Les Paul and the impact of technology

Les Paul is a person before he is a Gibson model: top jazz/pop guitarist, Crosby sideman, then a duo with Mary Ford. They built songs by overdubbing on dual-disc cutters—bounce track A while adding part two to disc B, stacking guitars and vocals until two people sounded like a section.

He also bet early on tape. German wartime magnetic tape existed partly so Hitler’s speeches could air without putting him in a bombable studio; Allied seizure revealed the fidelity. Les Paul pushed Crosby toward Ampex investment; Crosby got rich and gifted Les an early eight-track—“the octopus.” Multitrack rock waiting until the late 1960s does not erase the fact that he was already stacking parts in the early 1950s.

Solid-body electric guitar has many fathers; Les Paul is one of the early serious builders and later Gibson’s partner on the Les Paul line. Overdubbing, tape, and solid-body electrics are the durable rock tools here. His records are not rock records; Jimmy Page’s generation still learned from him.