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| Les Paul - www.gibson.com |
In the mid 1930s he began experimenting with a few electric guitars designs of his own. He created "The Log," which was nothing more than a length of common 4" by 4" fence post with bridge, guitar neck, and pickup attached.
He attached the body of an Epiphone hollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved two main problems: feedback and sustain. After a series of experimentations, Les Paul presented his ideas for an electric guitar to the Gibson Company in 1940. His efforts weren't received with great enthusiasm and it wasn't until the 1950s that Gibson would take interest in Les Paul's prototype. The Les Paul Gibson was introduced in 1952.
Aside from tower figure in the development of the Les Paul Guitar, Paul is also credited as the inventor of multitrack recording, and various reverberation and echo effects.