Artist: Les PaulThe father of the electric guitar—the man who made rock-n-roll possible—died last Thursday at the age of 94. Les Paul's innovative recording techniques (overdubbing, delay effects, multi-track recording) and musical inventions (the solid-body electric guitar, the hands-free neck-worn harmonica holder) were invaluable contributions to the popular music of the 1950s, '60s and '70s and are still being used and elaborated upon today. You can read all about Les Paul's life and career here (did you know he was Steve Miller's godfather?) and find his Rolling Stone obituary here. The photos and extensive liner notes from Les Paul's terrific 1967 "Les Paul Now!" LP are included below. To bid on your own copy of the record, just go here or here—but hurry, only a few days left!
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Let's say you're going to visit Les Paul. Well, there's
a good chance that you won't find him at home. He's
perhaps out paying return (or repeat) visits to Bell
Laboratories of Thomas Edison's home and lab, or
a tape duplicating plant, or a recording studio in New
York or Chicago, or Detroit, or Hollywood, or a music
store where he'll be found browsing in the new guitar
department, looking at recent developments in the
instrument, or in a place showing electronic equipment—
again looking at tape machines and/or recording accessories
for new processes and advances. Then again, he may not
be in any of these places. He might be found in a club
somewhere around the country playing, or 'jamming'—a
more apt description. Or, if not in a club, he's at home,
surrounded by numerous friends—all top-flight
musicians—'jamming' until the wee hours.
All of this is where the ideas come from. He hears
or sees something and asks why it can't be better
than it is. This natural curiosity, along with the
initiative and drive to carry these questions through
to an answer has always been with him, thus leaving
him open to the full credit (or blame as the case may be)
for today's electronic and multiple recording scene.
To go back to the beginning, he didn't think a
plain guitar was loud enough. You know, if you're
playing for a lot of people you want them all to
hear you, not just the few right in front of you.What
to do about it? Amplify it! The first experiment worked,
but it really wasn't the complete answer...he took
the playback arm of his Victrola, jammed the needle
into the guitar, and played through the phonograph
amplifier. Advancing, he found regular commercial
amplification systems unsatisfactory also, so started
building his own. And he's still building them, always
striving for improvement and that elusive 'perfection.'
While on the subject of guitars, there are many,
many innovations that he is personally responsible
for—in many cases as much for popularizing as for
actually inventing or creating the idea. The most
sought after guitar today is the Les Paul model, which
he designed for Gibson. It is not basically sought as a
collector's item, but is wanted by guitarists because
of its sound. At this writing Gibson is formulating
plans to again build and market this model, with
many improvements over the older model, as
evidenced by the sounds of this record album.
Now that we're on the subject of sound, another
of Les' pet peeves was inferior recording procedures.
One day, while rehearsing the Bing Crosby show, Les
mentioned to Bing his dissatisfaction of the sound that
was being heard on phonograph records. Bing told him
that if he thought he could do better why didn't he build
his own recording studio. California weather being what
it was, a garage wasn't really necessary for the car, so
the location problem was taken care of. Now partitioned
into studio and control room the equipment problem arose.
As was normal for him, existing commercial equipment
wasn't up to his exacting standards so the construction
crew (Les and a couple of friends) was called into service.
The first recording lathe (magnetic tape was to come
several years later) was constructed of parts salvaged
from everywhere. There were several reasons for this—
one being the fact that no such parts were available
as such for the function to be performed and had
to be either hand made or converted for its particular
purpose. So, various aircraft parts, plumbing parts,
etc. were used. As an example, a Cadillac flywheel
was chosen for the turntable because of its perfect
balance, connecting to the motor turning it by a cable
normally used by dentists for their drills. An echo, or
delay effect was created by using a playback head behind
the recording head and feeding the signal back to the
record head while recording, thus recording more than
one of the same signal simultaneously, or rather with a
slight delay. This process was later adapted to tape
recording. A side-note on the quality Les was getting
out of this garage studio is the fact that in the late
1940s Consumers Research was recommending to their
readers the use of Les' records to check the quality
of their equipment.
The entrance of tape recording on the scene was
a boon in the fact that mistakes could be erased
or edited rather than piling up large stacks of ruined
or experimental discs. Although he'd been making
multiple records on disc up to this time, that is
playing all the parts himself with the theory that
in this way everyone in the orchestra is bound to
have the same feeling towards the arrangement,
he went along with the rest of the industry, maybe
even a little ahead of the rest of the industry, and
switched to tape. Again, modifications. With trepidation,
Ampex built for Les a tape recorder with an extra playback
head ahead of the erase and record head, thus enabling
him to play along with the previous recorded part and
re-record part after part until the final arrangement was
completed. This had drawbacks, as if, say five parts were
recorded and in the process of recording the sixth a
mistake was made, Les had to start all over again.
Using two or more recorders wasn't really the anwer
either, so again Les went to Ampex with a revolutionary
idea. This time an eight-track recorder was built to his
specifications, and, ultra-critical specifications they
were. In using one-machine or two-machine methods
all electronic components had to have very close tolerances
as any flaw, noise, variation in level, distortion, etc. would
be increased with every generation, some adding up to
unbearable disturbances. Quite a bit of this would be
absorbed with the multi-track recorder in the fact that
several parts could be recorded and still be original
recordings, mixed together later for the final product,
or all be combined to one of the tracks leaving all but
one of the tracks to be used again for more parts.
You could almost say that Les was recording in stereo
long before stereo entered our lives. There was a feeling
of motion, a changing of color or mood, depth,
and—all of this out of one speaker.
With all the above as background, what could be more
natural for Les than to be the first performer to record in
the U.S.A. for phase 4 stereo. They're pretty critical too...
* * * * * * *
The LES PAUL CUSTOM GUITAR is THE guitar used
on this phase 4 stereo LP. Redesigned this year by
Les for Gibson, this guitar embodies specially designed
electronic circuitry based around solid body construction
which is responsible for the power, clear sparkling tone,
and vast diversification of sound that has been the
trademark of Les Paul over the years.
Manay hours of experimentation, trial and error went
into this instrument, and its secret is one of the
most sought after by guitarists the world over.
Les Paul
[June 9, 1915 - August 13, 2009]
We will miss you, Les.
Let's say you're going to visit Les Paul. Well, there's
a good chance that you won't find him at home. He's
perhaps out paying return (or repeat) visits to Bell
Laboratories of Thomas Edison's home and lab, or
a tape duplicating plant, or a recording studio in New
York or Chicago, or Detroit, or Hollywood, or a music
store where he'll be found browsing in the new guitar
department, looking at recent developments in the
instrument, or in a place showing electronic equipment—
again looking at tape machines and/or recording accessories
for new processes and advances. Then again, he may not
be in any of these places. He might be found in a club
somewhere around the country playing, or 'jamming'—a
more apt description. Or, if not in a club, he's at home,
surrounded by numerous friends—all top-flight
musicians—'jamming' until the wee hours.
All of this is where the ideas come from. He hearsor sees something and asks why it can't be better
than it is. This natural curiosity, along with the
initiative and drive to carry these questions through
to an answer has always been with him, thus leaving
him open to the full credit (or blame as the case may be)
for today's electronic and multiple recording scene.
To go back to the beginning, he didn't think a
plain guitar was loud enough. You know, if you're
playing for a lot of people you want them all to
hear you, not just the few right in front of you.What
to do about it? Amplify it! The first experiment worked,
but it really wasn't the complete answer...he took
the playback arm of his Victrola, jammed the needle
into the guitar, and played through the phonograph
amplifier. Advancing, he found regular commercial
amplification systems unsatisfactory also, so started
building his own. And he's still building them, always
striving for improvement and that elusive 'perfection.'
While on the subject of guitars, there are many,many innovations that he is personally responsible
for—in many cases as much for popularizing as for
actually inventing or creating the idea. The most
sought after guitar today is the Les Paul model, which
he designed for Gibson. It is not basically sought as a
collector's item, but is wanted by guitarists because
of its sound. At this writing Gibson is formulating
plans to again build and market this model, with
many improvements over the older model, as
evidenced by the sounds of this record album.
Now that we're on the subject of sound, anotherof Les' pet peeves was inferior recording procedures.
One day, while rehearsing the Bing Crosby show, Les
mentioned to Bing his dissatisfaction of the sound that
was being heard on phonograph records. Bing told him
that if he thought he could do better why didn't he build
his own recording studio. California weather being what
it was, a garage wasn't really necessary for the car, so
the location problem was taken care of. Now partitioned
into studio and control room the equipment problem arose.
As was normal for him, existing commercial equipment
wasn't up to his exacting standards so the construction
crew (Les and a couple of friends) was called into service.
The first recording lathe (magnetic tape was to come
several years later) was constructed of parts salvaged
from everywhere. There were several reasons for this—
one being the fact that no such parts were available
as such for the function to be performed and had
to be either hand made or converted for its particular
purpose. So, various aircraft parts, plumbing parts,
etc. were used. As an example, a Cadillac flywheel
was chosen for the turntable because of its perfect
balance, connecting to the motor turning it by a cable
normally used by dentists for their drills. An echo, or
delay effect was created by using a playback head behind
the recording head and feeding the signal back to the
record head while recording, thus recording more than
one of the same signal simultaneously, or rather with a
slight delay. This process was later adapted to tape
recording. A side-note on the quality Les was getting
out of this garage studio is the fact that in the late
1940s Consumers Research was recommending to their
readers the use of Les' records to check the quality
of their equipment.
The entrance of tape recording on the scene wasa boon in the fact that mistakes could be erased
or edited rather than piling up large stacks of ruined
or experimental discs. Although he'd been making
multiple records on disc up to this time, that is
playing all the parts himself with the theory that
in this way everyone in the orchestra is bound to
have the same feeling towards the arrangement,
he went along with the rest of the industry, maybe
even a little ahead of the rest of the industry, and
switched to tape. Again, modifications. With trepidation,
Ampex built for Les a tape recorder with an extra playback
head ahead of the erase and record head, thus enabling
him to play along with the previous recorded part and
re-record part after part until the final arrangement was
completed. This had drawbacks, as if, say five parts were
recorded and in the process of recording the sixth a
mistake was made, Les had to start all over again.
Using two or more recorders wasn't really the anwer
either, so again Les went to Ampex with a revolutionary
idea. This time an eight-track recorder was built to his
specifications, and, ultra-critical specifications they
were. In using one-machine or two-machine methods
all electronic components had to have very close tolerances
as any flaw, noise, variation in level, distortion, etc. would
be increased with every generation, some adding up to
unbearable disturbances. Quite a bit of this would be
absorbed with the multi-track recorder in the fact that
several parts could be recorded and still be original
recordings, mixed together later for the final product,
or all be combined to one of the tracks leaving all but
one of the tracks to be used again for more parts.
You could almost say that Les was recording in stereolong before stereo entered our lives. There was a feeling
of motion, a changing of color or mood, depth,
and—all of this out of one speaker.
With all the above as background, what could be more
natural for Les than to be the first performer to record in
the U.S.A. for phase 4 stereo. They're pretty critical too...
* * * * * * *
The LES PAUL CUSTOM GUITAR is THE guitar usedon this phase 4 stereo LP. Redesigned this year by
Les for Gibson, this guitar embodies specially designed
electronic circuitry based around solid body construction
which is responsible for the power, clear sparkling tone,
and vast diversification of sound that has been the
trademark of Les Paul over the years.
Manay hours of experimentation, trial and error went
into this instrument, and its secret is one of the
most sought after by guitarists the world over.
Les Paul[June 9, 1915 - August 13, 2009]
We will miss you, Les.
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