Had one of the very first LPs made, didn't know what I had. It had a Bigsby, and a crazy F hole shaped plate upon which rested a floating bridge. Played like a dog, but sounded great, P90 with the corner screws. It is pictured in one of the Gibson books. Sorry I sold it, but it didn't play well enough for me to do 5 sets with, and I got $250 for it! (In 1969,,,) Oh, wonder how many lefties like Paul's were made in the golden 58,59, 60 run? Still can hear the bass part in 'I saw her standing there. ' Thanks Mr. Mc!!
Well, it's pretty well known that Les Paul had little to do with the design of the Les Paul guitar. Ted McCarthy (head of the company at the time) said that the guitar (prototype) was finished when the showed the guitar to Les and Mary. The only thing Les changed was the colour (he wanted them to change it to gold) and the tailpiece (that would be the trapezium tailpiece). Other than that the just slapped his name on it and that was it. The trapeze tailpiece was a dud so the changed it to the stopbar tailpiece before Ted invented the ABR-1 bridge.
