When did Gibson guitars take Les Paul as a consultant? Did they hire other musicians as consultants before or after?
Is the Gibson guitar today the same as it was when they made it for the first time?
It was in 1950 or 1951, I'm not sure, and actually his contribution to the development of the guitar was minimal. They are making them again (after they stopped for a few years) but they gave then name Les Paul to a very wide range of guitars, and only one of them is similar to the original one.
Huh, I didn't even know that Les Paul was a musician -- I thought it was only the name of the model!
In the early nineteen fifties the Gibson Guitar Corporation wanted to market a solid body guitar under the name of a popular artist. Les Paul was the biggest electric guitar player at the time and had made his own solid body guitar which was the inspiration for the solid body guitar built by Leo Fender. Gibson wanted the prestige of building a guitar under Les Paul's name. The Gibson company designed the guitar and submitted it to Les Paul for his opinion. He suggested some changes to the way the guitar looked, the company made the changes and they named the guitar after Les Paul. You can find an article on the subject at Les Paul Guitars - What Makes Them Special?
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