerous ES semi-acoustics.

The new "standard" LP was bought by me in "Muztorg" due to the fact that I really wanted exactly this color - so that there was a sunburst, but with black sides and back, and not red, as is usually the case. The instrument had a surprisingly sonorous, melodious sound, and besides, it had sophisticated electrics - with cut-offs, bypass and antiphase.

At some point, I was left without all my Gibson semi-acoustics, so there was a desire to make a standard Les Paul not quite standard - with singles. I sold my original pickup set and instead ordered a set of Lollar P-90 humbucker pickups from guitarsupply. In the first photo (with a cat) they are clearly visible.

But my goal was to make the sound more wedge-worthy, as well as mimic the sound of The Who, Black Sabbath and Green Day. That is, it was about installing P-90 type sensors. The wedge, to be honest, remained a one-piece Gibson, that is, not very interesting. But light gain and distortion - a typical P-90, very rough and incredibly driving. At high gain, the phonite is prohibitive.

As a result, I again received a special tool that does not intersect functionally with the rest of the available Les Pauls. In a sense, this is also a standard - only the standard of the mid-50s, when Gibson did not have any humbuckers.

Gibson Les Paul Custom 68 reissue

"Customshop" custom, which everyone calls the 1968 reissue, although in reality it has almost nothing in common with 1968. This is an artificially bred Gibson model of Custom with vintage fittings, no internal cavities, with a striped top (sorry not visible in the photo) and with a thick neck. Sensors 57 Classic.

Here, after much deliberation, it was decided not to touch anything. Let it be the most ordinary Les Paul. After all, this is also needed in the economy, right?

Actually, the problem is solved - we have four Les Pauls (of which three are Custom), none of which in any way repeats the rest, and is used more than intensively.

You can go further, of course - get one baritone, one Les Paul with a Bigsby "rocking chair", a light Custom Lite to make your back hurt, etc., so there's still some ground left. But for now I have calmed down on what has been achieved, I hope this calming will last for a long time.

P.S. Yes, they will certainly ask - do I hear the difference between the traditional, standard Les Paul and "custom". Structurally, the difference is small, but the ebony overlay radically changes the way you work with the instrument. Firstly, it is beautiful and comfortable - ebony is a very smooth material, and fingers run along it differently than on rosewood. Blind tests are meaningless here - it's not about what the ear hears, but about how the guitar reacts to the actions of the guitarist himself. "Custom" reacts a little differently than the standards / traditional ones.

Well, plus the ebony overlay gives a very peculiar color, especially in the lower frequencies - they begin to attack and "shoot" like artillery. This is not always good on classic rock, but for metals it has a decisive positive value.

Now ebony is banned in the USA, and the latest "custom" models (as well as guitars from other manufacturers, including acoustic ones) wear a fingerboard made of artificial material Richlite - a mixture of polymers with pressed waste paper. It looks about the same as ebony, but from the point of view of the old school it is not true at all, and - they say - the sound is more "middle". I myself have not yet felt Richlite, so I will not say anything more.

But I can say a word in defense of baked maple fingerboards, which Gibson now often uses on many models instead of rosewood. I do not agree with the general swearing at the baked maple. In my opinion, this is excellent material in terms of sound as well. Plus, it's incredibly comfortable and sturdy. I had a Flying V with a baked maple fingerboard, and I never twisted the anchor there - a stable material, much stronger than capricious rosewood and the same ebony.

Les Paul - man and legend

Les Paul (full name Lester William Paulfuss) was born June 15, 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He began his professional career as a talented teenage guitarist; at the age of 17, he was already performing on local radio broadcasts, playing under the name Rubarb Red Country, and later adding rhythm and blues and jazz to his repertoire.

It soon became clear that his ambitions would not be limited solely to music. Lester had a natural technical ability, which he applied not only to music, but also to the manufacture of his own musical and electronic devices. Later, he was lucky to come up with several musical inventions at the right time and in the right place, and historians today are debating whether to consider Les Paul a musician or an inventor. Usually they converge on both.

Like most players of the day, the young Lester soon became interested in the idea of ​​amplifying his guitar. He recalls that in his teenage years he tried to amplify the guitar "by sticking a phonograph needle into it." Shortly thereafter, he used his parents' old telephone and radio on his lone guitar to grab the attention of the audience at a concert at a local bar.

Others thought along the same lines, only in a slightly less extreme way. In the early 1930s, the Californian guitar company Rickenbacker was one of the first small manufacturers to offer an electric version of the steel guitar. She was placed on her knees and played by moving a steel plate along high strings.

Around this time, companies such as Riclenbacker, National, and others also began to sell instruments with electric pickups and associated controls built into a typical "Spanish" acoustic guitar. In the mid-1930s, one of the most successful guitar companies, Gibson of Kalamazoo, Michigan, entered the "amplified acoustic" market with its ES-150 model and accompanying amplifier, as did their archrival Epiphone. .

By this time, Lester Polfus finally adopted a shortened version of his name - Les Paul (Les Paul). In the late 1930s, Paul's new jazz trio performed on New York radio on The Fred Waring Show and also with the Ben Burney Big Band. Paul first played a Gibson guitar (he can be seen in their 1937 catalog under the name Rubarb Reda playing a Super 400, though he preferred an L5). He later switched to Epiphone. The company was based in New York and was founded by the Greek Epaminondas Stathopoulo. (The name was shortened to Epi; and adding "sound" in Greek, he got Epiphone).

"Log" door Les Paul

Les Paul nurtured his interest in electric instruments and his desire for technical experimentation by tweaking and modifying his Epiphone guitar. He talks about how, around 1940, he used to come to the deserted Epiphone factory on weekends and fiddle with what he called a "log". “Every Sunday I went there and worked… Epiphone was surprised, what the hell is this? And I said, it’s a log, a guitar with a solid body.

The nickname "The Log" came from the 4" by 4" pine block that Paul inserted between the halves of the sawn lengthwise guitar body. Using metal braces, Paul attached the neck to a pine "log", on which he placed a pair of clunky homemade pickups. A little later, he rebuilt a second and third Epiphone, which he called "clunkers", this time by cutting their bodies open to insert reinforcing metal braces, and once again decorating them with his own pickups. Despite their homemade origins, semi-acoustic "log" and modified "clunkers" often accompanied Les Paul on stage and in the studio in the 40's and early 50's.

Paul was not alone in his research. Several independent studies of the feasibility of solid-body electric guitars were undertaken at the time and elsewhere in America, not least by California makers Rickenbacker, National, Bigsby, and Fender.

The idea of ​​a solid-body guitar was attractive: it would replace the labor-intensive acoustic guitar with a body made of wood or some other material hard enough to carry the strings and pickups. A solid body would tame the pesky "windup" of amplified acoustic guitars. It would also reduce the influence of the body on the overall sound of the guitar, more accurately reproducing the tone and sustain of the strings.

In the 1940s, Paul conceived the idea of ​​pitching his "log" idea to a large company to see if he could generate interest in its commercial potential. He figured it out, just at the time when it appeared that Epiphone was in a position to that day to be a serious force in the guitar world. He remembers his sober calculation: "Gibson were the leaders of the business, that's where I wanted to go."

From Orville to Maurice

Gibson was certainly a big company and no doubt successful. Born in 1856 to a British immigrant to the States, Orville Gibson began making string instruments in Kalamazoo, Michigan around the 1890s. His unusual but effective use of curved sides and sides in guitars and mandolins attracted attention, and in 1902 the successful manufacturer officially created the first Gibson company. Gibson's status has steadily risen, and the company has built an unshakable reputation among musicians, thanks to excellent, attractive instruments, in particular Gibson mandolins have contributed to widespread popularity.

But the guitar, too, began to gain in prominence in the 1920s and 1930s, and it was clear that any company seeking attention from guitarists must be seen in the field as inventive and forward looking. We owe Gibson many innovative six-string designs, including the truss rod to reinforce the neck (today an integral part of the guitar). Thanks to the ingenuity of its gifted workers such as Lloyd Loar, Gibson also set personal standards such as the L5 in the early 20s. Model innovations such as ffs and a "suspended" pickguard on the body practically defined the look and sound of early archtop guitars. It was played in many styles, the main of which was "parlor jazz", the embodiment of which can be considered the incomparable Eddie Lang (who, by the way, had a strong influence on Paul).

As players demanded more and more volume from guitars, Gibson diligently increased the size of their instruments, introducing the huge Super 400 arch top in the mid-30s, as well as jumbo flat top acoustics, such as the impressive J200 model.

Gibson's controlling interest was acquired in 1944 by the Chicago Muiscal Instrument Company (CMI), which had been formed in Chicago 25 years earlier by Maurice Berlin. Under the new owners, Berlin also became the boss of the parent company Gibson. Gibson's general manager, Guy Hart, remained, and John Adams, president of the company since its founding in 1902, stepped down. Gibson's manufacturing base remained in its original 1917 purpose-built factory in Kalamazoo, an industrial and commercial center in an agricultural area roughly halfway between Detroit and Chicago. The city later became the site of Gibson's new headquarters as part of CMI.

Around 1946, Paul brought his rough "log" to Chicago, CMI to Maurice Berlin, with the aim of persuading him to make such a guitar. As you might expect, with all the courtesy that a busy city businessman can muster, the Gibson boss showed Les Paul the door. "They laughed at the guitar," Paul recalls.

Crosby sings, Paul records

A few years later, Paul became famous. During World War II, he served in the Armed Forces Radio Service, working at their headquarters in Hollywood and entertaining the troops. Among the singers he accompanied was Bing Crosby. After the war, Paul recorded guitar accompaniment on Crosby's hit "It's been a long Time", which was released as Bing Crosby With The Les Paul Trio and expanded Paul's audience.

"In my understanding," said Crosby, introducing Paul as a guest guitarist on his radio show in 1947, "Les does exactly what she wants with the guitar." Crosby took a keen interest in new recording developments and was one of the earliest to use tape recorders in his show. Crosby encouraged Paul to build a studio in the garage of the guitarist's Hollywood home.

It was in this small home studio that Paul came up with a very efficient recording technique, first with discs and soon with tape. Paul's method was to create multiple instrument overdubs using recorders. He added new material to the existing recording on each run of the tape, a method he had developed while on tour as a means of playing with himself. Paul sometimes changed the speed of the tape in such a way that it gave impossibly high and fast passages. With this homegrown technology, and later with a real overdubbing tool in the form of one small tape recorder, Paul created a huge, magical orchestra on tape of many guitars playing catchy guitar themes.

Les Paul and his "New Sound" were signed to Capitol Records and the first release, "Lover", hit the hit charts at number 21 in 1948. But Paul wasn't alone: ​​Singer Patti Page hit "Confess" the same year, using the same recording tricks to create a choir with her voice. A couple of years later, he achieved even greater success with "The Tennessee Waltz", beating Les Paul's version of the same song on the US charts.

Les Paul and Mary Ford

Les Paul became a big recording star, but after a long hiatus to recover from a car accident, he gained even more popularity when he brought singer Mary Ford into his act. Paul had known Ford (real name Colin Summers) since 1945, but their relationship was legalized only in 1949.

The marriage (Paul's second) took place in December, and the following year the duo released their first recording together, "Cryin'/Dry My Tears". The guitar, and now also the voice, went through a process of re-recording, and Les Paul and Mary Ford produced a string of big hits. These were:

• "The Tennessee Waltz" (#6 on the US charts in 1950),
• "How High The Moon" (number one in 1951)
• "The World Is Falling For The Sunrise" (number 2 in 1951),
• "Tiger Rag" (number 2, 1952)
• "Bye Bye Blues" (number 5, 1953)
• "I'm Sitting On The Top Of The World" (number 10, 1953)
• "I'm No Fool To Care" (number 6, 1954).

The duo performed on numerous broadcasts and concerts and could be heard on NBC Radio's Les Paul Show every week for half a year in 1949-50. They performed in the television series Les Paul & Mary Ford At Home which aired in 1953 and was filmed for several years at their new home in Mawa, New Jersey. In the late 1950s, Les Paul and Mary Ford, "America's Musical Darlings," were big stars.

First Fender

In 1950, a small California company that made amplifiers and electric steel guitars unexpectedly opened up a new market by offering the world's first commercially available solid-body "Spanish" electric guitar. This innovative musical instrument was first called the Fender Esquire or Broadcaster and was soon renamed the Fender Telecaster. Fender's initial burst of activity didn't immediately convert all guitarists to board guitars. At first, the company's electric guitars were used by a handful of country and western guitarists, primarily from locations near the company's factory in Fullerton, California. But little by little the word spread and Fender's rise to the top of the electric guitar market began. Such success, though modest at first, could not go unnoticed by other guitar makers - including Gibson in Kalamazoo.

Ted McCarthy joined Gibson in March 1948 after 12 years with the Wurlitzer organ company, and in 1950 he was named president of Gibson. McCarthy recalls that Maurice Berlin, head of CMI's parent company, told him to improve Gibson's business, which had faltered since World War II. Gibson was then forced to put most of its music production on hold and take over a government order for radar work, earning the company three awards from the Army and Navy.

McCarthy says the company found it difficult to return to full-scale guitar production in the post-war years. His first tasks when he joined it were to improve the effectiveness of management, increase the return on business and expand internal communications. "I went there on March 15, 1948," he recalls, "and we suffered losses in March, suffered losses in April, made a profit in May, and made it over the next 18 months that I worked there." In 1950, the Gibson line of electric guitars consisted of seven models: the ES125 for $97.50, ES140, ES150, ES175, ES300, ES375, and ES5 for $375. Of course, these were all "acoustics with amplification" - with a hollow body, a curved top and efs.

Then Fender came out with the solid body electric guitar. McCarthy recalls Gibson's reaction: "We watched what Fender was doing, realizing that they were gaining popularity in the West. I watched and watched them and said that we need to get into this business. We give them a head start, they are the only ones who they make a guitar with that kind of piercing sound that country and western guys like, we discussed it and decided to do the same…

So we started making solid body guitars ourselves. We had a lot to learn about the "boards". They are different from acoustic. They are made differently, they sound differently, they respond differently."

Ted McCarthy says that Gibson began work on their solid-body guitar shortly after the introduction of the Fender Broadcaster in 1950, and that McCarthy and the company's chief engineers were involved in the project. "We were designing guitars. And we started trying to learn something about solid bodies," says McCarthy. this is".

Asked exactly how many people were involved in what would become the Gibson Les Paul, McCarthy replies: “There were maybe four of us. the guys in charge of the tree and one of the main contributors to the final assembly." McCarthy also cites employees such as Julius Bellson and Wilbur Marker as being "in the know" and may have been consulted with the sales team through sales manager Clarence Havenga. McCarthy continues: "We ended up with a guitar that looked appealing and that we understood had sound, resonance and sustain - but not much. It took us about a year to get to that point."

Still, no other guitar maker showed any clear interest in following Fender's footsteps into the mass-produced solid-body guitar market. "Their attitude was: forget it, because anyone with a jigsaw and a template can make a solid body guitar," says McCarthy. I started thinking... at that time Les Paul and Mary Ford were probably the number one vocal group in the US They were making millions a year. And knowing Les and Mary, I thought I should probably show them this guitar."

The return of the guy with a broom

Paul's memories are somewhat different. He says Gibson first contacted him in early 1951, shortly after Fender started making their "board" guitars. He recalls that Maurice Berlin, boss of Gibson's parent company, CMI, assigned his second in command, Mark Carlucci, to contact the guy, that strange "log" they'd glimpsed in the '40s. “They said find the guy with the broom with the pickups,” Paul laughs, “They came right after they heard about what Fender was doing. And I said you guys are a little behind the times, but okay, let's get started."

Paul told Stephen Peoples, who was bookletting a 1991 box set of Paul's recordings for Capitol, that after Gibson approached him with an interest in developing a solid-body electric guitar, a meeting was scheduled at CMI headquarters in Chicago. "Berlin, Carlucci and CMI lawyer Marv Henrikson, who also represented Les, were present," Peoples writes and continues, "They closed the deal and approved the design specifications for the new guitar. Then development began with all haste."

Prototype

McCarthy continues his story of how he came to show the first prototype Gibson Les Paul to Paul. McCarthy and Paul's business manager, Phil Bronstein, took the prototype to where Les and Mary left off - to their friend's hunting lodge in Strodsburg, Pennsylvania, near Delaware Water Cap Park - probably in 1951. There they were with Ford's sister Carol and her husband, Wally Kamin, Paul's double bassist, and made recordings, taking advantage of the quiet and isolation of the house. McCarthy says his goal was to get Paul interested in a promotional use of the guitar in exchange for royalties from sales in what is now called a promotional contract or "endorsement". Paul also recalls that a hunting lodge near Stroutsburg was where he saw the first prototype of what would become the Gibson Les Paul.

McCarthy recalls that Paul really liked the prototype and said to Ford: "I think we should join them, what do you think?" - and she said she liked it too. Neither McCarthy nor Paul can remember exactly, but the prototype may have been similar to the subsequent production model, except that it had a regular Gibson tailpiece of the period (like the Gibson ES350, for example) with a separate bridge.

The deal was reached that evening, McCarthy says: he, Les Paul and Phil Bronstein sat down and drew up a contract. They first agreed on a royalty that Gibson had to pay every five years for every Les Paul guitar sold. Paul says the fee was five percent. The contract was for five years.

McCarthy recalls: "Phil, Les' business manager, said he wanted one clause of the contract: Les Paul had to agree that he would not play any guitar other than Gibson for the duration of the contract. If in the fourth year he would show up with Gretch , it would cancel everything and he wouldn't get a cent."

Bronstein explains that this was due to the desire to save on tax deductions, and guarantee money for Paul and Ford, when it would be necessary to receive income from concerts and performances later. McCarthy also says that there was also a clause in the contract saying that Paul was to be a Gibson consultant. "We came to an agreement that evening. Everyone had a copy in which everything was written. Les could take him to his lawyer, and I to ours, and if there were questions, we could get together and work them out. And you know not a single word of the contract was changed! I went back to the factory and we had a Les Paul."

violin cellar

Paul says he was much more involved in the development of the Les Paul guitar than McCarthy's story suggests. Paul categorically states: “I designed everything except the curved top… that was brought in by Maurice Berlin. Mr. Berlin told me he loved violins, took me to his basement and showed me the collection. And he said, we at Gibson have something that no one has a machine that can bulge the body of a guitar It would be too expensive for Fender or anyone who wants to do the same He said if I have any ideas about a top like a violin A I said it was a great idea. Then they introduced me to Ted McCarthy and signed the Gibson deal."

But McCarthy is adamant: "I tell you exactly how we made the Les Paul. We spent a year developing this guitar and Les never saw it until I brought it to Pennsylvania for him."

Examining photographs of Les Paul playing Gibson Les Paul guitars in the 50s and later is instructive. They are often purpose-built instruments with a flat top, while the stock Les Pauls had a curved top. Paul almost always modified his Gibsons in some way. An avid mechanic, he later wrote in the booklet of his Capitol Records CD: "In early 1953, Gibson kept bombarding me with guitars, and I kept gutting them, modifying pickups, bridges, controls, whatever." Paul, of course, had his own ideas of what the guitar should look like, and in many ways it was the opposite of how production Gibson Les Pauls turned out.

Interestingly, after the contract between Paul and Gibson, they asked Paul to replace the logo on the modified Epiphone models that he still used on stage. "Gibson asked me to play my Epiphone while they were making the Les Paul for me, but with the Gibson name on it," explains Paul. took it off and had Ted McCarthy send me the Gibson stickers. We put them on the guitars and they said Gibson before they even hit the solid body guitar market."

It may never be entirely clear who contributed what to the original Gibson Les Paul. What is certain is that Paul's acclaimed craftsmanship and commercial success, combined with Gibson's weighty reputation in the manufacture and sale of guitars, produced an impressive result.

Gibson Gold

The new Les Paul was launched by Gibson in 1952, most likely in the spring, for $210 ($20 more than the Fender Telecaster). Today, this Les Paul is almost always referred to as the "gold-top" because of its gold-plated top, and we will continue to refer to it as such. With a solid goldtop body that cleverly used a curved maple top glued to a mahogany base, this sandwich combined the depth of mahogany with the vibrant sound of maple.

Paul says that the gold color of the original Les Paul was his idea. "Gold means wealth," he says, "expensiveness, superiority." Gibson made a special all-gold guitar in 1951 for Paul to give to a terminally ill patient he met at a special promotion at a Milwaukee hospital. ("Put my amp on the gurney and push it forward - we walked and Mary sang to people and I played," says Paul). This gift guitar may have led to the all-gold ES295 archtop in 1952 and may have also led to the first Les Paul paint scheme.

Almost all of the design elements of the first Gibson Les Pauls had precedents in early models. Its configuration with two P-90 single-coils and four knobs (volume and tone for each pickup) was available on previous years' L5CES and Super 400CES models. The overall outline of the body and the set-in mahogany neck followed the established Gibson tradition, while the trapezoidal inlay on a rosewood fingerboard first appeared on the ES150 in the 1950 edition.

Several Gibson acoustic guitars have already appeared in long scales, which the company lists as 24.75 inches. "Length of scale" is twice the length from the nut to the 12th fret, "string length" is the distance from the nut to the saddle on the bridge. Gibson seems to have confused the two in 1950, and when they talk about the 24.75" scale in their literature since then, they are referring to string length. As a result, the scale length of the first and most subsequent Les Paul models is actually closer to 24.6 inches.

Unlike the prototype, the production model came with a height-adjustable bridge and tailpiece combo. It looked like a bar, and long metal rods were attached to it, attaching it to the bottom edge of the guitar. This device was an invention of Les Paul and was originally intended for use on archtops; Gibson also sold them as a separate accessory.

The earliest goldtops had a very slight neck slope, with the neck attached to the body at a fairly shallow angle, which precluded the use of existing Gibson hardware, so a new bridge/tailpiece was used as the only suitable option.

The wrong, too little neck slope meant that the strings almost fell on the body when they left the neck. Even at the lowest setting, the bridge gave too much string height, so Gibson had no choice but to adapt the bridge and wrap the strings around it from below. This was the exact opposite of how it was supposed to be used, since the strings had to be wound on top of it, as on Gibson archtops and electro-acoustics such as the ES295 (1952) and later the ES225 (1955).

This configuration on the first Les Paul goldtop meant that sustain suffered, tuning was inaccurate, and the pizzicato technique was nearly impossible. The guitar was clearly unplayable, as Les Paul pointed out. “They made the first guitar wrong,” he recalls, “I don’t know how many times they got it wrong so it couldn’t be played. the strings under the bridge, not over, set the neck wrong - they screwed everything up."

So Gibson quickly ditched the original unit in favor of a new, purpose-built bar-like bridge/tailpiece that mounts to the top of the body on two posts with an adjustable top. A new, more stable arrangement with strings wrapped over the bridge provided better sustain and tuning. The inclination of the neck has also been changed. The result was a nicer and more usable instrument, released around 1953.

Black coat, fluttering hands

The original goldtop began to sell well compared to other Gibson models, and Gibson took a step further to expand the electric guitar market with the release of two new Les Paul models in 1954, Custom and Junior. As Ted McCarthy says, "There are different artists, some like one thing, some like another. Chevrolet had a lot of models. Ford had a lot of models. So do we."

The dual-pickup Custom looked very strong with its black finish, lots of binding, rectangular markers on an ebony pickguard and gold-plated hardware, and was certainly more expensive than a goldtop.

Paul says he chose the black color for the Custom: "Because when you're on stage in a black tailcoat and a black guitar, people see your hands moving, focusing on them: they see your hands fluttering."

The cheaper Junior was made and aimed at beginners - it had a single pickup and didn't have a curved top. It was painted in traditional Gibson sunburst.

In September 1954, the price list included the Les Paul Custom at $325 and the Les Paul Junior at $99.50; the goldtop rose to $225.

The Custom had a softer-sounding all-mahogany body, which Les Paul personally favored in combinations of mahogany/maple goldtops. Paul claims that Gibson mixed up the entire tone line because, as far as he was aware, the cheaper Goldtop was supposed to be mahogany only, while the more expensive Custom was supposed to be a more labor-intensive combination of maple and mahogany. The Gibson Les Paul Custom was referred to in the catalogs as a "fretless marvel" because the fret wire used was very low, unlike the frets on other Les Pauls of the period.

Rectangular considerations

In addition to the usual P-90, the Custom bridge had a new type of pickup at the neck. This model soon gained the nickname "alnico", inspired by the alloy of aluminium, nickel and cobalt from which the characteristic rectangular poles were made (although alnico is not a specific feature of this sensor). It was designed by Seth Lover, a radio and electronics expert who worked intermittently with Gibson in the 40s and early 50s, in addition to training and setting up equipment for the US Navy.

After several comings and goings, Lover returned full-time to Gibson's electronics department in 1952. Lover was asked to suggest a pickup that was louder than the Gibson P-90 and louder than the Dynacoil single used by Gretch (a New York-based Gibson competitor). Gretch sourced its components from DeArmond, a pickup manufacturer based in Toledo, Ohio.

The rationale for rectangular poles was simple, Lover recalls. "I wanted to be different, I didn't want them to be round like DeArmond's. I didn't want to copy anything. If you're going to improve something, do it your way," he insists. I can put height adjustment screws in between them, but this pickup has never been very popular because guitarists always put it too close to the strings...they got this slurred sound and they didn't like it."

The Custom was also the first model to feature the new Gibson Tune-O-Matic bridge, which was used with a separate bar tailpiece. Developed by Ted McCarthy, the Tune-O-Matic was a first for Gibson, allowing the length of each string to be individually varied, improving tuning accuracy. Since 1955, he also appeared on the goldtop.

While the body lines of the Junior remained the same, the most obvious difference from its Les Paul counterparts was the flat mahogany body. It looked like nothing but a cheap guitar: It had a single P-90 pickup, volume and tone controls, and a flat rosewood fingerboard with simple dot markers. It had a reversible bridge/tailpiece, like the second version of the goldtops.

In 1955, Gibson released the Les Paul TV - based on their Junior, only with what Gibson called a "natural finish" (actually more of a yellow-beige color). The theory that the name TV refers to a pale color that visually resembles a black-and-white TV screen is unfounded, as is the suggestion that TV may be a less-than-accidental nod to the competing light-colored Fender Telecaster. It is more likely that the name alludes to Paul's regular appearance on the television show Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home at the time.

Also in 1955, the original line of Les Paul models was completed with the advent of the Special, in fact a Junior variant with two pickups, but with a beige coloration like the TV (but without the TV in the name - the cause of many subsequent misunderstandings). Special appeared in the company's September price list with a price of $182.50

Gibson introduced the Junior 3/4 in 1956. It had a shorter neck, which in terms of scale meant 2 inches shorter than the normal Junior. Gibson then explained in their brochure that the Junior 3/4 was intended "for children or adults with small hands and fingers". At the same time, in Gibson's electronics department, led by Walt Fuller, the active Seth Lover began work on a new pickup. He was destined to have a stronger and more lasting effect than the previous development. The idea was to find a way to reduce the hum and pickup that standard singles, including the Gibson P-90, suffered from. Lover remembered the noise-canceling choke that was used in some Gibson amplifiers to reduce hum from the power transformer.

Suppressing the background

"I thought," Lover recalls, "If we can make noise-cancelling chokes, why can't we make noise-cancelling pickups?" No obstacles, he decided, and began to make prototypes. The ability of these devices to suppress noise (hum) led to their name - humbuckers, and the principle of operation was very simple. The humbucker consists of two coils connected in antiphase and having magnets of opposite polarity. The result is a pickup that is less prone to picking up outside noise and produces a fatter, more powerful sound than single coils. The metal cover provided additional shielding, Lover explains.

"The cover helps to shield electrostatic noise from fluorescent lamps and other things. I needed a high resistance material so it wouldn't affect the high frequencies, so I decided to go for non-magnetic stainless steel - but you can't solder to it. German silver (an alloy of nickel, copper and zinc) has a high resistance, and is solderable, so I used it. The prototype did not have adjustment screws, but the sales department wanted them - in order to have something to talk about with dealers. Therefore, screws were added before production started. On dual-pickup guitars, we mounted the pickups so that the screws were on the bridge side of the back pickup and the neck side of the front pickup. Do you want to know why?" he laughs and answers his own question, "For aesthetic reasons."

Gibson humbuckers replaced P-90 single-coils on goldtops and Customs in 1957. Gibson even came up with a guitar with three pickups, new humbuckers. Guitarists gradually began to praise these humbuckers and Les Paul guitars for their ingenious combination. And today, many guitarists and collectors are looking for early Gibson humbuckers. They are known as "PAF" because of the small "patent applied for" sticker on the underside.

Patent Applied For

Lover discovered that he was not the first to come up with the idea of ​​a humbucker - he discovered this when he applied for a patent (on behalf of Gibson). The Patent Office has provided citations for as many as six previous patents, the earliest of which was from 1936.

"It was damn hard to get a patent," Lover recalls. The patent application was accepted in June 1955 and finally granted in July 1959.

Which explains the letters PAF. Does it explain? The letters PAF appeared on pickups installed on guitars released in 1962, long after the patent was received.

Lover has a pertinent theory on this: "Gibson didn't want to give any leads on patent searches to those who wanted to make copies. I think that's why they kept putting the letters PAF on for quite some time." When it came time to put a patent number on the pickups, Gibson still fooled the copiers by "wrongly" putting the patent number on the bridge.

Guitarists who say they prefer the sound of humbuckers with the letters PAF note the differences in later versions, which are caused by slight changes in winding, magnet type and wire coating. Today, Seth Lover cannot remember exactly what modifications were made to his invention during the transition from the PAF marking to the patent number.

"The only change I know of is that Gibson made the caps gold from time to time and I think they put the gold too thick and the pickups lost high frequencies because gold is a very good conductor."

The July 1957 price list describes the Les Paul line thus:

• Les Paul Custom - $375;
• Les Paul (Goldtop) - $247.50;
• Les Paul Special - $179.5
• Les Paul TV - $132.50
• Les Paul Junior - $120
• Les Paul Junior 3/4 - $120

Sales of Gibson's original Les Pauls generally peaked in 1956 and 1957, and major variations on the Gibson Les Paul theme would later be based on these models. Many famous guitarists of different styles were carried away by the Gibson Les Paul in the 50s: Franny Beecher (guitarist of Bill Haley), bluesmen Guitar Slim, Freddie King and John Lee Hooker, rockabilly rebel Carl Perkins and many others.

Catalog pages 1958

cherry bicorns

In 1958, Gibson made sweeping changes to the Les Paul line and cosmetic changes to others. Junior, Junior 3/4 and TV have been given a new two-horned body. Tad McCarthy attributes the design changes to the needs of the guitarists. "They wanted to be able to pinch the 6th string with their pinky, and they couldn't do that as long as the notch was only on the bottom. So we made a second notch so they could get there. We did what the guitarists wanted, like we always did." The Junior's new look was complemented by a new cherry red finish. TV also received a two-horned body, and at the same time became even more yellow.

After the double-horned design was applied to the Special, the result was not successful. Gibson didn't take into account the fact that the front pickup notch weakened the neck-to-body connection, and many necks broke off in that area. The error was soon corrected by moving the front sensor deep into the case. The new two-horned Special was sold in cherry or the new TV yellow (although this caused much confusion later, the yellow Special was never called TV).

Sales of Les Paul goldtops began to dwindle, so in 1958 Gibson changed their look, switching to the more traditional cherry sunburst in an attempt to sell more guitars. Although the name Standard is widely used for these models among guitarists and collectors, Gibson did not call them Standard in their literature until 1960, the guitar was not named at all. We will call this model Sunburst.

A Gibson employee explains the switch to sunburst this way: "Something had to be done to stimulate interest. So in those years, the Sunburst model was supposed to really revive the high interest in the Les Paul." Although production in 1959 and 1960 was larger than the previous two years, the increase was modest and the Sunburst model was dropped in 1960.

Catalog pages 1960

In fact, Gibson Les Paul Sunbursts were only produced between 1958 and 1960, and Gibson's November 1959 price list lists them for $280. Among guitarists and collectors, it has since become the most expensive solid-body electric guitar of all time. Sunbursts usually sell for huge sums, far in excess of other collectible guitars, and the factor that determines their price usually has nothing to do with the sound or suitability of the guitars at all, but only with the appearance.

Goldtops usually had a maple top, made from two or more pieces of wood, securely hidden under gold paint. But now the maple upper was exposed under a clear sunburst finish. Gibson's woodworkers were more attentive to its appearance, and usually made a "book". "Book" is a technique where a piece of wood is split in two and then opened along the central cut (like a book), giving a mirror-symmetrical grain pattern.

engulfed in flames

The most desirable sunbursts are those with the most exuberant grain pattern showing through the coating. Joiners call these cut patterns "figures", and while any tree can produce figure cuts, the reasons why this happens are always unpredictable. Some trees give it, some don't.

The figures appear due to some genetic anomaly of the growing tree, which entails the destruction of the cells of the living wood. The visual effect of such a figure is also determined by the change in color as the tree grows, disease or damage, and in the same place where the tree is cut. Radial sawing - when cut so that the grains usually point out from the ends of the resulting boards - often gives the most attractive result, with the illusion of roughly parallel "fingers" or "valleys and hills" running across the cut. In the extreme, it looks spectacular.

This appearance has given rise to many descriptive terms, the most common of which is "flamed". Although technically it describes a different effect, it has been circulated among dealers, guitarists, and collectors and must be considered correct.

fast fading

The resulting visual effect of a 1958-1960 Les Paul was a random result depending on what cuts were in Gibson warehouses at the time. It looks like the company's curviest maple has been used on the backs of (semi)acoustic guitars, but even so, some Les Paul Sunbursts are breathtakingly beautiful. And at the same time, some are absolutely ordinary.

There is another factor that makes the Sunburst models look noticeably different. Paints used to create the sunburst effect, and especially red, can fade in different ways, which primarily depends on how much daylight the guitar has had throughout its life. Some particularly keen collectors claim to be able to tell how long a guitar has been hanging in a display case. In some cases, the original sunburst tint disappears completely, leaving the guitar in one rather pleasant honey tone.

Those who got a chance to play these guitars instead of storing them in bank vaults as part of an investment package note a few small changes made during the three years of production: small frets in 1958 and large frets in 1959-60; Thick, rounded neck in 1958-1959 and thinner and flatter in the 1960 version. But, as one US dealer says, "The top seems to be the biggest factor in buying a guitar like this. If it has a killer top that's been ditched and repainted, it's still going to cost more than a regular one. High prices, I think." because it's mostly not guitarists who buy them, these people are just looking at it, I've seen them buy these guitars without even listening to them, and they missed some great guitars because they looked and said no, no top, not interested…".

Looking for zebras

There is another nuance of that period, which is more about collecting stamps than guitars. In the late 1950s, Huges Plastics, one of Gibson's plastic component suppliers, ran out of black plastic for the bobbins, the bases around which wire was wound in pickups. For a while it was replaced by cream plastic, and over the years, the fashion for the removed covers revealed the difference in color. Some overactive collectors and guitarists even began to pay more for cream or cream black bobbins (later, among sunburst fans, they became known as "zebra").

Humbucker inventor Seth Lover lights up: "Yes, our supplier ran out of black material, but he had cream. We weren't going to stop production just because of that," he laughs, "so we ended up with some cream spools." I don't see any difference between the two...although I think cream is the best color in terms of winding because it shows the wire better than black."

If you take all Les Paul models in general, sales have dwindled after a peak in 1959. In 1961, Gibson decided to completely revamp the line in an attempt to revive a losing market.

Gibson invested $400,000 to expand their Kalamazoo factory in 1960, doubling the size of the factory by 1961. This was the third expansion to the original 1917 factory, with other buildings added in 1945 and 1950. But this new brick and steel shop building was more than twice the size of the previous additions combined, giving rise to a factory of more than 130,000 square meters. m, which occupied two blocks along Parsons Street in Kalamazoo.

One of the first series of new models to be updated by the new expanded production were the completely revised Les Pauls. Before we get into the history of the new guitars, it's worth clearing up the misunderstandings surrounding the many names Gibson gave to Les Paul models and developments from 1959-1963. Here's what happened:

The new model name - SG, which stands for "Solid Guitar" - was first used for a Gibson instrument in 1959. The two-horn design of the Les Paul TV remained, but in late 1959 they were released without the "Les Paul TV" logo on the headstock and became the SG TV model. The same thing happened to the Les Paul Special and the Les Paul Special 3/4, which became the SG Special and SG Special 3/4 in late 1959. Gibson marketing materials, usually lagging behind such changes, used the names SG TV in 1960, and SG Special and SG Special 3/4. - in 1961.

The Les Paul Junior were discontinued in 1961. The Les Paul Junior, "Standard" and Custom were completely redesigned in 1961. The familiar single-cut design was abandoned, and the new instruments were given two horns each with substantially turned horns. The 1961 Junior and Custom may have other shapes, but the old-style "Standard" or Sunburst was dropped in 1960. Initially, Gibson retained the Les Paul name on the redesigned versions: on the Junior's head, Standard truss cap, and Custom body plate.

Catalog pages 1962

In 1963, Gibson dropped the Les Paul name in the converted Les Paul Junior, Les Paul Standard, and Les Paul Custom, and gradually renamed them SG Junior, SG Standard, and SG Custom in their literature. In retrospect, the converted Junior, Standard and Custom referred to in point 3 are referred to by collectors and guitarists as "SG/Les Paul". "SG" is the body type that later became the official name, and "Les Paul" is the logo that remained on the 1961-63 models.

There are several stories about how the Les Paul name left the new "SG/Les Paul" models in 1963. Ted McCarthy, still the president of Gibson, says this was done for a number of reasons that made associations with Les Paul less commercial than they used to be.

Les Paul's popularity as an artist began to decline: Les Paul and Mary Ford had no more hits on Capitol since 1955, and left the label in 1958. They switched to Columbia, but with modest success.

The personal relationship between Paul and Ford began to deteriorate. Their separation was noted by Billboard magazine in May 1963: "Miss Ford now lives in California, and Paul lives in New Jersey," was the headline "Les and Mary Saying Goodbye." The couple officially divorced at the end of 1964, and in 1965 Paul took a ten-year hiatus from performing and recording.

Disclaimer on behalf

The main reason for leaving the Les Paul name on Gibson guitars in 1963 was his divorce from Ford. "The contract ended, I think, in 1962," recalls Paul, "just when Mary and I decided to separate."

He and Gibson agreed that they would delay further negotiations until a divorce was finalized. Paul didn't want to sign any new contracts bringing in new money while the divorce was going on, as he says himself, "because the lawyers would have demanded part of them against divorce alimony. So my contract ended in 1962 and Gibson could no longer make Les Paul guitars.

Catalog pages 1964

Paul also says that he didn't like the new design of the SG/Les Paul models and that was another reason for dropping the name. This is the reason that is usually given the most importance. For example, in 1978, Paul told Tom Wheeler at American Guitars, "I saw the first SG/Les Pauls in a music store...and I didn't like the shape. You could get yourself killed by those sharp horns. They were too thin and they moved the front pickup away from neck to put my name in. The neck was too thin and I didn't like how it fit into the body, there was too little wood for my liking, so I called Gibson and asked them to remove my name from the thing. It wasn't my design."

However, Paul can be seen in various Gibson promotional photos holding an SG/Les Paul, and he holds one on the cover of his "Les Paul Now" album.

Super slim, handmade

The American musical instrument business magazine Music Trade, August 1961, contains an account of a gala banquet given at the close of the July NAMM show. The stars of the banquet were Les Paul and Mary Ford, and the photo clearly shows both of them with "old-fashioned" single-cut Gibson Les Pauls. Elsewhere in the same issue, a Gibson ad with the slogan "Solid Hit" features a picture of Paul and Ford promoting the new SG/Les Paul ("super thin, handmade, bihorned") models. So Paul, while under contract with Gibson, continued to play the original Gibson Les Pauls on stage, but at the same time Gibson used him to promote the new SG guitars.

Production of Les Paul models increased slightly when the new SG design was introduced in 1961, and the Kalamazoo factory produced just under 6,000 Gibson Les Pauls a year between 1961 and 1963. The September 1963 Gibson price list is one of the last to contain the Les Paul:

• "SG/Les Paul" Custom (White) - $450
• "SG/Les Paul" Standard (cherry) - $310,
• "SG/Les Paul" Junior - $155

Between 1964 and 1967, no Gibson guitars were listed under the Les Paul name, either in production or in company literature.

Sales and strikes

Sales of guitars in the US as a whole - including both acoustic and electric instruments - grew in the early 60s and peaked at 1,500,000 in 1965, after which sales declined and fell to the million mark in 1967. Sales of CMI guitars and Gibson amplifiers peaked at $19 million in 1966 and then began to fall on a general trend to $15 million in 1968.

Gibson production was hit not only by declining demand for guitars, but also by several strikes in the 60s, including a 16-day strike in 1966, which, according to Music Trends, led to "a turnover of qualified personnel" and meant that " Gibson's production efficiency remained relatively low throughout the year." Gibson was also unlucky with local weather conditions, nor with the fact that a "carrier strike in Chicago interrupted the movement of goods through the company's distribution center."

In 1962, a new home was built for Gibson's electronics department, and a separate factory was acquired to manufacture Gibson amplifiers, strings, and pickups. Guitar production remained on Parsons Street in Kalamazoo. Gibson president Thad McCarthy and his deputy John Huys left in 1966 after acquiring California musical accessory maker Bigsby and moving the company to Kalamazoo.

In February 1968, after several short-lived presidential chairs, Stan Rendell was appointed president of Gibson. Rendell had been with CMI since 1963 and was vice president of manufacturing. He told his boss, Maurice Berlin, that he was tired of the countless trips between CMI's factories, producing different products, including Lowrey organs, Olds brass, and Gibson. Berlin offered Rendall the chance to run Gibson - no easy task, it was later revealed.

"Mr. Berlin told me, you know, we're not doing well with Gibson," Rendell recalls. "They lost a million dollars in the previous two years." And just like that, Rendell became president of Gibson and was charged with improving the company's business.

Guitarist Bruce Bohlen was born in England and grew up in Chicago. He joined Gibson in 1967 as an organizer and participant in the company's promotional shows and concerts and, as Bohlen himself puts it, "the company's official guitarist." Gradually, over the years, Bohlen began to take on more responsibility and eventually became involved in the guitar design and marketing process.

Going back to the late 60s when he joined the company, Bohlen also recalls the deplorable state of affairs at Gibson: "One of the reasons I was hired was because sales of Gibson electric guitars were failing. All we had - SG plus semi-acoustics, and they didn't sell very well. The company at that time was based on flat-top acoustics. So I was hired mainly to start selling guitars."

He found that management at CMI and Gibson had no idea that interest in the Gibson Les Paul among rock guitarists was growing in the late 60s. "I was just some kind of punk and they were 50 or over," Bohlen recalls. its very valuable, because it gave a sound very appropriate to their music".

Bloomfield in the USA

Around 1965, blues-rock music boomed. Many white guitarists formed the core of this new musical movement, some inspired by the guitars used by their black idols. They found that the sound of a Gibson Les Paul, driven through an overdriven high-powered tube amp and multi-speaker cabinets, becomes so magically rich, emotional and very fitting for this fresh music trend.

American Michael Bloomfield was the first to gain serious attention when he picked up a Fender Telecaster to accompany Bob Dylan in his famous first "electric" performance at the Newport Festival in 1965. Bloomfield appeared the same year on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited album. Soon after, he got his first Les Paul, a goldtop, and later acquired a Sunburst. He used it as a regular member of the Butterfield Blues Band on the 1966 improvisational album "East-West", which had a strong flavor of Indian music and jazz that made him very popular at the time.

Bloomfield's Super Session (1968) with Steve Stills and Al Cooper became a platinum bestseller. His appearance with the Les Paul Sunburst on the cover did a lot to increase the popularity of the guitar among American guitarists. Sadly, due to drugs, Mike Bloomfield died at 36 years old.

Clapton in Britain

In Britain, the most notable member of the Les Paul club was Eric Clapton. "The best Les Paul I ever owned was the one that was stolen during Cream's first rehearsals," he told the respected American guitar magazine Guitar Player in July 1985. "It was the one I played at John Mayal - a regular sunburst Les Paul that I bought in a London store right after I saw the cover of Freddie King's "Let's Hide Away and Dance Away" album, which he plays on a goldtop. He had humbuckers and he was practically brand new with the original case with that lovely purple trim on the inside, just magical. I never found another that was as good. I miss it so much." Coincidentally, this loss has resulted in many hopeful sunburst owners making the ill-founded claim that their personal Les Paul is "the former Bluesbreaker".

As a member of the Bluesbreakes, Clapton played a Les Paul Sunburst to great effect on the Blues Breakers album. This famous album came out in July 1966, a month before the Butterfield Blues Band released "East-West" with Bloomfield. Be that as it may, with the release of the albums, it was Bloomfield in America and Clapton in Britain who, more than anyone else, turned their colleagues towards the new sound of old Les Pauls.

In the UK, the search for old Les Pauls has become even more intense as a succession of respected guitarists have picked up the old model. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones was among the first stars seen with a Gibson Les Paul when he brought the Sunburst back from the 1964 American tour. Jimmy Page used a three-pickup Gibson when he was an active session player in the London studios in the mid-60s, and in the late 60s, at Led Zeppelin, he switched to Sunburst. What inspired Jeff Beck to switch from a Fender Esquire to a Les Paul Sunburst was seeing Eric Clapton playing one in the Bluesbreakers. Clapton's replacement in Mayal's band, Peter Green, used Sunburst to great advantage for the band, as well as for Fleetwod Mac, which he formed in 1967.

Prices for used instruments began to rise gradually, and letters from musicians pleading for help in finding these elusive Les Pauls appeared in the music press. "I'm having a lot of trouble finding a Gibson Les Paul Custom," wrote one A.P. Jones, in the August issue of Beat Instrumental, the leading rock magazine of the time, "Can you tell me where to find it? If you think it's impossible, can you tell me which guitar is close in sound?".

This request is for a Custom, but most guitarists would be happy with any guitar with a Les Paul badge. The magazine replied: "The Les Paul Custom is a highly sought-after instrument. It's impossible to find a new one, and even used ones are very rare. If you want one, you'll have to be patient." Beat went on to advise as an alternative to consider the slowly growing influx of Japanese copies being imported into Europe and the States. These oriental "replicas" of the period were actually of poor quality, but at least they looked similar and were available.

Legendary Les Pauls

The search for Les Paul did not stop. Again in the news column in the October issue of the same year, Beat stated the sad state of supply and demand. They wrote: "So many people are interested in buying the almost legendary Les Paul guitars that we did a little research…" followed by some sketchy information about dates and models, forgivable given the paucity of information about the history of the guitar in 1967. Beat summed up: "Some guitarists claim that you can buy new Les Pauls, but they are wrong ... so if you are offered a guitar and they say it's a Les Paul, be very careful."

Finally, Gibson were about to make a decision about their deteriorating position in the electric guitar market, and especially about the growing demand for their old Les Pauls.

Bruce Bohlen, Gibson's "playing manager," recalls that one day, shortly after he joined the company in 1967, Vice President Mark Carlucci asked him if he'd mind staying that evening at CMI headquarters in Chicago: "Mark said someone was coming to see us and we want your opinion on what he's going to show us. I asked who it was. And he said Les Paul."

"When I was a six-year-old, Les Paul was my first guitar hero," Bohlen continues, "So I was thrilled to have the chance to meet him. Gibson still wasn't ready to introduce the Les Paul again. I begged them!"

Les Paul's musical activity had been very inactive since the mid-1960s, but this meeting in 1967 marked the renewal of his association with Gibson and the start of the Les Paul replica program. Paul's recollection of the circumstances is typically blunt: "I called Gibson and said, Fender are bugging me and offering me a contract and my divorce from Mary is over. Do you want a contract? And Mr. Berlin said, strange that you called because we are closing the whole line electric guitar at Gibson. He said the electric guitar was dying out. And I said, can I meet you in Chicago? I want to invite you for a cup of coffee. We met a day later, and I talked him into making electric guitars again."

It may be that Mr. Berlin did consider "closing the entire line of power tools at Gibson", but there is little evidence that such a move was considered. Anyway, Gibson got a new contract with Paul and it looks like his royalties were about five percent of the "standard price" of each Les Paul - the in-house price that Gibson gave CMI guitars at a third of the retail price. Such calculations, for example, suggest that Paul received about $6.50 for every Les Paul model that retailed for $395.

By the time Stan Rendell became president of Gibson in early 1968, the decision to return to Les Paul production had already been made by CMI management, predominantly Maurice Berlin and Mark Carlucci.

At the Gibson plant in Kalamazoo, Rendell and his team faced their own challenges. Rendell recalls the state of affairs when he moved to Gibson: "We had all sorts of quality problems. We had personnel problems. We had problems with the union. We had endless problems."

The new boss, Rendell, got to work. He designed the management structure of the Gibson Kalamazoo factory, drew up production plans, improved control procedures, set up a separate warehouse facility, held regular meetings, and bought, as he says, "a ton of new equipment, anything. Mr. Berlin said, in the early years, "I worked there, there were more new ideas, new technology than in the entire history of Gibson before. We just caught the courage, we were interested. And if we didn't know something, we figured it out."

At the same time, Bruce Bohlen was engaged in promotional concerts for Gibson. He took a prototype of the forthcoming Les Paul Custom on tour in late 1967, as he recalls: "People were just tearing themselves apart from him, they couldn't wait for the same."

Les Paul: Comeback

Gibson decided to re-introduce the relatively rare two-pickup Les Paul Custom and Les Paul goldtops with P-90 pickups and Tune-o-matic bridge. The possibility of a custom white finish like the SG/Les Paul was initially discussed, but the sensibility of the white finish led the company to opt for the "right" black finish.

Gibson formally announced two new models at the June 1968 NAMM show in Chicago. The company's price list for that month contains, for the first time, two of the aforementioned Les Pauls: a $545 Custom and a $395 Goldtop. During this period, Gibson materials called the Goldtop Standard. This is confusing, as in the 50s, goldtops were never officially referred to as anything other than simply Les Paul. For the sake of clarity, we will continue to refer to these guitars as goldtops.

Les Paul was at NAMM to promote new guitars for Gibson, doing what he has always done best - performing. Bohlen recalls: "I provided Les with a rhythm section and it was the first time he'd been on stage in years. We had a lot of fun."

Gibson press ads with the slogan "Daddy of 'em all" showed that Gibson was eager to promote the guitars again: "The demand just never stopped. that real Gibson Les Pauls are still available. Fill out the form with your Gibson dealer…".

Shortly after the 1968 summer NAMM, new Custom and goldtop production began in Kalamazoo. Rendel says the first shipment, which took 90 days from lumberyard to finished goods warehouse, consisted of 500 guitars: 400 goldtops and 100 Custom. "And by the time we started, CMI wanted 100 Goldtops and 25 Customs a month, and until we stopped that we were making 100 Les Pauls a day. That's about 250-300 instruments a day." Gibson have apparently been successful in production; the only mystery from the perspective of many guitarists was why they waited so long.

CMI+ECL=Norlin

In 1969 there was an important change of ownership of Gibson. The musical instrument industry magazine Music Trades reported that the new owner, Norln Industries, came from a merger between CMI and ECL, an Ecuadorian beer company. ECL simply bought enough CMI shares to gain control of the company. Norlin's name comes from the merging of the first syllable of ECL president Norton Stevens' surname and the last syllable of CMI founder Maurice Berlin's surname. Norlin had three businesses: musical instruments, beer, and what Music Trades loosely called "technology." The takeover ended in 1974, and Maurice Berlin, a man widely respected in the music industry, stepped into the minor roles in the new structure, moving away from the management of the company.

Many people who worked at Gibson at the time now say that when the change of ownership happened, a new generation of employees suddenly appeared. The most common description - and the most polite - are Harvard men in suits, with slide rules and calculators. More specifically, they were MBA graduates from Harvard, armed with the tools of their craft. As one of the Gibson managers of that period says: “I think about people, technology, blanks ... and these new guys “solve” all problems on the calculator. They had nothing behind their souls, except for finding a place to invest money and make a profit, this was their motivation.

Gibson President Sten Rendell recalls that the new owners fundamentally changed how the business was organized: “When they came in, they said we were going to turn Gibson from a revenue center to a cost center. Before that, we were selling CMI guitars, which meant that the factory could make a profit. And with those profits, we used to buy equipment, increase employee bonuses, raise wages - anything a profitable company can do - but when they turned us into a cost center, we didn't sell anything - they just paid our bills, and when they did "They have destroyed the initiative. If someone bills, they pay it. So the biller doesn't think about billing too much or not at all."

Many Gibson employees during this period felt that managers who knew guitars were being replaced by managers who knew production. Some of the instruments from the period immediately after the Gibson takeover are in disrepute today. The new owners were generally indifferent to the needs of the musicians. One employee recalls: "Before 1974, everything was better than ever, and then everything changed. Too many people did too little, too much money was spent on very little, and this began to affect the famous foundations."

Interestingly, this tension is also reflected in the history of two other American guitar manufacturers: Fender (bought by CBS in 1965) and Gretch (bought by Baldwin in 1967). Obviously, it was in the spirit of the times when economic analysts were advising large corporations to diversify their businesses, throw in some money and sit back and wait for earnings.

From any point of view, it was not only Gibson themselves who felt the results of the new control methods. This shift towards streamlining production meant that changes were made to some of the Gibson guitars made in the 70s (and in some cases, the 80s). Basically, these innovations had three goals:

• save money;
• limit the number of warranty returns;
• speed up production.

The most common comment about Gibson Les Pauls from the 70s is that many of them were relatively heavy compared to examples from other periods. This is partly due to the increased density of wood that Gibson bought, but partly also to a change in body design that was followed from about 1969 to 1973.

Instead of the traditional mahogany/maple combination or all-mahogany construction, a multi-layered sandwich was chosen. It consisted of a maple top with two layers of mahogany underneath, separated by another layer of thin maple. When viewed from the side of a Les Paul of this design, the extra maple middle layer is striking.

The effect of adding an extra layer of oppositely directed fibers is called "cross-banding" - the method of transverse layers. Gibson's internal technical bulletin stated that this was done in order to strengthen the body and prevent cracking. "It's a standard method in the furniture industry," says Stan Randall, "it tightens the wood."

It could also make it easier for Norlin to stock up on blanks, as the thinner mahogany for the necks could also be used for the body. But in 1973, "sandwiches" were no longer made: there were complaints that the layers were drying out, and the additional labor required for such a construction unnecessarily increased the cost.

Around 1969, Gibson changed the neck construction from solid mahogany to a stronger three-ply construction, and in 1974 to three-ply maple for even greater strength. Also, around 1969, they put on the neck at the place where it passes into the head, the so-called "volute" - a triangle, which theoretically strengthened this obviously weak point. Another change that minimized the problems of the same spot that appeared at the same time was a slight decrease in the angle at which the head was bent down. Such seemingly practical changes did not make the Gibson popular among traditionalists.

Epi goes hunting

Through the efforts of Gibson's guitar division, the goldtops reintroduced in 1968 later changed style and names. In practice, this means that the first revived goldtops lasted only from 1968 to 1969. A year later came the Les Paul Deluxe, the first Les Paul with a name in 14 years.

The Deluxe came about at the request of Gibson marketers, who were told by dealers that the performers needed goldtops with humbuckers (rather than the P90 single-coils as on the replica). But it looks like Gibson wanted to keep the visual look of the guitar with downsized pickups, and a compromise was needed.

Jim Durlo joined Gibson in 1958 as a grinder and has come a long way in the factory. In 1969, he was in charge of the blanks shop in Kalamazoo and was given the task of installing humbuckers on the Deluxe... without additional processing costs. His only solution was to fit the humbucker into the P90's volume. He considered several options, eventually settling on using an Epiphone mini-humbucker, such as those found on Epiphone Rivera and Sorrento semi-acoustic models and Crestwood and Wilshire boards.

Gibson purchased Epiphone around 1957. According to Ted McCarthy, who was president of the company at the time of the deal, Gibson thought that for the $200,000 bid they would only acquire the bass business. In fact, it ended up literally acquiring the entire Epiphone company: guitars, parts, equipment, and everything else. "We only discovered it when they shipped it all in a big furniture truck," says McCarthy, who had to rent space in another building on Eleanor Street in Kalamazoo to get Epiphone blanks ready for final assembly on Parsons Street. "I gave it to Ward Arbanas, and we started making Epiphone guitars, just like Epiphone made them, down to the last detail," says McCarthy.

Epiphone production at Gibson in 1959-61 was already done entirely at Parsons Street and many good guitars were made.

Gibson kept the brands of the most famous Epiphone guitars, and the rest of the new items were the "equivalents" of the Gibson models but from Epiphone, for example, the Casino, which was very similar to the Gibson ES-330 (only with the Epiphone logo, of course).

In 1969, the Epiphone line was ending, and the most likely reason seems to be that Epiphone prices were more or less the same as Gibson's. As a result, buyers preferred the more well-known name Gibson, which meant a drop in demand for Epiphone. Again, the issue of price required action, and in 1970 Gibson discontinued production of the Epiphone in the US, and began to use the brand name on cheaper guitars imported from eastern factories.

Jim Durlo adapted mini humbuckers for the Gibson Les Paul Deluxe by taking the body from the P90, cutting a hole in it and putting a small Epiphone pickup inside... which Gibson now had in abundance. The result satisfied everyone: the appearance was preserved, the pickup was a humbucker and no additional processing costs were required. “At first it was done rudely,” Dyurlo recalls the cuts in the R-90 cases, “but then we made a special tool for this, with which they sawed and drilled the case.”

At first, the Deluxe was produced only in gold tops, but then sunburst and other colors appeared, and production continued until the mid-1980s. They appeared on the Gibson price list in September 1969, priced at $425.

The goldtop model, which, as you may remember, was re-released in 1968 with a P-90 and a Tune-o-matic bridge, was dropped after the 1969 Deluxe. But around 1971, Gibson released a new replica of the goldtops, this time with a reversible bridge/tailpiece, like the second version of the original 50s model. Les Paul suggests that Gibson simply used old cases left over from the 50s. These goldtops lasted until 1972 but did not appear on the company's price lists.

Name on details

At this time, Gibson took the rather selfish step of putting the company's logo on the P-90. Both the pickups found on 1971 goldtops and other Gibson electric guitars bore this brand. In practice, a ridiculous situation arose where dealers who wanted to keep a stock of spare parts had to order two completely different pickups for guitars with two identical pickups. This was to ensure that the Gibson logo would not turn upside down when mounted pole-to-neck or bridge-mounted. Later, in the 70s, the logo was abandoned.

As we can see, Les Paul's guitar design ideas didn't necessarily match the guitar styles that Gibson considered commercially successful. In the 1950s and 60s, one of Paul's most non-trivial passions was low-impedance sensors. Today, low-impedance components are often used in pickup design due to improvements in adjacent components, but then Paul was a loner. The vast majority of guitars and guitar equipment was high impedance.

Paul explained his reasons for working with low impedance pickups to John Sievert in the December 1977 Guitar Player magazine: "I learned early enough in my electronics studies that low impedance was the way to go. "If you walk into a professional studio and someone offers you a high-impedance microphone, you'll think he's crazy."

He goes on to explain the obvious advantages of low-impedance pickups: they, he says, "do not pick up the sound of a cash register or neon lights" - which is simply a consequence of their low output - and can be used effectively with long cables without much loss in low frequencies. But the real benefit of low-impedance pickups is their wide timbre, though of course this isn't necessarily to everyone's taste.

Low impedance pickups need to boost their signal somewhere before it reaches the amplifier, unless the guitarist is playing directly into a mixer or other device that can accept low impedance signals. Paul used a direct recording method, and the wide frequency range of his low-impedance pickups is partly responsible for the clarity of sound he achieved when recording.

Impedance reduction

When Paul came to Gibson in 1967 to discuss the revival of the Les Paul guitar, he spoke with great passion about his beloved low-impedance pickups, and how Gibson should use them on some of their instruments.

Bruce Bohlen was at the meeting, and he recalls: "Although he talked about how we should revive the Les Paul, he also had a novelty that he was trying to introduce to Gibson - a low-impedance pickup. He made a couple of special guitars for them, with such pickups "and I had to compare them to our humbuckers. A lot of people, specifically at that time, didn't really understand what Les was trying to explain. So Gibson asked me to use my ear - and it was a revelation in terms of partial range."

So, in 1969, the first wave of Gibson Les Pauls with low-pedal pickups appeared: the Les Paul Professional, Les Paul Personal, and Les Paul Bass. While Bohlen recalls some of the original flat-top prototypes with very thin profiles, it appears that CMI boss Maurice Berlin wanted these proposed models to be a half-inch larger in contour to be more noticeable on stage or on TV.

Despite the purpose of the guitar electronics for recording in the studio and the fact that the extra weight would mean a very heavy guitar, this oversized size was adopted by the Professional and Personal series.

The Personal name comes from one of Paul's personal modified Les Pauls, even the mic jack on the side of the guitar was copied. But in general, the need for such a detail could not be wide.

Catalog pages 1970

The Personal and Professional had a complex set of controls, and reading the Gibson manual for these instruments leaves the impression that these guitars were made for engineers, not guitarists. In addition to the familiar treble and bass tone knobs, volume and pickup switch, there is an 11-position "Decade" switch "to adjust the high frequencies", a three-position tone switch for creating various combinations of circuits, and a pickup phase switch. The Personal also had a volume control on the useful built-in mic input.

Both guitars required connection via a specially supplied cord with a built-in transformer that increased the output from low impedance humbucking stacks to a level acceptable for operation with normal high impedance amplifiers. "Otherwise, this tool will not function correctly," the instruction warned. It is not calculated how many Personal or Professional owners found themselves at a concert without their “Impedance Transforming Cord” and were forced to entertain the audience with jokes, a cappella singing, and so on.

Undoubtedly, those who turned to these new, sophisticated toys were able to make the guitar "play literally every modern timbre and make sounds not previously possible with an electric guitar," as the Gibson booklet said. But the guitars were not very successful and did not last long in the Gibson line. Their rather mild brown color, due to natural mahogany, didn't work in an era when competitors were busily churning out plain guitars in bright colors.

The Les Paul Bass was the first Gibson bass to bear the Les Paul name, and was similar to low impedance guitars. It had two slanted pickups with a black cap, but only a phase switch and a tone selector from the whole guitar circuitry. He also needed a special cord, and in the same way it was not produced for long.

Gibson's September 1969 price list included three low-impedance Les Pauls: Personal $645, Professional $485 and Bass $465. Gibson also made a special LP12 combo and LP1 amplifier, both with switchable impedance for these guitars (allowing the guitarist to also use standard cords). They are on the Gibson price list for September 1970 - $1110 for LP12 and $505 for LP1.

In 1970, Gibson released a very unusual instrument, the Les Paul Jumbo. It was an acoustic with a flat soundboard, a round rosette and a cutout. It had a low-impedance pickup on top, and a row of deck-attached controls (volume, treble, bass, Decade, and a bypass switch to disconnect the tone circuit from the circuitry) lined up. Very few Les Paul Jumbos were made, and it's not hard to see why. They last appeared on the Gibson price list in November 1971 for $610.

The company made a second attempt to introduce a series of low impedance instruments in 1971. First, the Professional/Personal body was downsized to near-normal Les Pauls and had a profiled back. The still needed transformer was then placed in the guitar itself, and a switch installed to allow selection of both low and high output impedance. Finally, they renamed the guitar to the apparently more appropriate Les Paul Recording. The bass underwent similar modifications, and although it was now called the Les Paul Triumph Bass, it was still referred to as the Les Paul Bass in some Gibson literature.

Brochure pages 1971

The Gibson price list for June 1971 shows the Les Paul Recording at $625 and the Les Paul Triumph Bass at $515. This second wave of low impedance models lasted until the late 70s. Bruce Bohlen attributes the lack of success of low-impedance models to taste: "The tops on these guitars were so clean that they didn't have enough harmonic distortion to please rock players."

Named weapon

In 1974, the company launched the Les Paul Signature with two pickups and the Les Paul Signature Bass with one in a series of thin guitars. As Bruce Bohlen explains, "These were basically asymmetrical 335s, only they didn't have a full center block like the 335s." They did, however, have a block under the bridge, and in this they were similar to the Gibson ES330 (in fact, the 335s lost their center block for a short time during this period). Although early Signatures were sold with rounded pickups similar to the Professional, Personal and Recording stacked humbuckers, most Signatures were sold with rectangular low-impedance pickups with conventional adjacent coils.

Catalog pages 1975

Some of the controls on the Signature were the same as previous low-impedance models, but the 11-position "Decade" was stripped down to a three-position switch and lost its name. A notable feature of the Signature was the presence of two output jacks - one at the end, for normal high-impedance connections, and one at the front, for connection to low-impedance equipment such as mixers. The same was implemented on the latest version of the Recording model. The Signature never truly captured the imagination of guitarists and were discontinued by the late 1970s. The February 1974 Gibson price list lists the Signature at $610 and the Signature Bass at $540.

In 1974, Gibson recalled that it had been 20 years since the first Les Paul Custom, which they celebrated by releasing the Custom with a matching "Twentieth Anniversary" inlay at the 15th fret, instead of the usual white marker. It was Gibson's first anniversary model (and the only predecessors in the electric guitar market were the Gretch, which released four anniversary models in 1958 to celebrate the company's 75th anniversary). The 20th Anniversary Les Paul Custom created a strong marketing tradition, and several Anniversary Les Pauls have since appeared. As one of the former Gibson employees says: "Whenever there was an anniversary, we released such a guitar."

By that time, the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo employed about 600 people who were making 300 guitars a day. Demand for guitars increased from the early 70s, and as a result, Gibson's parent company, Norlin, decided to build a second factory in Nashville, 500 miles from Kalamazoo.

No doubt there were many factors in the choice of location, but the one that topped Norlin's list was the fact that Tennessee was "workable" - in other words, there were unions, but workers could choose whether to join or not. Michigan, as well as the lion's share of the northeastern states, had much stronger unions and established agreements with them that implied compulsory union membership, as well as generally higher salaries and insurance.

The recent strikes at Gibson cost Norlin dearly, so the new 11,000 sq. m in Nashville was built not only to increase production, but also with the prospect of reducing the cost of labor agreements.

Work began on a new site five miles east of Nashville in 1974, and the factory opened in 1975. It took some time to prepare the new workforce. Stan Rendell, then still president of Gibson, says, "A small number of people were moved from Kalamazoo to Nashville to manage, but the workers didn't move. So everyone had to be hired and trained, and that takes time. I think the Les Paul guitar needs average eight or ten man-hours of labor. So if you're going to make, say, 100 guitars a day, you need 125 or more workers - and that's without support staff. It takes time to train management, workers, everyone. So we sent some key people."

Kalamazoo vs. Nashville

The original intention was to use both factories and the new Nashville factory would only make acoustic guitars. Stan Rendell says trying to make acoustic and electric guitars in the same place is like trying to make trucks and cars in the same factory. They require different attention at different stages of production.

"The biggest challenge," says Rendell, "is scheduling the factory so that everyone is always on the job. For example, the amount of work on an electric guitar is huge, while all you have to do with acoustics is put on tuners and string strings so what type of guitar is going through final assembly at any given time has a big impact on the load.What I wanted was to spin off and move the flat-body acoustic production out of Kalamazoo and have a group of people who would know nothing but acoustic guitars , in Nashville."

Unfortunately, the new acoustic project being made in Nashville was the Mark series, one of the most unsuccessful Gibson acoustics. The guitars were full of technical and design problems, and as one of the former employees says: "The Mark series was a fiasco." Failing, management decided to move most of the Les Paul series, the most successful part of the board line at the time, to Nashville. Ken Killman, Gibson's customer service manager, told Melody Maker in 1975, "In the '60s we couldn't sell electric guitars, but now the Les Paul line is the best-selling line of all."

The Kalamazoo factory has always been considered "soft", which meant that the machines and setups used to make the guitars could be modified and adapted to suit the circumstances. The Nashville factory was born "tough," which meant it had many heavy machines and setups that never changed settings.

Of the two factories that Gibson used until the late 70's and early 80's, the Nashville factory was set up to produce many models in very large quantities, while the Kalamazoo factory was more flexible and had the potential to specialization in small batches. Nashville was the obvious choice for producing the most massive Gibson electric guitars of the day, the Les Paul Custom and Les Paul Deluxe, as well as other electric guitars.

Catalog pages 1975

As if to highlight the contrast between the capabilities of the two factories, Gibson introduced two new Les Paul models in 1976. The first was the Pro Deluxe - just a Deluxe with P90 pickups and an ebony pickguard. It was produced in large quantities in Nashville.

Another new model for 1976 was The Les Paul, an impressive limited edition model featuring the finest wood throughout virtually the entire instrument. Many parts that would have been made of plastic on a conventional guitar have been hand-turned from rosewood: the pickguard, backplates, knobs and truss cap. Raw bodies and necks of beautiful maple and embellished ebony were produced at the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo. Further work on the multicolored piping, abalone inlays and handcrafted woodwork continued at Dick Schneider's independent workshop, a mile from the Kalamazoo factory. Schneider, along with his brother Donnie and Abe Vecter with Gibson, completed The Les Paul guitars.

Very few The Les Pauls were made, and although a common four-digit typo in Gibson's own recordings obscures the full number, clearly fewer than 100 were made between 1976 and 1979 (mostly the first year). Schneider moved from Kalamazoo during this period. , and Gibson employees say that some later The Les Pauls were therefore made entirely in the Gibson factory. The limited stock of Schneider's handcrafted wood pieces ran out, so conventional plastic pieces were used instead, along with less sophisticated edging.

Each Les Paul had a numbered oval plate on the back of the headstock. Bruce Bohlen remembers flying to Hollywood to present Number 25 to Les Paul, just before the 1977 Grammy Awards, where Paul and Chet Atkins received an award for their Chester & Lester album.

"The Les Paul was a fun project," recalls Stan Rendell. "They were great guitars, the wood was so beautiful. I remember not saying anything to CMI until we made them. We presented them at NAMM and I remember CMI president at the time, Les Propp, asked how much we would asking for that guitar. I said, well, 3,000 bucks. He was speechless," Rendell laughs. The price quoted for The Les Paul was four times the price of the most expensive Les Paul on Gibson's June 1976 price list, the $739 Custom.

Catalog pages 1978

Official Standard

There didn't seem to be enough fun projects to keep Stan Rendell interested in Gibson management, and in November 1976 he resigned. After several short-term replacements in 1980, Gibson was taken over by Marty Loak, formerly of the CMI organ business in Lowrey.

From the mid-to-late 70s, Gibson were more and more into variations on the Les Paul theme, and less and less into innovations. In 1975 the Standard was introduced. The truss cap was stamped with "Standard", finally making the use of the word in relation to older Les Pauls inside and outside Gibson incorrect. The new Standard was the stock model in sunburst, and later in other colors, and two humbuckers.

Another model 25/50 Les Paul symbolized the 25th anniversary of Les Paul's collaboration with Gibson (which was supposed to happen in 1977) and his 50th year in the music business. The gold and silver commonly associated with such dates were reflected in the guitar's chrome and gold-plated hardware, and Chuck Burge of Gibson's engineering department made a special commemorative pearl and abalone inlay on the guitar's headstock. The guitars had a three-digit personal number on the back of the neck, along with the standard serial number, and Les Paul was given instrument number 001 at a Gibson gala given in his honor. The tool was launched in 1978.

Despite their relatively high price (about $1,200), the Kalamazoo-made 25/50 sold well, illuminating a market ready for expensive Les Pauls for Norlin. But management also relied on the opinion of the Gibson sales department as a market demand: an example from that period is the Les Paul KM, one of six series of unimpressive instruments made for the southern region. "KM" means, of course, "Kalamazoo Model".

Tim Shaw joined Gibson in 1978 after working in California and Kalamazoo as a guitar luthier. His first months at Gibson were spent at a pickup factory in Illinois, but by early 1979 he was already working with Bruce Bohlen in the Kalamazoo R&D department and working with Chuck Burge and Abe Wächter on prototypes, personal instrumentation and new designs. Shaw recalls that one of the first prototypes he worked on became a Les Paul Artist model that used a set of active electronics originally designed for Gibson RD instruments. In the late '70s, synthesizers were serious business, and Norlin decided that working with one of the biggest names in the business, Moog, would help capture what new keyboards were taking away from guitars. The Gibson RD line was launched in 1977 but did not become popular. Many guitarists disliked active electronics and this was a key factor in the failure of the RD series. Gibson felt that the reason was more in the radical design and went by combining RD technology with traditional design.

“In 1979, Gibson decided to bring the RD concept to two of their more traditional series, the ES and Les Paul,” Shaw explains. “We had to redesign the board because the original RD circuit was too big to fit anywhere. two boards, which still meant we'd have to take a lot of wood out of the Artist guitars, but what I didn't fully accept, until a while, was that guitarists are very conservative people, and no one really needed a Les Paul, who could do it all. Someone once said that with these Artists, one turn of the switch could spell disaster."

Catalog pages 1980

Artist lasted until 1981, and were quietly withdrawn. A more successful project was the Les Paul Heritage, one of the first conscious attempts to make a Les Paul in a way that many people think Gibson can't do anymore. Since the late 60s, a solid market for so-called "vintage" guitars (which until then were simply called second-hand or even old) has grown. It was fueled by a general feeling that Gibson were making guitars "not the way they used to be", coupled with a clear preference by popular guitarists of the day for older instruments.

well forgotten old

Some American dealers who specialized in used instruments have already started ordering select "retro" spec models from the Gibson plant in Kalamazoo, which has become increasingly leaning towards specialty guitars since the Nashville factory was founded. Jim Durlo, factory manager at the time, recalls dealers such as Leo's and Guitar Trader ordering these "retro" Les Pauls.

"They were removed from the assembly line and brought to the required condition," says Dyurlo about special orders. “At that time, we didn’t make instruments that looked like the old ones. We made what was in the catalog of that period, not a guitar with a faded top,” he continues, “I remember that Guitar Trader selected every top and were very picky to the color."

During this time, in 1979, Chuck Burge began making prototypes for the Les Paul Heritage Series. Tim Shaw recalls: "They were our first approach to answering questions like what was the best thing about these guitars? Do we make them the same way now? And if not, why not? Management didn't want to hear about it at first, but we fought for it." fangs and claws."

The development team used a 1954 template to profile the top of the body, changed the neck design to a 3-piece neck design free of the then-standard back of the headstock boss, and moved a little closer to the specifications of the older pickups. Beautiful woods were chosen for the top of the new Les Paul Heritage.

Bruce Bohlen, head of the development team at the time, managed to persuade Norlin to put the "retro" Heritage guitars into production - not as standard Les Pauls, however, but as separate, valuable limited edition instruments not included in the company's main price list. Launched in 1980, two models of the Heritage series were the Heritage Standard 80 and the Heritage Standard 80 Elite, the latter with an ebony fingerboard and flattened top.

Influenced by Heritage models, or because of attention to the demands of the market in general, but Gibson at that time began to get rid of some of the production tricks introduced in the 70s, in particular, removing the "volute" (volute) and gradually returning to vultures from one piece.

The July 1980 price list contains six Les Paul models:

• Artist - $1299
• Artisan - $1099 (It's a kind of decorated Custom)
• Custom - $949 (gold hardware), $899 (nickel)
• Pro Deluxe - $889
• Standard - $849

According to some Gibson employees, it appears that in 1980 Norlin decided to sell Gibson. Later, an article in Music Trade magazine reported that in 1981 Norlin had an incurable debt burden due to constant losses in the music business, which led to the sale of a lucrative technology and beer division in 1982. In addition to Gibson and Gibson Accessories, Norlin's music divisions included Lowrey organs, Moog synthesizers and the Orchestral Instruments division.

Catalog pages 1983

As an example of Norlin's falling profits, Gibson's sales fell 30% in 1982 alone to $19.5 million from $33.5 million in 1979. Of course, not only Gibson were in decline. The guitar market as a whole literally collapsed, and most American manufacturers suffered in much the same way. Costs were high, economic circumstances and currency fluctuations were against them, and Japanese competitors were stepping up their pressure.

Norlin's overall losses in the music business were high, according to Chairman Norton Stevens' message to shareholders: "The loss from operations before the $22.6 million write-off was $11 million," he said. Norlin "supported the music business, which has dwindled in importance in recent years," Stevens continued, putting on a good face on bad acting. He argued that Norlin's goal was "to invest in the work for the benefit of future profits." In 1984 Stevens left the board of directors of Norlin.

Norlin moved some sales, marketing, finance, and administration personnel from Chicago to Nashville around 1980. All major production was now in Nashville, while the Kalamazoo factory was being turned into specialty production for special orders, as well as banjos and mandolins. Plant manager Jim Durlo told Disc International magazine in 1982: "The plant now produces predominantly special models, which we call "custom shop", in small batches of 25-100, sometimes a little more. Kalamazoo is more of a huge workshop, and we are proud of our tradition and skill.

Trouble in Kalamazoo

In July 1983, Gibson President Marty Locke informed Jim Durlo that the Kalamazoo plant would be closed. The last work at Kalamazoo took place in June 1984, and the plant closed three months later, after more than 65 years of faithful service since the construction of the Gibson building. It was a very exciting period for the managers and workers who worked at the plant for a long time.

One employee says people knew the closure of the Kalamazoo plant was imminent: "On top of that, the Kalamazoo plant was falling apart, a very old building, so far gone in history. The Nashville plant was new, big, great production... Which made things worse , is the impossibility of supporting the business of two plants at once, and there was only one choice." This observer also notes that, from a business standpoint, it would certainly be easier to work only with the Nashville factory, and its more acceptable labor agreements and costs.

Tim Shaw also recalls those past goals. "Jim Durlo, to his credit, fought hard to keep the Kalamazoo factory from closing, but he lost. And when the announcement came, he gathered the whole factory and said something like this. Look, they decided to close the plant. You worked for the company for a long time and I'm really sorry this happened, but you're all professionals, you've been here for a long time, you have traditions to be proud of, and as we shrink before closing, I want you to stay professional. Leave with a smile."

“And I think, for the most part, they did just that,” Shaw continues, “But it was very painful to see how every Friday 30-60 people were lost. I think Dyurlo did everything in his power in terms of support spirit and keeping everything in a professional framework. Several key figures were offered positions in Nashville, but Durlo, along with Marv Lam, who had been with Gibson since 1956, and J.P. Motes, who had been with Gibson for about the same length, decided to leave. They leased part of the Kalamazoo factory and founded the Heritage guitar company in April 1985. They continue this business today: Heritage has 15 employees, a line of 35 models and they made about 1500 guitars in 1992. As Marv Lam says, "We all grew up making guitars and didn't know anything else. We could have found another job, but we wanted to do what we know best."

Focus on Nashville

While the emphasis at the Nashville plant was on large batches of a small number of Gibson models, this gradually changed as it became accustomed to the new role of the company's sole production facility. For example, in 1983 Nashville released the Spotlight Special, a limited edition using different components.

From the production of the removed models - The Paul and The SG - a nut remained. Several narrow pieces of wavy maple were found in the timber yard. Nashville managers combined these elements and added rosewood veneer and dark edging from a Chet Atkins model. The result of the cocktail was the Les Paul Spotlight Special, with the body showing a distinctive central stripe of walnut between two maple "wings". The model appears to symbolize the official opening of the Custom Shop division in Nashville, with the "Custom Shop" logo and series number on the back of the headstock, followed by the date "83" and three numbers.

In 1983, a longer-lived model, the Studio, also appeared. Gibson decided they needed a cheaper Les Paul guitar, as one of the design team says, "We took all the bling off." This basically meant no binding on the body and neck, which meant a more straight forward look. Bruce Bohlen recalls the process of choosing a name for the model, which went nowhere until Bohlen visited the studio that evening: "A light bulb went on in my head, and I thought, let's call it Studio. What can be more associated with the Forest than Studio?". In the mid-80s, Bohlen became vice president of marketing and development at Gibson, and in 1986 he left the company after 19 years of hard work.

The Les Paul Studio appeared for the first time on the January price list at $699, $300 less than any Les Paul of that period. Studio has gone through several changes since its inception. At first they had a normal-sized body, but, unusually for a Gibson, alder. However, aesthetic concerns with the lacquer used quickly led to a switch to the proven maple and mahogany combination. The new body was 1/8 inch thinner than other Les Pauls, resulting in a reduction in weight and manufacturing cost.

Around 1986, some Studios began to come out with ebony fingerboards instead of rosewood - which they saw as a luxury for a relatively inexpensive guitar. One Gibson employee explains it this way: "Gibson buys a certain grade of ebony, but doesn't know how good it is until it's been machined. Very ebony is the highest grade and is used in the best instruments.

Gibson never paints the fretboards, so you end up with some worse ebony with brown streaks. It is called grade C ebony and cannot be used on expensive guitars. So there's a whole family of instruments - and the Studio is a prime example, because they're made in large numbers - that use either rosewood or C-grade ebony, depending on availability. If there is a lot of Grade C ebony in stock, Gibson uses it. If for some reason it runs out, rosewood is used."

Early Studios had dot markers, standard for cheap Gibson models. Around 1990, they began to put a more stylish "trapezoid" - a marketing solution for a more attractive look. A few years after 1984, a variant with a bound body and neck appeared, the Studio Standard, and another variant was the Studio Custom with gold-plated hardware. In 1993, the Studio was still the cheapest Les Paul in the Gibson line at $899.

Gibson for sale

As you may remember, Norlin put the Gibson up for sale around 1980. In the summer of 1985, they finally found buyers, and in January 1986, Henry Yushkevich, David Berryman, and Gary Zebrowski purchased the entire Gibson business for an undisclosed sum (variously estimated by the press at the time to be between $5 million and $10 million). At the time, Norlin's core business was the print business, and Gibson were the last piece of a once-great music empire left to sell.

Yushkevich, Berryman, and Zebrowski first met in the late 1970s while studying at Harvard. Yushkevich majored in engineering and investment banking, Berryman in finance, and Zebrowski in marketing. Also, very importantly, Henry Juszkiewicz was a guitar enthusiast, a guitarist who loved Gibson instruments: "He's a real fan," says one of the staff.

The three went into business together, teaming up in 1981 and turning a money-losing electronics company into a profitable business. When they bought Gibson in 1986, Yushkevich became president, Berryman became vice president of finance, and Zebrowski continued to run the electronics business.

Under new owners

The immediate result of the change in ownership was the layoff of many people, including the plant manager, the quality control manager, and many others. Few will find this a popular first step. “It was frightening,” admits one eyewitness in the early 90s, “but Henry got what he got. Judging by the results, he revived the company from the dead.”

Yushkevich admitted to a reporter in early 1986 that he was, as he says, in the process of restructuring Gibson production. He said the updated Gibson would be exceptionally aggressive in developing and releasing new products, and argued that they would be more inventive in sales and marketing than ever with more competitive pricing.

"It worked well," says Yushkevich today, "but I knew for sure that first there would be two years of living hell." Turning to the ever-popular Les Paul, Juszekwicz says he inherited the bad relationship between Gibson and Les Paul himself. "Les obviously had a vested interest in the success of his guitars, and they killed them, so he was very annoyed. Les lives in New Jersey and Kramer (Kramer, a local guitar maker) saw him all the time - he even made a video for MTV talking about how good Kramer guitars are, so I got in direct contact with Les right away, and that fixed the problem, I listened to what he had to say: he wanted to see a cheap Les Paul in our Epiphone line, for example, and we ended up putting that into business for a few years."

JT Riboloff joined Gibson in 1987, having moved from Nashville from his native California where he worked as a guitar luthier. He was accepted into the Gibson Custom Shop and soon began working on new models. Tim Shaw was transferred from the Custom Shop and development department to Gibson's international department and flew frequently to Korea to help expand the Epiphone line. He left Gibson in 1992 after 14 years with the company.

"Old ladies" and lost specifications

In 1985, two new Les Paul "replicas" were released. Gibson were now well represented by the continued demand in the seething vintage Les Paul market. The Heritage Series of the 80s was only a partial take on a true replica of the famous old Les Pauls. Re-issues were the next step - both forward and backward at the same time.

The February 1985 price list shows the $1299 Re-issue Goldtop and the $1599 Sunburst Re-issue (noticeably more expensive than the next most expensive Les Paul guitar, the normal Custom at $1049). These were generally high quality versions of the existing Standard, Goldtop and Sunburst models, the latter featuring a selected waved maple top. Gibson then gradually tried to improve the "authenticity" of their Re-issues, driven by constant demand from customers looking for the perfect copy of those sacred instruments of the 50s.

"When I came to Gibson in 1987, the Les Paul Re-issue was just a Standard with a wave top," Riboloff says. "Slowly but surely, we were allowed to move a little further." The basic Re-issue model is commonly referred to as the 59 Re-issue, due to its overall similarity to the 1959 Sunburst. Since its introduction in 1985, small "adjustments" have been made including: a smaller "retro" headstock; exceptionally beautiful maple top; new top profile to better match the original body contours; changing the neck treatment for the same reasons; slight decrease in the inclination of the neck; holly veneer on headstock; the correct groove for the notch for the timbre block; an old-style Tune-o-matic bridge and a longer neck tongue where the neck joins the body. This was the condition of the "new" 59 Re-issue presented at the 1993 NAMM, with Gibson's closest approximation to specifications 50. Another thing is that to determine these lost specifications in itself was a labor.

Riboloff says: "For the Re-issue, I looked at probably 25 different Les Paul Sunbursts from 1958-60. They were all different," he laughs. For example, he says, none of the headstocks were the same. “The tuning pegs could be moved forward or back, the neck curve started in a different place, the scrolls were shorter or the logo was different,” he says. “There was no hard technology back then, so they are all different. In fact, there is no one “correct” copy. So with these 25 in hand, we took the best of each tool - finish, profile, and so on - and put it all together."

Tim Shaw remembers the famous "old ladies" Gibson, who did a lot of manual work in the factory during the era of the great models of the 50s. “They sanded the old models differently every time,” he says. “It just pissed me off when different people told me, oh, the Gibson logo should be here, and the words “Les Paul Model” should be there. What do you think , I said, those women who pasted the inscriptions, did they measure it? No!

"What's the correct specification for an early Les Paul?" Shaw laughs at the question without answer and concludes, "Who knows!"

One aspect of Les Pauls that leaves less room for debate is their weight. Some are no doubt heavier than others, but overall the Les Paul is a heavy guitar. Gibson were determined to do something about it. The weight is due mainly to the density of the mahogany. J. T. Riboloff points to extremes: “You can have two pieces of the same size, one can weigh two kilograms and the other can weigh ten. The difference is due to the amount of minerals absorbed by the tree as it grows, especially silicon. Of course, we do not use extremely heavy material. It goes for crafts, very good for small wooden mallets," he laughs.

X-ray and Swiss cheese effect

The new owners inherited the desire to reduce the weight of the mahogany. Since 1982, Nashville has been drilling a series of small cavities into the "red" half of the body of the Les Paul, in what some observers have tactfully referred to as the "Swiss cheese" effect. Of course, once the maple top was installed, these holes were invisible, except perhaps to touring musicians who paid attention to airport x-rays.

"I don't think it makes much of a difference in sound," says Tim Shaw of "Swiss cheese," because the holes are too small to work as resonating cavities. And new Gibson president Henry Yushkevich points out, "It doesn't no change in the sound characteristics of the model. We have tested it. The bridge area is of absolute importance for the sound. If you do something in the area of ​​the switch, it won't have any effect on the sound. The maple top is solid, of course, and it defines a lot in the sound. So we make the guitar better: it's more comfortable, but it still sounds good." Mahogany cavities are still used on Les Paul models, with the exception of some Re-issues.

The first real attempt to solve the Les Paul's weight problem came with the new Les Paul Custom Lite, introduced in 1987. It had a profiled back, which was purely Fender-esque, and the wood chosen as a result reduced weight and made the guitar more comfortable. It cost more than the regular Custom, probably as a result of additional production costs (in September the base models were priced at $1170 for the Custom and $1249 for the Custom Lite), and lasted until 1989.

At the same time, in 1988, Gibson introduced a version of the Les Paul Studio with the same profile, the Les Paul Studio Lite (again, in the February 1988 price list, the Studio is $909 and the Studio Lite is $974). But a year earlier, Gibson had discovered chromite. This is another name for the balsa tree, derived from the first word in its Latin name, ochroma pyramidicale and ochroma lagopus. Balsa had good resonant properties and, contrary to popular belief, is certainly not cheap, costing about four times as much as mahogany, for example. It was first used by Gibson as a body insert to lighten their new USI maple top electric guitar in 1987.

Matthew Cline, a craftsman who worked in Gibson's development department, tried to make a cavity Les Paul, but it didn't have enough power for the "meat" that conventional Les Pauls are associated with. Mike Woltz, another Gibson Custom Shop employee, used balsa inserts for the Gibson Chet Atkins SST model, so Kline and Woltz began working on applying the same ideas to the Les Paul.

In 1990, the Studio Lite changed specifications: they got chromite (balsa) inserts, a normal flat back, a thinner neck, and lost about a kilogram of weight. The cutout in the body leaves the bridge and tailpiece connected to the bottom, and the space around it is filled with balsa inlays (which comes to Gibson already cut to size). However, these new experimental guitars did not gain wide popularity, and therefore they soon decided to abandon their release, returning to traditional technologies.

"Negibson" M-III

The 1991 M-III was Gibson's radical new style guitar with more flexible wiring, but it didn't catch on. In the spirit of the merger between RD and Artist, ten years earlier Gibson used the electronics of the unusual M-III in more familiar Les Pauls.

J.T. Riboloff came up with the idea for the M-III, and originally wanted it to be a double humbucking guitar. Management pointed to the popularity of other H-S-H configurations, and the M-III dutifully appeared with three pickups. "My goal was to provide a 5-way switch for any choice of Stratocaster and Les Paul configuration," says Riboloff. Unfortunately, Gibson customers found the design and electronics of the M-III too "non-Gibsonian" and did not rush to purchase the instrument.

Therefore, the scheme was adapted to two Les Paul models - Classic/M-III and Studio Lite/M-III. Riboloff thinks the Studio Lite is a better match for the M-III's sound - the sound of the lighter body works well with the circuit's enhanced sonic capabilities. Classic/M-III was withdrawn in 1992, while Studio Lite/M-III remained in the catalog until 1993.

Thin vultures and bird eyes

J.T. Riboloff found that guitarists who asked for special, unique guitars made for him at the Custom Shop wanted thinner necks like the 1960 Sunburst. Henry Yushkevich noticed the interest that a sample of such a piece of instrument caused at NAMM, and told Riboloff to start work on a production version. She appeared in 1990 and was called Classic. A couple of years later also appeared 60 Re-issue and Re-issue Sunburst in the style of the 60s.

Yushkevich decided that the Classic should stand out a little from the rest of the models, and insisted on the "1960" logo on the pickguard of the guitar to emphasize the source of the thin neck and the "retro" style head. Thanks to the open humbuckers, the Classic's sound was more modern.

Riboloff's original intention was to make the Classics more "flat" and "faded" to resemble some of the not-so-spectacular Sunbursts that guitarists like Jimmy Page would take on stage from time to time. In 1992, the Classic Plus was added to the line, and "Plus" meant a prettier upper than the regular Classic - in reality it wasn't good enough wood before Re-issue requirements, but still nice enough to be worth the extra. .

In 1993, the gradation of the upper became even more staggered, with the introduction of the Classic Premium Plus (the very best), the Classic Birdseye (with the characteristic maple pattern, commonly referred to as "bird's eye") and the Classic Premium Birdseye. Similar differences appeared in the Custom line with the introduction of the Custom Plus and Custom Premium Plus in 1992 and 1993.

Following Juzshkevich's efficient (and spectacular) operation to return Gibson to living legend status, the company entered an era that could be called a period of stability. The main principle of the Gibson strategy, which has been implemented since the second half of the 90s, can be formulated as "quality and authenticity". The company, without much storming, but at a steady pace, achieved that the quality and characteristics of all major guitar models were recognized by almost everyone (with the exception of the most conservative Vintage adherents) to be unconditionally consistent with the Gibson name. The 2002 Les Paul Standard crowned this quest for the perfect balance between classic tradition and modern technology.

Radical experiments like the M-III or Hawk series were considered not the best idea, and the company focused on the production of its classic models, and primarily LesPaul. In addition, realizing that excessive fascination with the number of modifications to the same model hurts production efficiency, the company seriously undertook to review the entire Les Paul series, with the goal of making the most balanced range, but without frills.

The number of variants of the Les Paul Standard, however, has remained quite large, since these "most important" Les Pauls are so coveted by their fans that they want as many as possible and at the same time different. Therefore, within the Standard line, the Premium Plus model has been preserved, which differs from the base model in the "artistic" maple pattern (but other maple gradations are a thing of the past). Carriers of another disease - addiction to vintage guitars, complicated by the lack of excess money, are offered the Faded option, which imitates noble color fading (without imitation of physical wear). For those who are fed up with variations on the classic sunburst theme, check out the bolder colors of the Limited Edition series. And finally, in the Standard series, there is a "two-horned" variant of the DC Plus, which appeared as Gibson's answer to the aggressive marketing of PRS. The Classic series was stripped of its maple-themed gradations, which was a smart move, since conceptually it's more of a tool for down-to-earth musicians than collectors.

It is worth noting that by reducing the number of finishing options for the Standard and depriving them of the Classic, Gibson became generous with the Plus option with a full maple pattern in the Les Paul Studio line. Another notable addition to this series are the genre-oriented baritones that gravitate toward lower tunings.

Some production Les Paul models have been moved to the Custom Shop. This applies to Les Paul Custom and Les Paul Special with P90. True, you should not assume that they left behind a vacuum. The niche left after the transfer of Custom production was filled by the Supreme model. In addition to the characteristic inlay, it differs from the Standard primarily in that the guitar has maple "caps" on both sides (at the same time, maple of the AAAA class is used in versions with a transparent coating). Of course, the guitar class itself is generally higher. As for the Special series, it still produces budget American Les Pauls, but with conventional humbuckers. A logical move, given that the younger generation that the production Specials are aimed at is unlikely to appreciate the charm of the P90, unlike the collectors who are the main clientele of the Custom Shop.

The Custom Shop & Historic line of instruments (the full name of the division) itself has received a very rapid development from Gibson. The activities of the Gibson Custom Shop include the following areas:

• Replicas of vintage guitars. When applied to the Les Paul, this means the era of 57-60, in which those guitars were produced that are now valued in the six-figure market on the vintage market. Of course, even the objectively very high prices of the Custom Shop in this case are a much more affordable option.
• The line, conventionally called Custom. In addition to the Les Paul Custom, it includes various Custom Shop fantasies on the theme of "elite Les Paul". Basically, these are limited series guitars, such as, for example, the now discontinued Elegant or the insanely luxurious Ultima.
• The Artist series - personalized guitars of artists. Very limited edition guitars often appear in this series, usually replicas of specific instruments. In addition, there is a fairly stable list of endorsers, which today includes Zakk Wylde, Pete Townshend, Joe Perry, Slash, Jimmy Page, Neal Schon. These are mostly instruments with original technical solutions, like the electronics of Jimmi Page or Joe Perry guitars, or with radical (for traditional Les Paul) upgrades, such as EMG (Zakk Wylde) or Floyd Rose (Neal Schon) pickups.

In addition, one cannot ignore such an activity of the Custom Shop as the creation of unique custom-made guitars. And in this field, Gibson are undeniably unrivaled in the field of commemorative guitars. Among the company's clients are not only musicians or collectors - but also "big names" from large companies, trademarks, associations, etc. Companies such as Hummer, Zippo or Playboy magazine consider it prestigious to commemorate an event or date with a Gibson commemorative guitar design. Sometimes these are guitars of special shapes "in the theme", but in all other cases they are Les Paul, of course with a unique finish.