By 1952 Les Paul was not only the most popular guitar player in America, he was also a leading innovator in guitar and electronics design. He had been experimenting with electric guitars since the early 1940’s. He had once mounted a guitar string on a railroad tie to confirm his belief that a solid body guitar would maximize sustain, and he had incorporated a mini-railroad rail-a 4″x4″ piece of pine-into the body of a homemade solid body electric guitar he nicknamed “The Log.” It was with the design of “The Log” where the Les Paul guitar begins.

Les Paul began his collaboration with the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1950 when after the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the music market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson Guitar president Ted McCarty brought guitarist Les Paul into the company as a consultant. He had hand-built the solid-body prototype called “The Log”, a design widely considered the first solid-body Spanish guitar ever built, as opposed to the “Hawaiian”, or lap-steel guitar. Although numerous other prototypes and limited-production solid-body models by other makers have since surfaced, it is known that in 1945-1946, Les Paul had approached Gibson with “The Log” prototype, but his solid body design was rejected.

The Gibson company then worked on a new design incorporating some of Paul’s suggestions in the early fifties, and presented it to him to try. He was impressed enough to sign a contract for what became the “Les Paul” model (originally only in a “gold top” version), and agreed never to be seen playing in public, or be photographed with, anything other than a Gibson guitar. That persisted until 1961, when Gibson changed the design without Paul’s knowledge. He said he first saw the “new” Gibson Les Paul in a music store window, and disliked it. Though his contract required him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not “his” instrument, and asked Gibson to remove his name from the headstock. Gibson renamed the guitar the “SG”, and it also became one of the company’s best sellers. It has been said that Les had ended his endorsement contract with Gibson because he was going through a divorce, and didn’t want his wife to get all of his endorsement money. Later, Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson, and endorses the instrument even today (though his personal Gibson Les Pauls are much modified by him - Paul always uses his own self-wound pickups on his guitars). To this day, the Gibson Les Paul guitar is used all over the world, both by novice and professional guitarists.