this video is brought to you with the support of TruFire learn practice and play with TR [Music] fire hi this is Keith Williams welcome to five wart World we're interest to help you get the most music from the least gear I often joke that the best part of being born when I was is the music I grew up listening to I was 6 years old when Eric Clapton changed the course of electric guitar history with the overdriven Les Paul tones on John May's Beano album in July of 1966 a tender 9 years old when Jimmy Page used a 59 burst to put the world on its ear with Lads up when two an anxious new guitar player myself at 13 when zezy top put out Trey zra in 73 I learned to drive a car to thin Lizzy's jailbreak and kiss alive I went to college with Steve hacket solos on Genesis seconds out on endless repeat and I went off into life with Neil Young's rust never sleeps still echoing in my head from Stadium stages to weekend bar gigs the Les Paul remains a rock guitar icon for all these reasons I knew I needed to make an updated version of my Gibson Les Paul Short History I cover how the guitar was created who was there at the beginning the features in its development and the most important players that made history playing Les Pauls stay tuned because this is the five wart World Short history of the Gibson Les Paul if you enjoy your videos make sure to subscribe or grab a t-shirt hoodie or a stomp preset pack to support what we do and it become a bigger part of 5watt world sign up for the friends of 5watt on patreon there's a friend level to suit any budget the links are in the description Lester William pus was born in 1915 but by 1938 he changed his name to the much more Showbiz friendly Les Paul leading a trio on a prime time radio show he moved from playing acoustic guitars to various Gibson Electric hollow body guitars but he was looking for something else something more that no company at that point was building an interview later he said I had in mind a guitar that sustained and reproduced the sound of the string with nothing added no Distortion no change in the response he started working on his own Prototype at the epone factory on the weekends it was there that he built his famous log so named for the 4x4 of pine running down at Center Gibson was the biggest Guitar Company in the world so Les pointed his sights at Gibson hoping to get them to produce his solid body guitar Gibson was founded in kalamazo Michigan in 1902 and it quickly became a very successful instrument maker by the 20s and 30s Gibsons were becoming a bigger part of the market so Gibson answered the demand with many new models in 1944 the Chicago musical instrument company CMI bought a controlling interest in Gibson and part of the deal was that cmi's President Maurice Berlin moved Gibson's administrative offices to Chicago where he could better oversee their operations it was around 1946 that the young Les Paul was able to arrange a meeting with Berlin to pitch his solid body guitar idea by all accounts Les was listened to politely but was treated as if the whole thing was kind of a joke Les later remembered they laughed at the guitar in the next few years Les Paul would become famous and at the same time he started to experiment with different recording techniques including the first multirack setup in his garage turned home studio in Hollywood California using two tape machines running together he began to make layered guitar parts by speeding up the tape he could create high and fast guitar parts that couldn't be created on a guitar alone we now take this sort of thing for granted but at the time no one had heard anything like multitrack recording before late in 1949 Les added Mary Ford both to the ACT and to his life marrying her that December after a number of top 30 records Les Paul and Mary Ford finally had their number one hit with a recording of How High the moon in April of 1951 the duo appeared on television shows had their own radio show and eventually had their own television show from 53 to 55 that was broadcast from their new lavish home in mawell New Jersey of course across this time others notably Paul bsby and Fender out in California were also exploring ideas around the solid body electric guitar solid body guitars were an appealing idea because as stage volumes were getting louder they solved the feedback problem of Hal body guitars at the same time they were much less expensive to manufacturer solid bodies also had the benefit of increased sustain and accurately capturing all the vibration of the string the very things that interested Les Paul with his original log experiment the success of Fender with their Esquire and broadcaster guitars in 1950 coincided with Ted mccardy being named as president of Gibson like many manufacturers Gibson had stopped building most of its instruments during World War II and mccardy was brought in to put the company back on its feet now there were two versions of the story of the Les Paul prototype the one told by Ted mccardy and the one told by Les Paul himself according to mcari seeing the success of the Fender guitars he put together a team at Gibson including himself to begin to explore making a solid body guitar they recognized that building a solid body had unique challenges that were different than H body guitars that Ben making and they Dove right in Mardi said that they spent about a year working on their prototype and were reasonably happy with everything except the amount of sustain they were able to get Mardi said we thought we had our guitar and now we needed an excuse to make it so I got to thinking Les Paul and Mary Ford were riding very high they were probably the number one vocal team in the United States they were earning a million dollars a year and knowing less and Mary I decided maybe I had to show the guitar to them Les remembered it differently he said that Gibson contacted him early in 51 saying that Maurice Berlin told Gibson management to quote get in touch with the strange log guitar guy that guy with the broomstick with the pickups on it they came around right away as soon as they heard what Fender was doing and I said well you guys are a little behind at times but okay let's go Les said that a meeting was arranged in Chicago with Berlin others and attorneys and a deal was struck according to Les they hammered out the specifics of the new guitar design then the research and development began in Earnest in either case once they had had a prototype in hand a meeting was set at a hunting lodge near straussburg Pennsylvania in late 51 or early 52 Les and Mary were there to record in the quiet isolation of the woodsy setting Mardi and his team brought the first prototype to show it to Les Les also recalled that this was the first time he got to handle the Prototype neither less nor mccardy could remember for sure but they believe the Prototype brought to that meeting was very similar to the earliest production model except that it may have had a traditional Gibson tailpiece and a separate Bridge before leaving they worked out an exclusive contract for Les and Mary to endorse the new guitar if they were seen publicly playing any other guitar they would forfeit all monies and with that the Gibson Les Paul model was born in 1952 the summer n show was scheduled to be held in New York and the official release of the guitar was set there Gibson hosted a pream clinic at the Waldorf aoria Hotel nearby the idea was that they could show the guitar to professional musicians who were not allowed to attend n at that time they'd get to see Gibson's latest instruments but especially the new Les Paul model electronic guitar the new Les Paul ga40 amplifier was also unveiled a host of famous names visited the hotel suite to see the guitar including tiger Haynes mundel low and George Barnes the guitar combined a solid mahogany body with a carved Maple top the darker tone mahogany with the maple cap gave the guitar deep tones but also a bright Edge respectively most of the other features found on the new Les Paul model could be found on other Gibson guitars of the time two volume and two tone controls had ban on the L5 CES and super 400 CES models the single cutaway and glued in Mahogany neck were long-established features the crown fretboard inlays had appeared on an es-150 model in 1950 and the scale length of 24 and 3/4 had been used on a number of Gibson acoustic guitars in the past as well mccardy remembers that they decided to do a carv top guitar because they knew Fender didn't have any carving equipment at the shop down in California and so it would set the less po apart from the new Fender Telecaster it was clear that they were setting their sights firmly on the guitar Market created by Fender's new solid body guitar so where did the gold top come from The Story Goes that this was Les's request Gibson made a special guitar for him to present to a terminally ill patient he'd met at a hospital appearance though now something we all take for granted the iconic gold finish was created by mixing bronze powder with clear nitrocellulose lacquer when the lacquer becomes worn over time the bronze oxidizes and takes on the classic green of a bronze statue on the earliest units there was a mistake on the tailpiece where the neck angle was too shallow this meant that the strings were almost flat on the body and Gibson was unable to use its original standard Hardware in response to this problem Gibson had to use the tailpiece contrary to the way it was designed instead of wrapping the strings over the top where they would have made the action too high they had to wrap them underneath of course this made it impossible to mute the strings with your palm during 1953 Gibson switched from the original trapeze bridge to to a newly specially designed single bar-shaped bridge and tailpiece the Stop Bar that mounted on the top of the body using two height adjustable studs the new unit did its job improving intonation adjustability and sustain the neck angle was also corrected in short it became a much more playable and satisfying instrument the guitar was a success Gibson sales numbers for that year showed that they shipped 1,278 es 175s but 2,245 less Pauls on the back of the success Gibson issued two new Les Paul models in 1954 the custom and the junior the custom was outfitted with an ebony fingerboard goldplated Hardware multiply binding and black color it was a more expensive guitar than the gold top Les Paul said that he chose the color because it made his hands stand out when he was playing a black guitar on stage wearing a tuxedo or on black and white TV unlike the gold top the custom was an all mahogany guitar something that Les preferred because it gave the guitar a mellower tone promotional material called the custom the fretless Wonder due to its use of low flat fret wire different from that used on the gold Top This fret wire was specked by Les Paul himself who liked the fast feeling of the low Frets but in general the unconventional Frets were less popular with other players the custom also had a new type of pickup in the neck position the pickup was designed by engineer Seth lover who had returned to Gibson after working for the Navy during World War II it was nicknamed the Helo based on the aluminum mixed with iron and nickel alloy used in the magnetic pole pieces lover said that he was charged with creating a pickup that was louder than the Gibson P90 but he settled on the rectangular magnets simply because they were different than others at the time these became known as staple pickups due to the staple shaped magnets perhaps most importantly was the introduction on the custom of the new tunatic bridge with its separate bar tailpiece patented by mccardy the new bridge was first to offer individual intonation of adjustment for each string soon the tunatic bridge would find its way onto the gold top as well on the other end of the line the junior was aimed at beginners it was designed as a less expensive and entry-level less PA though the outline was the same the junior had a flat top and a solid mahogany body it was outfitted with a single P90 pickup a single volume and tone control do markers graced an Unbound Rosewood fingerboard it had a traditional yellow to Brown Gibson Sunburst finish and the Stop Bar tailpiece the 1954 price list had the custom at $325 the gold top at $225 and the Junior at just $99 1955 saw the introduction of the Les Paul TV essentially a junior with a new finish that is variously referred to as natural limed Oak and limed mahogany there are many theories on where the TV name came from none of which have much basic direct evidence the one I've heard the most is that the Finish was designed to stand out on black and white television br BRS of the day the problem with this theories is that if you were big enough to be on TV you'd likely have been playing a go toop or even the new all black custom but it's also possible that it was simply trying to capitalize on the Les Paul and Mary Ford TV show running at the time and the final member of the Les Paul family the special was also introduced in 1955 basically a two- pickup version of the Junior with a new TV style finish the new guitar listed in the 55 catalog for $82.50 also that year Gibson released a 3/4 size version of the guitar with a scale length 2 in shorter 22 and 3/4 for quote youngsters or adults with small hands and fingers back in the electronics Lab at Gibson Seth lover had been charged with finding a way to cut down on the hum and interference common with P90 pickups he got to thinking about the choke coil found in amplifiers which helps to eliminate the hum coming from the power transformer lover remembered I thought if we can make humbucking chokes why can't we make humbucking pickups and with the the idea firmly in place he began building prototypes the humbucking name comes from the pickup's ability to cancel or buck the hum of a single coil alone in simple terms a humbucking pickup uses coils with opposite magnetic polarity wired together so that they are electronically out of phase the result is the cancelling of the hum and hence it gives you a wonderfully clear and unobstructed tone it doesn't just cancel the hum but as we take for granted now gave us a completely new sound lover added a metal cover to further cut down interference from fluorescent lighting but they couldn't solder it so they settled on German silver an alloy of nickel copper zinc for its high resistance the original prototypes didn't have adjustable screws but the guys at sales asked for them because it would give them something else they talk to dealers about so they were added before they went into production and finally lber decided to mount the pickups so the screws in the neck were closest to the fingerboard and the screws in the bridge were closest to the bridge lever later admitted that he made this choice for purely decorative purposes famously the new humbucking pickups would arrive in 1957 replacing the P90s and the gold top and custom models the custom was changed to a three pickup guitar with the new humbuckers of course these earliest humbucking pickups are highly sought after today these earliest pickups were designated as patent applied for or PF indicated by a small sticker on the back of each pickup now lovers was not the first un booking pickup design and it became a challenge during the patent process to clarify the uniqueness of his design lover applied for the patent in June of 1955 and it was granted until July of 1959 one might assume that this would then outline the PF years but in fact the stickers were added to the pickups as late as 1962 years after the patent was granted it's believed that Gibbs had did this to make it difficult for competitors to find the new patent on file and the uzi information there to create their own versions so they continued to use the pif stickers to imply that the patent was still in process and dragging their feet about the actual patent stamp on the back of the pickups until 1962 even when they did begin putting a patent number on the sticker it was for a bridge patent that they had already held further attempts to make it hard to track down the official drawings I love this stuff despite the almost magical awe with which pifs are regarded lover was adamant that the later versions are essentially the same the only difference being that on the goldplated versions they lose a little highend due to the additional plating over the metal covers because gold is a very good electrical conductor these earliest pickups are love for how clear and bright they can be it's said that each pickup is different cu they weren't wound on machines with automatic shut offs that counted the number of windings but in general the classic characterization that a great burst L Paul sounds like a Telecaster on steroids it's talking about how the humbucking pickup was originally designed to replicate the sound of the single coil P90 pickup that was seen as the Gibson sound over time the windings and materials changed and this early tone changed as well of course an entire industry now exists chasing the sound of the original PF pickups sales of the Les Paul reached their peak in 1956 in 1957 with the junior being by far the biggest seller at 3,129 units in 1956 despite the growth in interest solid body guitars were still by far the minority in the marketplace with players slow to adopt them still the flashy new gold tops look great on stage and on television Muddy Waters guitar slim Freddy King John Lee Hooker and rockabilly star Carl Perkins were all pictured playing gold Toops during the 50s 1958 would see big changes is all around the junior junior 3/4 and TV models were changed to a double cutaway design a new cherry red finish was added to the Junior [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Gibson tweaked the finish that they called cream into a yellower hue the double pickup special was offered in both the TV cream finish and the new Cherry finish the sales of the gold toop model had started to slip so in an attempt to excite the market Gibson moved to the Les Paul model now referred to as the standard from the gold top finish to a Sunburst finish famously we know that the first standard model or burst were shipped on May 28th 1958 Gibson had them ready for that Summer's Nam show in Chicago this new look only lasted until 1960 these years of the guitars constitute what are now simply referred to as the burst and are seen as the Apex of Les paa construction and are so wildly collectible today unlike when it was covered by the opaque gold with the new finish the maple tops could be seen the builders at Gibson had to be more conscientious about Machining the two sides of the maple Top This is referred to as book matching because you slice through the center of a piece of wood and it opens up like a book so that the grain shown is symmetrical on both sides Gibson had done this on the backs of their archtop guitars in the past often using highly figure Woods for that purpose figure is the term for more interesting grain either flamed or quilted and some of the 58 to 60 bursts have these more desirable tops each piece of wood is unique and How Deep The Flame is through the pieces would determine how well it looked once the top was carved since Les Paul's hadn't been selling that well they were not a high priority at Gibson to receive the fancier pieces of maple so many of the bursts have pretty plain tops if a burst has a fancy top then it was more by chance than by Design in the 1958 catalog the new Cherry burst standard Le Pauls were listed for $247.50 the original first finishes all faded to varying degrees over time sitting in shop Windows playing out in Smoky clubs are simply at home between sessions all these factors affected how the finish faded the red Dy in the finish in particular faded to varying degrees in the bursts and On The Backs and necks of the guitars all of this leads to the wide variation and finishes that we see in vintage burst replicas today all the bursts started out as Cherry bursts but sometimes the red lightened and sometimes it even darkened over time producing what we now call the famous lemon burst or ice tea burst or dark burst only about 1,450 bursts were built between 1958 and 1960 theyve become the most expensive vintage guitars on Earth ironically during the years of their production they were not great sellers it was only in the mid to late 60s that players began to seek out these years of the combination of humbucking pickups and qualitive finish that would prove such a potent combination for high volume blues rock one final detail of this era is that players began removing the covers on the humbucking pickups to enhance the trouble response when they did so they found that the bobbins were sometimes of different colors most often black but sometimes white the bobbins for building pickups were sourced from hu plastic and the distributor Eastman Chemical had run out of black buite plastic that they used to make the bobbins so they substituted white plastic for a while Gibson kept Tred on building pickups using all white or black and white or zebra bobbins across this period Then covering them with the nickel covers when players began taking the covers off speculation circulated about which color combinations were the best pickups Seth lover found this debate pretty funny and attributed differences in tone to many variables but certainly not to Bob in color sales of the standard model had dropped to just 434 guitars in 1958 when the new finish was introduced there was a small increase in sales to 643 guitars in 59 but it fell back again in 1960 Gibson had added a third expansion to the calam Factory and it was clear that they needed instrument sales to help justify and pay for the expansion looking at their sales figures they decided it was time to completely redesign the Les Paul lineup I reached out to truefire to be my sponsor because I've used them for years in honor of this episode I've gone back to Jeff Main's British Blues course where he wields his left B with over 2 million users worldwide whether you're a beginner intermediate or advanced level player true fire has lessons to enhance and Inspire your playing get 35% off courses using the pr code 5w 35 or like I do sign up for the all access pass to use the entire truefire catalog I really like truefire and I think if you give them a shot you'll like them too sign up using the link in the description to support 5watt world and get some great lessons at the same time I'd like to thank TruFire for their support in making this video and so it was that Gibson abandoned the traditional single cutaway carv Top guitar and moved to a new Flatt top double cutaway SG or solid guitar style at first from 1961 to 63 these guitars were still referred to as Les Pauls and are now usually referred to as SG Les Pauls the Les Paul name was then dropped from the SG not simply because as most of us have been told that Les hated the new design but rather because Les Paul's endorsement deal with Gibson had run out also Les Paul and Mary Ford were in the process of getting a divorce and Les didn't want to sign a new endorsement deal that would bring a lot of extra money into the negotiations later Les did say that he didn't care for the design of the new guitar there were many things he didn't like about it from the body shape AP and the thickness to the neck thickness and the neck joint still he honored the agreement and was pictured with the new guitar for promotion but he continued to play his live performances with his older guitars once the contract with Les Paul expired there were no guitars labeled Les Paul from 64 to 67 there were three models that sold a total of 6,000 units between 61 and 63 from the new wing of the factory there was the SG Les Paul Jr with a cherry finish the SG Les Paul Standard and Cherry and the SG Les Paul Custom in white of course the SG went on to make famous tones in the hands of many Clapton turned to using an SG with cream Pete Townsen wielded SG specials and set a record for volume at the live at leads concert Tony iomi would wield a left-handed SG special in Black Sabbath and ACDC would go on to rekindle a later generation's love for the SG guitar sales in the US peaked in 1965 and began to gradually fall thereafter for the rest of the decade Ted mccardy left Gibson in 196 6 around that time the British driven blues rock guitarists were looking for the instruments used by their heroes in America at the front of this wave was Eric Clapton playing a burst that he' acquired in May of 1965 while he was playing with John mayol and the Blues Breakers [Music] [Music] a [Music] Veno record so nicknam because Clapton is shown reading the British comic magazine beino on the cover was released in July of 1966 Clapton's desire for aless Paul was inspired by the album cover of Freddy King's let's hide away and dance away where King is pictured with a gold top Clapton's friend Andy Summers later the police found two used bursts in an almost new condition in a shop in London and he and Clapton each bought one it launched the sound of a Les Paul running through a cranked Marshall that was to Define an era that guitar was stolen in 1966 around the time he was starting rehearsals with cream Clapton said in an interview later I never really found one as good as that again sadly that guitar has never been found Clapton's use of a single cut style burst sent players scrambling for the old guitars as the old style standards hadn't been in production since 1960 Clapton played a number of Les ball standards in the Years following the theft of that first guitar the second of which he bought in 1966 from Andy Summers who he nagged until Summers sold him the guitar from that original pair it was on The Summer's burst that clapt and recorded the cream hit I feel free using his woman tone a singing Distortion with the tone rolled back but sustaining in a way that at first you might not even recognize it as a guitar other famous players of the mid6 s were using less balls prior to Clapton using one in England Keith Richards had bought one on tour with the Rolling Stones when he was in the states as an in demand session guitarist Jimmy pige was playing a three- pickup custom around London Peter Green replaced Clapton in the Blues Breakers and got a burst in 1965 and went on to famously use that guitar on the early Fleetwood Mac records too also inspired by Clapton Jeff Beck bought a burst in February of 1966 when he was still playing with the Yard Birds you can hear that guitar a 59 according to to Beck purchased used at Selmer in London on the Yard Birds album Roger the engineer Beck went through a few bursts until acquiring a 1972 an early 50s gold top that had been converted to a two humbucker and refinished in very dark brown finish which Beck like to refer to as Ox blood this is a guitar that was used and was pictured on the classic blowby blow album in 1974 back in the US Mike Bloomfield with the Paul Butterfield blues band and the Electric Flag was making a name for himself on a Les Paul as well using his helter early on he first switched to a P90 gold top which can be heard on the band's East West album when Butterfield toured in England in ' 66 Bloomfield got to see both Peter Green and Eric Clapton playing their bursts he returned home and acquired a burst in May of ' 67 and played it with the Electric Flag at the Monterey Pop Festival he commented about the players at the festival quote all of us were playing the same model guitar Billy Gibbons also caught the bug from the beino album and started searching for a bucker equip Les Paul down around around Texas after opening for a show for Jeff Beck Beck spoke to Gibbons of his love of the Les Paul and Marshall combination in the summer of 68 Gibbons found his story burst which would later be named Pearly Gates [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] he contends that his pearly is an extraordinary example of the 1959 that all the factors came together by luck to create that special guitar on that day at the factory due to all this demand prices of older less Pauls were starting to climb and finally Gibson was moved by all the demand as well meanwhile Les Paul himself had been very quiet over the years but had just released a new record Les Paul now in 1967 the release ended up launching a new er of endorsement between Les and Gibson despite the world of guitarist searching for two pickup bursts Gibson decided to release the previously rare two pickup Les Paul Custom in black and the gold top with P90s with a tunatic bridge both models were brought to the Nam show in 1968 let's Paul himself appeared at the show to perform on the new guitars Gibson's press at the time stated okay you win we are pleased to announce that more of the original Les Paul Gibsons are available the line forms at your Gibson dealer the first run of 500 guitars 400 gold tops and 100 Customs started at the same time as the Nam show as orders poured in they ramped up to producing a 100 less Paws a day the only mystery seems to be why they had decided to offer the P90 version instead of the much more sought-after humbucking guitars begin in 1969 CMI was being acquired by another company and over time that new company became Norland Industries the name created by combining the name of the two company presidents Norton Stevens and morrice Berlin Gibson employees at the time remember to move from wood files and machines to the tools of slide roles and calculators for solving problems cost cutting was the Prime motivation of this new era this led to an erosion and quality of the guitars from about 1974 on changes were driven more by profit than by the demands from from musicians generally less Pauls from the 70s are heavier than those that came before or after this was due to two factors first the mahogany that Norland was buying at the time was much heavier than the earlier wood likely trying to save money later the body construction was changed from a traditional Maple cap on mahogany or all mahogany guitar to a sandwich of the two layers of mahogany in the body with a thin layer of Maple in between Gibson said it was designed to strengthen the body but it also allowed Norland to buy thinner pieces of mahogany and still be able to use it for guitar bodies it's possible to see this thin layer of Maple in the body of a late '70s Les Paul there was shrinkage at the wood joints of the sandwich pieces and there were complaints from players and dealers in the end the extra cost of manufacturing the sandwich brought it to an end around 69 Gibson moved from a traditional onepiece neck to a three-piece mahogany neck and in 75 moved over to a three-piece Maple neck both intended to increase neck strength in 69 Gibson also added a valute on the back of the neck where it joins the headstock this was designed to add meat to the famously fragile neck joint the angle of headstock was also decreased slightly in the minds of players all these changes were going in the wrong directions as they longed for the specs of the old guitars also in' 69 Gibson released the Les Paul Deluxe dropping Min humbucker pickups in the P90 routes of the gold Topp reissues this was in response to dealers asking for a humbucking equipped standard preferably in a Sunburst finish like the ones Clapton and Bloomfield were using the Delux was the result of the factory being told that they had to produce a humbucking guitar without being given any money for retooling so they had no choice but to use the P90 routed bodies and find a humbucking pickup that would fit Gibson had purchased epone in 1958 and moved epone production to kalamazo over the intervening years epone had long made many humbucking pickups and Gibson was able to fit them into the new Les Paul Deluxe guitars when Les Paul went back to working with Gibson he brought his fondness for low impedance pickups with him and in time convinced them to offer two models the Les Paul professional and the Les Paul personal with these pickups the Les Paul personal guitar was a copy of a guitar that Les had made many modifications over time besides his new favorite Lan pedance pickups one of the most famous players that used the professional model was Terry Kath of Chicago as the 60s came to a close demand for old Les Paul's continued to climb Robert Frip of King Crimson bought a 50s Les Paul Custom in 1968 Jimmy pagee began regularly using his burst on stage with Led Zeppelin and the band's music became equated with Les Paul and Marshall Stacks Paige Rave not just about his new favorite guitar but also about Les Paul the guitarist telling interviewers to check out Les's early recordings from the 40s collecting the old guitars gained real steam in the 70s George grun wrote an important piece about vintage collecting in a 1975 issue of Guitar Player magazine the article stated there are now more people looking for Less Pauls than any other electric guitar adding that the 58 to 60 guitars were by far the most desired in 1972 Gibson responded to this interest issuing a short run of Les Paul Custom 54 limited edition this was the first attempt to reissue an old style Les Paul it had a P90 Bridge pickup and an Alo pickup in the neck the guitars carried a serial number with an Le prefix the growth in vintage collecting led to Tom Wheeler's 1974 the guitar book and was followed by a diar's 1981 Gibson electrics being published Gibson built a new Factory outside of Nashville in an effort to both keep up with demand for guitars and avoid the stronger labor unions up in Michigan though originally was thought that both factories would be kept kalamazo building electrics and Nashville building Acoustics the new acoustic model they'd hoped to build in Nashville failed miserably in the marketplace and so it was decided to move Les ball production down to the Nashville plant Nashville was set up to run large batches of single models and the Les paaul custom and Les paaul Deluxe models along with a few other solid body guitars were running through that system in 75 Gibson released the Les Paul this was a run with exceptionally fine Woods some of the parts that would have been plastic on a regular model were handcarved from Rosewood including the pick guard pickup surrounds back plate control plate and truss rod cover the bodies and necks were fancy Maple and they had fingerboards with exotic inlays of Ebony and Rosewood much of the custom work on these guitars was done outside of the Camu Factory by luers dick and Donnie Schneider and Abe weter less than a 100 the L Pauls were made they were sold for $3,000 and astronom iCal price for a new guitar at the time but not far off what old Les Pauls were starting to fetch in the Vintage Market but by the mid 70s a standard model with a burst finish and full-size humbucker was still missing from the Gibson catalog they could be special ordered from Gibson though and around this time a dealer in Memphis strings and things ordered a run of 25 guitars with custom specs very close to those of a late 50s burst and finally in 1976 Gibson added the standard back to its price list at $649 a Sunburst model with full-size humbucking pickups these instruments still did not Echo the original sufficiently to lure buyers away from the search for vintage Les Paul Gibson reissued both the single and double cutaway Les Paul special in the mid '70s as well due to the soaring prices of the original standards the specials had real appeal for players the sound of the P90 pickups and the responsiveness of the guitars made them attractive Leslie West from Mountain had used a junior in his band MC Ralphs played a junior in the band Bad Company later on and Bob Marley played a two- pickup special in the Whalers great 70s punk guitarists reveled in the rawness of the Flatt top lesser less Pauls both Mick Jones of the Clash and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols were seen sporting specials in 1979 the Gibson R&D Department started building prototypes for the new line of Les Pauls Tim Shaw worked on the project and remembers they were our first stab at asking questions like what's the best this guitar ever was are we building it that way now and if not why not the team used a 1954 pattern for the carving of the top and they went with a three-piece mahogany neck they dropped the valute and they tried to more closely replicate the old pickup specs finally they chose pretty figured tops and these became known as the new Heritage series Les Pauls Bruce Bolan then of R&D convinced Norland put the Heritage guitars in the product line these wouldn't be standard production guitars but were listed as premium and limited editions two Heritage models were launched in 1980 the standard 80 and the standard 80 Elite the elite differed in that it had an ebony fingerboard a onepiece neck and a quilted top in 1981 the Heritage standard W model was added and awarded to dealers that had stocked or sold regular Heritage models the year before the Heritage line only lasted a couple years but they were very important in illustrating the way Gibson had begun to think about building guitars using their own history as a guide the Volute was removed and they went back to a onepiece mahogany neck in ' 83 there was a limited run of standard Les Paul 82 distinguished from their Heritage guitars by their one piece neck and by the fact that they were built up in kazoo a store in Redbank New Jersey Guitar Trader approached Gibson with a plan they would collect the specs from what they considered a proper reissue of a Sunburst standard and Gibson was then use those specs to build the guitars though the guitar Trader folks thought that they were working on an exclusive deal with Gibson in the end Gibson sold some of the resulting guitars to top dealers in Texas and California as well best estimates is that 53 of these reissued went through guitar Trader at the time guitar Trader announced the new guitars with great Fanfare and even promised to install 50spf pickups subject to availability they selected each top themselves from wood stocks at the factory the guitar is listed for $1,500 at the start but quickly Rose to $2,000 at the same time guitar Trader had an original 59 with a nice flame top for sale for $7,500 Brad Whitford of Aerosmith took delivery of one of the first guitar Trader flam Toops the deal would last only two years but would set the stage for kalamazo becoming a custom shop before there was one building the custom runs of 25 to 100 guitars but by July of 83 Gibson had decided to close the kalamazo plant there had been a collapse in the instrument Market in general and competition from Japanese companies was taking an increasing piece of the market share though some managers were offered positions in Nashville plant manager Jim deloo Marvin lamb and JP Moes left Gibson rented a part of the old factory and started Heritage guitars the company continues to build guitars the traditional way to this day in 1983 using some leftover figured Walnut and maple the plant in Nashville put together guitar dubbed the 1983 special Spotlight this was a run of some 200 guitars but it's important because it was the first to carry a custom shop logo on the back of the headstock all of this success with the short reissue runs had led Gibson to start to release early style guitars a standard and a gold top in the wake of the Heritage series and the guitar Trader run Gibson was now trying to do this right with these new models based on the best guitars from the past [Music] [Music] also in 83 the Les paaul Studio was introduced stripping off The Binding to lower cost they came up with a cheaper less Paul Bruce Bolan named the guitar after much thought realizing that nothing was more associated with less himself than a recording studio was in the price list in the summer of 83 for $699 $300 cheaper than the next carve top Les Paul in the line the model went through a number of changes the first one of the guitars had an Aller body but a problem applying the Finish to the Alder resulted in a quick change to the usual mahogany and maple the new bodies were about an eighth of an inch thinner than the standard L Paws lowering weight and production cost slightly the bound body version came out in ' 84 and was produced for a couple of years as the studio standard by 1987 some Les Paul Studios were made with ebony fingerboards along with the traditional Rosewood depending on availability and cost of Woods at Gibson early Studio models had dot inlays but by 1990 the Les Paul crowns were being used by ' 85 Norland had decided to sell Gibson off the last of their instrument divisions to go the deal was closed in January ' 86 Henry jtz along with two partners purchased the entire Gibson operation for what was later disclosed to be $5 million the three friends had gone to Harvard Business School together in the late 70s Henry was a guitar player and had a long love for the Gibson brand but the 80s weren't a great time for traditional shaped guitars and it was a tough time to take over the most historic guitar brand in the country Henry worked to men Gibson's relationship with Les Paul himself understanding the importance to the company and just when things were looking Bleak in the time of super strats and star-shaped guitars Along Came Guns and Roses in 1987 with Appetite for Destruction and there was Slash standing out on the edge of stages willing aless Paul doing his best impression of Jimmy Page meets Joe Perry ironically Slash's main guitar for that record was a copy of a 59 built by luier Chris Derek SL side of the guitar I ended up in the studio with this l Paul replica and that was my main guitar for the first Guns and Roses tour later I got another replica made by someone named Max I had those two for the road the first year Gibson had taken custom orders for one-off guitars since 1960 and in the early 80s a small custom operation had been set up in a corner of the main plant in Nashville finally the present Custom Shop was founded in a building near the Nashville plant in 1993 staffed with Master Level luers it became its own entity within the company at first it continued continued to do much the same oneoff and custom orders along with limited runs for dealers who wanted the late 50s correct specs on their less PS they wanted the narrower headstock the thinner binding on the Cutaway the correct depth of the top carve while the prices of the original burst continued to rise a small but high-end Market developed for reissues from those golden years it was around this time that Gibson's custom art and historic division came into its own it's also when JT riboff and Tom Murphy were at the custom shop and they got the goahead to start collecting the minutia that would go into the new reissue specs they went about measuring 25 different burs from the 58 to 60 era they quickly realized of course they were all a little bit different for example after years of measuring guitars they found that the neck angles varied from as much as 52 degre to 4° riboff said that they realized they got to the point where they wanted to be more of a replica rather than a reissue Gibson R&D built two prototypes and they took them to be displayed at n in 1993 those guitars ended up going to slash and Brian Adams the realization that they were trying to replicate rather than emulate the original guitar along with having collected the building Talent necessary at the custom shop was the Breakthrough that was so long overdue reissue after reissue model have rolled out copying down the tiniest detail of the guitars of the Year being reissued add the famous custom shop relicing to the instruments and you might well wonder how you can tell the reissues from The Originals well from 1993 onward the reissues all carry an ink stamp at in the control panel denoting the year of the model they are copying R9 for 59 R8 for 58 r0 for 60 R2 for 52 Etc Gibson's also gone on to do runs based on famous guitars of Billy Gibbons Jimmy pagee Peter Green Mark knofler Paul kasof Eric Clapton and Joe bamasa among them it's a handful to try to make a history of such an important guitar while making a video short enough that folks want to watch it hence these short iies I'm often questioned about where I decide to finish the overall video and it's generally where the company is looking back to their history for how best to build the guitars now I've gone on to make special videos on bursts Customs specials Juniors and SGS with more detail on each model than it fit here but I hope I've given you the sense of the depth and importance of the Gibson Les Paul and the history that contributed to how it's been built over the years first I need to thank Jeff maeran and John Cordy for sharing their great playing on their Les Pauls for a pair of self- profess Strat guys they always seem to be having fun when they're playing a Lester along with a lot of Internet research two excellent books helped in pulling this video together the Gibson Les Paul The Illustrated history of the guitar that changed Rock by Dave Hunter and the Les Paul guitar book by Tony bacon I'd like to thank Dave honor of Dojo guitar repair in Atlanta he has over 30 years of experience with vintage guitars and is my final fact check for these videos I need to thank a new member of the five wat world team video editor Bronson Wagner these these videos are very personal for me and I'm delighted to be working with such a like-minded musician graphic designer and editor who gets all that I want to thank everyone that stopped by the online store and picked up a t-shirt hoodie hat or a barber 5w World bus pedal and in particular I need to thank the friends of 5 wat it's the guitar Community I've always wanted you're all five wat world I just make the videos If you like this video you can go down the rabbit hole of the individual videos and different Les Paul models that I've made in the years since the links of all of those are in the description thanks for hanging with me until the end until next time I'm Keith Williams thanks for being a part of the five wild world [Music]