Great musician, great guitar player, great man
The solid body guitar, first invented by Paul Bigsby (the Merle Travis model, 1948), and right away imitated by Leo Fender, made giant steps thanks to Les Paul. He also invented the multi-track recording system on tape and the echo-effect machine!
He actually never stopped giving shape to new revolutionary ideas and building new projects
This record is - also - partially experimental, it's all explained inside the fold-out cover, how Decca / London's research-n-development department gave birth to this project. But few more records were printed under this "Phase 4" series, unfortunately the public doesn't usually respond with much enthusiasm when an Artist develops possibilities that are evidently too much ahead of his time
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I absolutely need to quote this, taken from the Zmemusic.com website:
"They say it was pneumonia that got to him but any man with an ounce of common sense knows folks in heaven got tired of harps and shit and they wanted to go for a new sound and just didn’t know how; they got just the man. So keep on rocking Les, and most of all, THANK YOU!"
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Lester Polfus died last August, 94 years old
The models he designed for GIBSON are for me the number 1 existing electric guitars
Heroes are hard to find, and he was one
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The guitar displayed on the outer sleeve is a Les Paul SG Custom 1st version, 1960 thru 1964 (because of the plaquette between pick-up and fingerboard and the smaller scratch plate), but equipped with a Vibrola tail-piece that dates much later, let's say around 1966 or 1967.
As to the black one pictured inside, you can read on the sleeve that it served to record this album, it's a Les Paul Custom three pick-ups, but I have the impression that dates by the end of the 50's, and not 1968 as it's declared on the liner notes...
Thanks to Brother Franz for his contributions :-)
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