LES PAUL GUITAR IS SLASH’S IDENTITY

With the unfortunate death of the inventor of the electric guitar, Les Paul, Slash talks about why the Gibson Les Paul is so special to him.

To Slash, Les Paul goes to his very soul. The innovator passed away from pneumonia at 94 on August 13th, 2009. Paul was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar when in 1939 he built “The Log” which was one of the first sold body guitars. Gibson Guitar was so impressed they signed Les Paul to a contract to make the “Les Paul” model and the rest as they say was history. The great Les Paul is also credited with inventing many recording techniques including overdubbing, delay and phasing effects, and multitrack recording which finally allowed him to record multiple guitar parts in his songs. Les Paul also had quite an innovative playing style as well, coming up with phrasing techniques like licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which inspired generations of guitarists. Many of the worlds greatest guitar players play Les Pauls like Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Duane Allman, Keith Richards, Eddie Van Halen, Warren Haynes, Wes Montgomery, George Benson and Slash, to name just a small sampling.

Artisan News caught up with Slash during the unveiling of his Slash signature series Les Paul guitar to get his thoughts on why the Les Paul is so special to him and why he can’t play any other guitar.

“That’s just something that came in the very, very first year that I started playing. I think when I graduated to an electric guitar from an acoustic I just naturally sort of went towards the Les Paul body shape and I had a Les Paul copy for awhile. And you know as any young guitar player I sort of experimented with a lot of different types of guitars and just kept coming back to a Les Paul. Eventually I think in 1985 I just stayed. That was it. I had gone through enough guitars and realized that that was where my identity was.”

Les Paul won his first Grammy Award in 1977 for best country instrumental, for “Chester and Lester,’’ an album of duets with Chet Atkins. A year later he was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and he was also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005 and President George W. Bush awarded him the National Medal of Arts in 2007. Les Paul leaves two sons, Robert and Lester Jr., a daughter, Colleen; five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. A private ceremony is being held for him in New York, and a service in his hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin and a public memorial will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers the family urges wellwishers to donate to the Les Paul Foundation, 236 West 30th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001.