Throughout the modern era of the electric guitar, many guitar greats have embreced the necks of some of the most precise instruments known to mankind. Some of these greats chose to grasp the neck of Fender Stratocasters, some chose the Fender Telecastor, some chose the Gibson 335, some chose the Gibson SG, some now play the Paul Reed Smith, some have played several of these great guitars and some have played all of them.
However in this article, I'll list the guitar greats who are most popular for playing the Gibson Les Paul.
The late great Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band ....quite possibly the best slide player ever
Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard fame
The Reverand Wille G....Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top
Frank Hannon of Tesla
Gary Moore
Former Guns 'n' Roses Guitarist and currently the lead guitarist for Velvet Revolver...Slash
Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
Joe Perry of Aerosmith
The late great Randy Rhoades of Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osborne fame
Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes
Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd
Joe Walsh.....solo artist as well as guitarist for The Eagles
Zack Wylde....current guitarist for Ozzy Osborne .
He also had his own band named ' Black Label Society'
So there are a few of the greats most popular for playing the Gibson Les Paul. I probably forgot a few, so please feel free to add any that I forgot as well as your favorites.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 35
Not sure, but I believe that the first Fender Stratocaster was introduced in or around 1954. I'll do some research and get back with you.
Beautiful instrument .
Evil Monkey....check this out from Wikipedia...
" The Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company was founded in Fullerton, California by Clarence Leonidas Fender in 1946 "
Don...they sure as heck are freaking heavy..and heavy is an understatement!
" Another GREAT guitar. The only complaint that I have with the Les Paul is how damn heavy they are! "
Nick...yep! What else can I say?
" Eric Clapton - although known more for his playing of his Black Beauty Strat, he has been known to bend the strings of a Paul "
Nick..correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Clapton play a Les Paul in the movie ' The Pinball Wizzard' ??
" Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield of Metallica "
Those guys may have played some Les Pauls in their day, but weren't most of them Les Paul copies made by ESP Guitars?
You couldn't have started off any better than you did........My personal "Guitar God"...Duane Allman......In my eyes there will never, ever, ever be anyone than can match the feeling, the passion, and the talent that Duane ripped out of that Les Paul.....
But you did include my second favorite....Gary Moore......
Great Pics.....Good article.....Thanks... for the trip through the Les Paul Hall of Fame....
Nick..great addition!
Todd....Thanks Coonass! Glad you enjoyed! And need I asy again how tough these articles are to pull off? I dragged about half of the photos into the body of the article without enlarging them. Then I had to delete them and start all over again. Tough, time consuming, but a heck of alot of fun in the end!
Todd...That is indeed the best part by far!
Nick...no problem at all. ESP makes some pretty close knock-offs of the Les Paul as well as the Strat. You've gotta look at the headstocks of the guitars in order to tell the difference.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the video of the Metallica song ' One and Justice for All ' , wasn't Kirk Hammett playing an ESP Strat copy?
" If you do happen to catch one it was in the old days, long before Metallica became a household name!!! "
Todd..I looked for it on photobucket and I couldn't find a pic of Kirk playing an original Les Paul.
Nick...no worries. You have an indepth knowledge of the music industry and I respect your comments.
Liz..really..care to write a poem about it? LOL!!!
" Do you play?"
Evil Monkey...sure do!!
I can't be a judge of my own playing, however I've been told that I play well.
Mostly original material, you know the kinda stuff you hack out while you're playing your guitar on your lap while watching TV?
I once went to a recording session, and this dude asked " Got any original material? "
I said " Sure do "
Then I opened up my guitar case and whipped out about 20 songs that I had written.
Once the dude observed the songs that I had written, he picked out one and asked ......" You got a riff to go with that one? "
I answered " I sure do " then I ripped into an open E string skipping riff that I composed with my Strat in my lap while watching TV.
Any other questions Monkey?
Bret.....It was Slash and Jimmy Page who turned me on to the Les Paul.....Then later on SRV and Hendrix turned me on to the Fender Stratocaster.
I just stuck it at the bottom of the page ...
Randy Rhodes was far better known for his radical Jackson "flying V-"esque guitars.
The original Les Paul's weren't overly heavy. from what I've heard. I've never owned one myself, but know those who either do, or have owned them in the past, and the weight of the originals was considerably less than today's models. This is supposedly because the old growth wood that was used in the originals was not nearly as dense as what's used today. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but there's got to be some reason why they weighed much less back then.
I once got involved in a discussion on a musician's board about famous guitarists who played Les Pauls. The author was insinuating that there were only a handful of guitarists who wielded Lesters that were noteworthy. In fact, just about any guitarist that's "made it" has, at one time or other, played one, including Hendrix and Beck, both of whom are widely known as Strat players.
You forgot two of my Gods, Al Dimeola and Warren Haynes. ;-)
Btw, the first electric guitars were neither Gibson nor Fender. The first known electrics were Rickenbackers, as early as 1931. It's rumored that Les Paul was tinkering with the concept in the mid-20's, but even he doesn't confirm that.
One thing that I found very interesting about the history of the Lester was how it was really somewhat of a desperation move by Gibson, which saw the early success of the Fender Telecaster, and responded by collaborating with Les Paul on a design. Based upon something I've read some time ago, Les brought his original "log" electric guitar to them years before, but they scoffed and rejected it.
Perhaps most ironic about the original Les Paul guitars is that, by the late 50's, after only a few years in production (the first was produced in 1952), they weren't so popular, and sales plummeted. 1960 was the final year for production of the "real" Les Pauls (all produced after 1960 are re-issues, in one form or another). In 1961, Gibson released the "Les Paul SG" (which, if I recall correctly, stood for "Solidbody Gibson," which, of course, the LP itself was as well...). This was the guitar that Frank Zappa and Angus Young made famous.
As for Pagey, as much as he's thought of as a Les Paul and double-neck SG player, he really loved the Telecaster, and probably played that on more recordings than anything else. He considered the Tele to be "the perfect guitar for rock and roll." Danny Gatton thought it perfect for chicken-pickin' rockabilly!
The Wizard of Waukasha himself, Les Paul, still plays two shows every Monday night at the Iridium in Manhatten, just down from Times Square. I made a pilgrimage to see him there on his 88th birthday, about 4-5 years ago. His hands are crippled with arthritis, so he doesn't have the chops he once had, but he's still got "the tone" in his fingers, and is as brilliant an entertainer as he was a designer and recording engineer so many decades ago. Virtually everything that musicians utilize today, to create music with, can be attributed, one way or another, to something that Les either invented or re-designed and refined.
It's arguable whether or not he actually invented the electric guitar, since he really didn't produce his own design for that until after the Rickenbacker models appeared, but he invented multi-track recording, echo, reverb, chorusing, flanging, pitch transposing/octaving, and that wonderful, mysterious black box that he used to perform live with that baffled musicians and engineers alike.
As far as Page goes, in his early days with The Yardbirds as well as Led Zeppelin, the Fender Tele was his main axe.
Thanks for stopping by Clark..much appreciated!