Tír Na HiFi

Just noticed that today would have been Les Paul's bithday, without who, etc. etc.

JAW wrote:Just noticed that today would have been Les Paul's bithday, without who, etc. etc.

I NEED a Les Paul! Good man Johnny :-) Have you ever heard Gráinne Duffy playing a Les Paul?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hEfSqXo ... ata_player

Wow! Never heard of her! Very good, must keep an eye out for her.

Les Paul has a lot to answer for!!!!!!

The story of the 'Les Paul' guitar is fairly well known [how Les Paul built a guitar around a central plank of wood and fitted dumy wings to make the plank look like a traditional guitar, what became known as the Les Paul log] but Les Paul did not invent the electric guitar. Just like the motor car, nobody can claim outright credit for its invention. Gibson, Epiphone and others had fitted pickups to semi-solid [jazz] guitars many years before Les Paul built his famous log guitar. It is agreed by historians that Riickenbacker built the first solid body electric guitar [The Frying Pan] in 1935. This guitar was played with a steel slide to produce the Hawaiian sounds which were popular at the time. Solid body slide or steel guitars were built by many companies including Fender. In 1948 Paul Bigsby built a solid body electric guitar for Merle Travis, this guitar looks 'modern' and no doubt inspired Leo Fender. Leo Fender designed the Telecaster solid body electric guitar but more importantly came up with a method of mass producing electric guitars in 1950. [Fender also built amplifiers, the Stratocaster electric guitar and the Precision bass guitar amongst others. Many argue that the Precision bass was Fenders greatest invention].

The Gibson Les Paul guitar was not very well received by the guitar buying public and was discontinued in the early 1960s. The clean sound of the Les Paul is a bit nondescript it has to be said, it was only when blues players such as Clapton, Green, Page etc. discovered how magical the Les Paul became when the amplifer was overdriven that Gibson were forced to restart production of this now iconic guitar.

I owned and played a Gibson Les Paul in the late 1970s. The playability and feel of 'my' guitar was only average but the sound was top notch. A few years ago I felt the need to get a Les Paul but all the Gibsons that I tried out, which was nearly all that were in Dublin, did not inspire me. So I bought an Epiphone Les Paul at around a tenth of the price of a Gibson, the Epi plays very well and sounds great. I wish I could say the same about my playing ability!!!

Enjoyed reading that Tom! I never liked the 'look' of the Epiphone,though I've never had one to try out. Funny you should say that about the Gibson Les Paul as I've been disappointed too with the sound but I love it's design! So I ended up getting a very good quality Squire many years ago when they were of reasonable quality and cheapish. You might find this hilarious but I actually check out a guitar without plugging it in! If it sounds good unplugged then it should blow me away when I do plug it in! A far superior guitar player to me couldn't believe the sound of my humble Squire and begged me to sell it! That was almost 20 years ago and the shop I bought it off is now closed and I've still got my guitar :-)

I was a Fender Strat. man myself back in the day!

cybot wrote:Enjoyed reading that Tom! I never liked the 'look' of the Epiphone,though I've never had one to try out. Funny you should say that about the Gibson Les Paul as I've been disappointed too with the sound but I love it's design!

'Real' guitarists only play Gibsons or so the old saying used to go. Several years ago I brought my Epi to Musicmaker in Dublin for a setup. The guitar tech was testing it after his work and he used a Marshall amp with a four by twelve cab. And the sound was awesome! In the shop were a couple of 'young axemen' and one said something along the lines of "Fu*k me, he is using an Epi". I really did not have the heart to say it was mine and I regret not offering him the opportunity to play it.

Rocker wrote:

cybot wrote:Enjoyed reading that Tom! I never liked the 'look' of the Epiphone,though I've never had one to try out. Funny you should say that about the Gibson Les Paul as I've been disappointed too with the sound but I love it's design!

'Real' guitarists only play Gibsons or so the old saying used to go. Several years ago I brought my Epi to Musicmaker in Dublin for a setup. The guitar tech was testing it after his work and he used a Marshall amp with a four by twelve cab. And the sound was awesome! In the shop were a couple of 'young axemen' and one said something along the lines of "Fu*k me, he is using an Epi". I really did not have the heart to say it was mine and I regret not offering him the opportunity to play it.

Lovely story Tom :-)

fergus wrote:I was a Fender Strat. man myself back in the day!

Good man Fergus, keep that Strat flag flying high ;-)

cybot wrote:

fergus wrote:I was a Fender Strat. man myself back in the day!

Good man Fergus, keep that Strat flag flying high ;-)

Alas, Dermot, my playing days are long over!