Important Dates
- 1953
- In 1953 the trapeze tailpiece was replaced by the McCarty designed stop tailpiece. The trapeze had been an early design fault as the strings wrapped under the bridge rather than over it, thus eliminating to possibility of palm muting the strings, something that was party of Les Paul's playing style. The man himself had taken to gouge out the top of the models he had to lower the bridge enough that he could wrap the strings over the top.
- 1954
- 1954 sees the introduction of the Les Paul Custom, "Black Beauty" or "The Fretless Wonder" as it was to become known due to and having a solid black finish with ebony fingerboard, black pickup covers and knobs along with flat, low frets. The Custom was also different in that it was an all maple body rather than mahogany with the maple top.
- This year also saw the Gibson company make some concesions to those who could afford could afford the Fender products but not Gibson's more luxurious instruments when they came up with the Les Paul Jr. This cut priced budget model aped the Fender Telecatser with a single cutaway slab body but with a set neck not a bolt on and a single P-90 pickup at the bridge position.
- 1955
- The limited stop tailpiece (that itself replaced the trapeze tailpice in 1953) is replaced with the McCarty patented Tune-O-Matic bridge. This was an advancement over the stop tailpiece as it allowed the individual string saddles to be moved thus meaning precise setting of the guitars intonation, something required as tastes in string gauges changed. The Tune-O-Matic becomes the standard bridge for Gibson solid bodied guitars.
- Also this year there was the addition of the Les Paul Special in the Jr. budget range, it was basically a Jr. with a P-90 pickup added at the neck position.
- 1957
- One of the biggest advancements in guitars came from the Gibson factory in 1957 when Seth Lover invented the "humbucking" pickup. United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent #2,896,491 the P.A.F. (Patent Applied For) humbucker became the standard pickup for Les Pauls (Standards and Custom, budget versions kept the P-90s) from then on and those original P.A.F.s became the holy grail of tone.
- As their name suggests "Humbuckers" were designed to buck the hum that is so prevelent with single coil pickups. Two coils are wound together side by side, with opposing electric and magnetic polarity cancelling out the hum generated from such things as lights and electrical products (TVs, radios).
- In 1957 the Les Paul Custom with 3 humbuckers is introduced along with the Les Paul TV model. The latter is so named because of the body color but reasons vary it's either due to the fact it resembled to color of TV cabinets of the time or becasue it was colored to be used on TV where black was to dark and caused to much glare with it's high gloss fnish.
- 1958
- The Les Paul Standard model is introduced by the company. This model sees the Gold Top that was used from the start replaced by the sunburts finish, so can see the grain of the maple top used, usually a tiger stripe pattern.
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- The Les Paul Jr. and Special are converted to double cutaway design.
- 1959
- Introduced in 1959 and priced for the beginning player, the Melody Maker features a Santa Maria body with a lightweight '60s-style slim taper neck, rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays and single dog-ear P-90 pickup.
- 1961
- The begining of the 1960's sees the end of production of the classic Gibson Les Paul design. It is replaced with the new SG double cutaway body shape, some of the first models made carry the Les Paul name but the company decides to just call them SG, many think this being due to Les not really liking the new guitar.
- SGs are made along the same model lines as the Les Paul - Standard, Custom, Jr. and Special.
- 1968
- During the 1960's a number of guitar heroes descover the sound of the Les Paul. Eric Clapton with his "Beano" Bluesbreakers album with John Mayall starts a trend for the classic Les Paul and Marshall combination that fires the British blues scene into the rock world. Following Clapton are the likes of Peter Green, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page that sees particularly late 50's models of the guitar come back into fashion and leads Gibson to reintroduce the Les Paul in 1968.
- 1978
- The 25/50 Model was made to celebrate Les Paul's 25 years association with Gibson and his 50 years in the music business. With high grade figured wood, flame top and neck, the latter five pieces, fancy abalone inlays on the headstock and fingerboard and the addition of a coil cut switch it was a limited production model.
- 1983
- The arrival of the Gibson Les Paul Studio Electric Guitar in 1983 offered guitarists all the essential elements of a Les Paul Standard, including a carved top and humbucking pickups. Its simple yet elegant design quickly helped it become the most popular model in the Les Paul Series.
- 2002
- Gibson celebrate 50 years of the Gibson Les Paul, obviously though not continued production, the guitar continues to sell and be a prized possession for many guitarists.
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Learn more about the Gibson Les Paul
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