Legendary Guitar Innovator Les Paul Dies Aged 94

Born in Wisconsin on 15 June 1915, Lester William Polsfuss first emerged as a precocious child musician and was performing “honky tonk guitar” by the age of 13 in local bands. Joining Sunny Joe Wolverton’s band four years later he went under the pseudonym Rhubarb Red, and became a radio star of the 1930s. Dissatisfied with the guitar designs of the day, which produced thin sounds and were prone to feedback at higher volumes and lacked sustain, Paul began to construct his own guitar design which he affectionately dubbed “the Log”. Using pieces of a railroad rail he created a non-vibrating top to the instrument and produced his first instrument in 1941.

He also developed his own Django Reinhardt-inspired approach to playing at this time that matched the gypsy jazz master’s fleet-fingered virtuoso technique, while also finding regular work on the Armed Forces Radio Service which in turn led to sessions with Nat King Cole and Illinois Jacquet among others. During the 1940s and 50s he also enjoyed chart success with his then wife Mary Ford with songs like  ‘How High the Moon’, ‘The Tennessee Waltz’, ‘Vaya con Dios’ and ‘The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise’.

His single biggest innovation came with the invention of the solid bodied guitar in 1948 that he developed in a new partnership with Gibson Guitars. It was set to revolutionise rock 'n' roll and enable guitarists to create a full, rich tone and that all-important sustain -- they’ve since become the company’s best selling design and the stuff of legend. Les Paul continued to play through a highly distinguished career that saw him play a weekly gig at New York’s Iridium Club with his jazz trio and be championed by guitarists from right across the musical spectrum including rock and blues giants Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton some of whom paid tribute to him and the huge contribution he made to the development of the modern guitar and sophisticated multi-track recordings processes. Fusion blues guitarist Derek Trucks commented "Les Paul played until the day he died. I admire that... That's the way you live a life. You could take any one of the many things he did and it would have been enough for most people. Inventing multi-tracking and then the first great solid body electric guitar. The amount of things he pulled off is pretty astounding."