Gibson Les Paul

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(Redirected from Gibson Les Paul Junior/Special)

Gibson Les Paul

Manufacturer	Gibson
Period	1952 — 1960, 1968 — present
Construction
Body type	Solid
Neck joint	Set
Woods
Body	Mahogany, Maple
Neck	Mahogany
Fretboard	Ebony, Rosewood
Hardware
Bridge	Fixed
Pickup(s)	2 Humbuckers (originally single-coils)
Colors available
Various (often natural-type finishes)

For the jazz guitarist, see Les Paul

The Gibson Les Paul signature model is among the most recognized solid-body electric guitar designs. It was developed in the early 1950s and, together with the Fender Stratocaster, has become one of the most enduring and popular musical instrument models in the world. Its design has been left virtually untouched for nearly 50 years.

1 Origins
2 Models and variations
3 Notable Les Paul users
4 Low-end variations
5 Les Paul imitations
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Origins

The Les Paul model represented a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar, under president Ted McCarty, and the pop star, electronics inventor and accomplished jazz guitarist Les Paul. After the debut of the Fender Telecaster series of guitars, in 1950, solid-body electric instruments became a craze, and Les Paul was brought in by the company as an innovative and respected figure who had experimented with them on his own. An early hand-built prototype of his, called 'The Log,' was once widely considered the first solid-body Spanish (as opposed to 'Hawaiian,' or lap-steel) guitar ever built, although numerous other prototypes and limited-production models have since resurfaced. Paul had earlier, in 1945 or 1946, approached Gibson with this prototype, but his design had been rejected.

The new guitar was to be an expensive, well-made instrument in Gibson's tradition. Recollections differ on who contributed what to the design, but Gibson had offered electric, hollow-body guitars since the 1930s, and provided at minimum a basic set of design cues, including a more traditionally curved body shape than that of Fender's models, and a glued-in ("set") neck, rather than Fender's bolt-on neck joint design.

As to Paul's contributions, Tony Bacon in his book "50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul" minimizes Paul's contributions to advice on colour (Paul preferred gold as "it looks expensive", and black, as "it makes your fingers appear to move faster on the fretboard", and "looks classy - like a tuxedo") and advice on the trapeze tailpiece. According to Gibson's president Ted McCarty, Gibson showed Paul a nearly finished instrument in 1951, and Gibson was mainly interested in having Paul's name on the headstock, as it would increase sales. Discussions with Paul were on the fitting of a maple cap over the mahogany body for increased density and sustain (which Paul wanted the other way around, but according to Gibson the guitar would become too heavy) and the tailpiece. For flash's sake, and to drive the point home that the Les Paul model was a quality instrument Paul also specified that it be offered with a gold finish. Later models included "flame" and "tiger" maple finishes for the top, and again in contrast to Fender's range of car-like finish colors.

[edit] Models and variations

The 1952 Les Paul featured two single-coil pickups, and a one-piece, 'trapeze'-style bridge and tailpiece, in which the strings were fitted under, instead of over, a steel stop-bar. It was a very heavy instrument (around 9 pounds), and an expensive one, yet it had phenomenal sustain and a smooth, rich tone for the time. Both the tonal characteristics and weight owe largely to the Les Paul's construction of mahogany and maple, both quite heavy woods. The 1952 model also had no serial number(s) and are considered by some as LP model "prototypes" as some were made with 'black'covered P90 pickups as opposed to the current 'creme' plastic covers associated with the guitar we know today. Named the "Gold Top," these early models are beginning to gain more collector interest and associated pricing along with the more desirable (and usable) later versions which already bring a hefty price.

The guitar had some bugs to be worked out concerning intonation (correct tuning), neck angle, and pitch. Subsequent models saw the trapeze tailpiece evolve into a 'wrap-around' tailpiece (1953), and then into the current Gibson designed tunamatic bridge system (1954). The second issue of the Les Paul came into being in 1954 and was called the "Custom" which featured the all-black, highly decorated work of art, dubbed the "Black Beauty." This version featured a mahogany top which differed from the Gold Top's maple top. It also featured the new tunamatic bridge design and a new pickup with an alnico 5 magnet in the neck position. Later designs created to target every price point include the Melody Maker (although not bearing the Les Paul name, its body design closely followed that of the true Les Pauls in each era), the Les Paul Jr., and the Les Paul Special.

Les Pauls have always had their strings mounted on the top of the guitar body, as on Gibson's hollowbody instruments, rather than through the body as in Fender's designs. By advancing pickup, body, and more hardware designs, the Les Paul soon became a family of guitars; the Standard, Custom, Jr, and special as noted above, each with different pick-up options (in 1957 Gibson introduced the 'humbucking pickup' which revolutionized the sound of the electric guitar, along with eliminating the 60 Hz (cycle) noise which plagued amplified guitars previously aka P.A.F.) hardware options, finishes, and different decorative levels. This Golden Era lasted until 1960, when for various reasons (declining sales in part due to the high price and strong competition from the popular and much lighter double cutaway design of the Fender Stratocaster-1954) the Les Paul Model received a complete make-over. In 1960, the model became thinner, much lighter, received two pointy cut-aways, and a vibrato system. This was done without Paul's knowledge, and when he saw the guitar, he asked Gibson to remove his name from the instrument thus parting ways with the company. Although this occurred in 1960, Gibson still had a large quantity of "Les Paul" logos and truss rod covers and continued to use them until 1963 when the name was finally changed to "SG" which stood simply for "Solid Guitar." Gibson continued its less expensive Jr's and Specials with the newer body style (and of course, the Melody Makers). This would remain so until the reintroduction of the Les Paul Standard Gold Top and the Les Paul Custom in 1968.

In the 1960s, artists such as Mike Bloomfield, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton realized the potential of the late '50s Les Paul guitars (particularly the 1958-1960 Standard sunburst model) and gave them wide exposure. These guitars featured the thicker, more sustaining tone of Gibson's "humbucking" pickups (the original units are also known as "PAF" — "Patent Applied For" — pickups). The PAFs were designed by Seth Lover while working for Gibson in 1955, and debuted on Les Pauls in 1957. This became a standard design for Gibson and many other companies followed with their own versions of the humbucking pickup. After Clapton and Bloomfield, other guitarists quickly jumped on the bandwagon, and over the years 1950s Les Pauls have become some of the most desirable and expensive electric guitars in the world. A 1959 Les Paul in good condition can now easily bring prices between $100,000 and $500,000. Although then, with increased pressure from the public, Gibson reintroduced the Les Paul in 1968.

Subsequent years and new company ownership (Norlin) meant a lot of changes on the Les Paul. The Deluxe was one of the first and featured "mini-humbuckers" (also known as "New York" humbuckers) which did not initially prove popular (causing its demise in the mid 1970's though later reintroduced in 2005). The mini-humbucker pickup fit into the pre-carved P90 pickup cavity which helped increase production. Gibson body designs changed enormously during the "Norlin" era, most notable would be the neck valute. The valute strengthened the neck where it joined the headstock which previously had the reputation of breaking. The neck woods were also changed from mahogany to a three-piece maple design also for strength. The LP body was changed from being one piece mahogany with a maple top into multiple slabs of mahogany with multiple pieced maple tops (also called a 'sandwich body'). Alas Gibson began experimenting with models such as the 'Les Paul Recording' which featured low impedance pickups, many switches and buttons, and finally the highly specialized cable for impedance matching for the amplifier. Less noticeable changes include but were not limited to maple fingerboards (1976), pickup cavity shielding, and the crossover of the ABR1 tunamatic into the modern day "Nashville" tunamatic. The Les Paul body shape also gave way to many other Gibson models during the 1970s such as the S1, the Sonnex, the L6S, and many other experimental models.

Due to the popularity of the Les Paul guitar, hundreds of copy versions were made in both the U.S. and overseas. This caused many problems for Gibson and other guitar makers due to cheaper prices and a lack of importing/patent laws restricting such practices. Though troublesome, some copy companies did enlighten Gibson and others. For example, during the 1970s and early 1980s Japanese companies, such as Tokai, made superb high quality replicas of the 1957-59 vintage Les Pauls and are still highly regarded guitars. Tokai's accuracy in reproducing Gibson and Fender classics from the 1950s and '60s spawned "custom shop" guitars. Thus in the 1980s Gibson began to offer its own accurate reproductions of its highly sought after early Les Paul Models made in its own "custom shop" as a result of the high demand for the vintage models.

In the 1980s Gibson again changed direction and ownership and made Les Pauls that resemble our modern ones today. The 1980s also saw the end of the valute and maple neck.

The Les Paul is available today in an array of past and present variants, and has been played by a good portion of the most important guitarists of the past half-century. At 90 years old, Les Paul himself still plays his personal Les Paul (which, as an inveterate tinkerer, he has heavily modified over the years) onstage, weekly, in New York City (as of September 2005, Mondays at the Iridium Jazz Club at 51st Street and Broadway). Paul prefers his 1972 Gibson 'Recording' model guitar, with different electronics and a one-piece mahogany body.

[edit] Notable Les Paul users

Main article: List of Gibson players

[edit] Low-end variations

In a mode designed to widen the market still further for solidbody electrics, Gibson issued a Les Paul model in 1954, the Les Paul Junior. It was designed for and aimed at beginners, although over time it has proved itself well enough suited to straightforward pro use. Although the outline of the Junior's body was clearly reminiscent of the original Les Paul, the most obvious difference to its partners was a flat-top "slab" mahogany body, finished in traditional Gibson sunburst. It did not pretend to be other than a cheaper guitar: it had a single P-90 pickup, simple volume and tone controls, and the unbound rosewood fingerboard bore plain dot-shape position markers. It featured the stud bridge/tailpiece as used on the second incarnation on the gold-top.

In 1955, Gibson launched the Les Paul TV model, essentially a Junior in what Gibson called a "natural" finish - actually more of a mustard yellow in which the grain could be seen through the transluscent finish, not unlike the finish that Fender called "butterscotch" yellow. The idea behind this "TV Yellow" was that white guitars would glare too much on early black and white television broadcasts, whereas TV Yellow guitars would not. Also that year, the original line-up of Les Paul models was completed with the addition of the Special, effectively a two-pickup version of the Junior finished in the TV Yellow colour (but not called a TV model).

In 1958, Gibson made a radical design change to all three of these Les Paul models, as well as a cosmetic reaction to another that would later take on enormous importance. They were revamped with a completely new double-cutaway body shape, apparently as a players' requests for more access to the top frets than the previous designs allowed. The Junior's fresh look was enhanced with a new cherry red finish. The TV adopted the new double-cutaway design as well, along with a rather more yellow-tinged finish. When the design was applied to the Special during the following year, the construction was not a complete success. Gibson had overlooked the fact that the cavity for the neck pickup in the Special's new body severely weakened the neck-to-body joint. In fact, the neck could potentially snap off at this point. The error was soon corrected when Gibson's designers moved the neck pickup further down the body, resulting in a stronger joint.

The Les Paul Special is offered in cherry or TV yellow.

[edit] Les Paul imitations

Although most imitations fall well short of the mark, some companies such have come close to perfecting copies. Tokai for one in the early 1980s made an imitation Les Paul that featured such a perfect reproduction of the neck that Gibson sued them. The end result was that the necks had to be replaced on US market models. Ibanez in the late seventies also made very high quality Gibson imitations. This was at a point in time when Japanese manufacturers were both painstakingly precise and affordable, but lacked the reputation of their US forebears.