It's not surprising that Les Paul had a '51 Nocaster. The historical truth is that the Telecaster could have been called the Les Paul. Paul and Leo Fender were friends and they had some discussions about an endorsement deal but Paul decided to go with Gibson, not because he liked their guitar better, but because they were a more established company. Source: The Birth of Loud by Ian Port. Ted McCarty designed the guitar that was named "Les Paul".
He used Epiphones and had access to their plant, where he worked on The Log, and he convinced Ted McCarty to buy Epiphone but I don't think he ever worked *for* the company.
@@terryoquinn8199I don't think he ever worked for Epiphone, but the Epiphone factory let him go in on sundays (the day they weren't open) and work with parts to create "The Log". Really; Leo Fender, Paul Bigsby, and Les Paul were all good friends. Gibson had doubts about Les's solid body electric guitar until they saw that Leo Fender had created the, now, Telecaster.
9:54 Just wanted to point out that the Pickups are actually not Mini-Humbuckers but Epiphones own Tone Spectrum (New Yorker) Pickups. They are Fat single coils that are laying on the side, like the Gibson Mudbucker (Sidewinder) that you can find on the EB basses. Epiphones didn't start getting Mini-Humbuckers utnill Gibson bought them 1957. They ran out of the stock of left over Tone Spectrum's around '59/'60 and had at that point designed the Mini-Humbuckers to replace them and go on futher developed Epiphone models. The Mini-Humbucker was designed to make Epiphones stand out against Gibsons so it didn't seem to be the same models with a different logo. Sorry for the rant, I just really love Epiphones and hope to see Trogly give some Reviews of some of the Proper ones some day.
I am the buyer of the Elektra guitar in this video. It is now at the rock & roll hall of fame. It was incredibly customized and we were able to show it was a recording guitar that he customized significantly. The MPC unit was removed from this guitar
That no caster guitar, was given to Les Paul by Leo Fender. Les Paul and Leo Fender were actually good friends. and they often shared guitar information with each other.
Hey Trogly, I recently purchased and original 1989 Epi Les Paul but the body and proportions are perfectly normal but still has that open book headstock. It sounds incredible. Gibson only made them in 1989 and stopped thereafter as they were too close to the Gibson models so they went a cheaper route and also clipped the headstock.
Trogly's explanation for the Les Paul SG becoming straight SG makes sense to me. The original got popular so it makes sense from a branding perspective to rename the SG.
Just as a note, those early, pre CMI, Epiphone pickups are not mini humbuckers (they are actually called NY pickup now on days), they are single coils but laid on the side, so the coil actually goes horizontally around a bar magnet and the pole screws go vertical at the end of that bobin, that's why it looks like they are way on the side of the pickup cover, as they dont have the bobin around them.
Hey Trogly1 If you have seen the old classic "To Have and Have Not" with Lauren Bacall & Humphrey Bogart, you should remember Bacall's line "You know how to whistle, don't you? Just put your lips together and blow!" Bogey is Bogart's nickname and those lips on the headstock look exactly the same color and shape of L. B.'s lips in the movie!
Imagine being told essentially "without you I wouldn't be famous" by Eddie Van himself. Two very different music styles, but talent recognizes talent, regardless of genre
Thanks Trogly - a man due so much respect like his brother from another mother Leo Fender. Big difference is Les actually was one of the all time guitar greats. I watch your daily videos at past midnight in the UK before going to bed. This is one of my favourites as learning more about Les Paul from the guitars and ephemera he left behind on earth is fascinating. You are contributing to the history of the guitar every day - especially Gibsons - and I tip my hat to you for it 😎
I think the weird "Chibson" actually is a Korean prototype of some sort just by how similar the scarf joint is to those other two. Possibly shipped over unbranded and logo added? The logo looked too good as well. Definitely oddball.
The cutout on that Epiphone Zephyr is original. It was necessary to install that particular pickup. It’s not the most common pickup and is fairly early in their electric history.
The Les Paul with the offset two-piece body looks very much like a kit guitar to me. I have a kit-made Firebird with a body made the same way. The neck is also two pieces, but without a scarf joint and bolted on instead of neck-through. It's actually a really good, well made guitar, and I'll venture a guess and say that Les Paul is too.
Leo Fender gave that Nocaster to Les himself. Les never used it in public because it was against his contract with Gibson to appear with anything else than a Gibson. He was loyal to Gibson. Source American Guitar, Tom Wheeler. Les Interview.
Did anyone else notice that that his Social Security card, shown right at the the end was typewritten "Polfuss" without the "s"?... even stranger, his signature on the same card was "Polfuss" too!
Les, Leo Fender, and Paul Bigsby were good friends. They often sat around talking guitars and new ideas for them. Leo really really wanted Les to play a Tele, and he did consider it but backed out eventually. His loyalty to Gibson won out mainly because their guitars seemed to fit his playing and ideas of what could be done with electric guitars. Then you have Leo basically stealing Paul Bigsby’s head stock design, so you can see the exchange of ideas proved fruitful for all concerned.
You didn't point out the awesome Epiphone E marked tuners with the unique to Epiphone tuning knobs. Seen these reissued on one of Joe Bonamasa's signiture guitars, but wish we'd see them become standard. I love Epiphone, love that they've been exploring their uniqueness more lately, and hope they continue to do so. Also, those aren't mini-humbuckers on that Zephyr, those are Epiphone New York pickups, they are single coils, they just look like the later mini-hums
Les and a Fender-style instrument, that's definitely out of step for him. Les incongruous (sorry, I had to) is the selection of Epiphone models. It was, after all, in the original Astoria, Queens, NY factory where Epiphone was founded that Les assembled the prototype "Log" in 1941 that became the launchpad for every solid body model to follow.
the fact the last guitar les played in the hospital before he died was a epiphone makes my heart happy cause i love my epiphone les paul , but sad because he died :( RIP
Hey Trog. I know Gibson purists don't like scarfed headstocks, but they are structurally much more robust. We'd see far fewer headstock breaks if the neck was scarfed and the truss rod access was in the heel.
Once Les endorsed GIbson, he didn't have much nice to say about the Telecaster?! I remember him saying that the Fender Telecaster wasn't much more than "ironing board" of a guitar!! lol Due to the fact that it had no contours, and no carved top.
I really enjoyed watching another Les Paul related episode but I do want to comment on two thing's. Les Paul did NOT hate the SG. According to Ted McCarty, Les begged Gibson to take his name off the guitar's because he was involved in an already financially bad divorce with Mary Ford at the time and he didn't want her getting even more money out of him. Gibson still gave him royalties privately. As for the Orville branded guitar's made in Japan, they are still a high quality instrument. Orville Gibson was the founder and original owner of Gibson which is where the name comes from.
8:55 wait im confused didnt epiphone change the headstocks to kalamazoo/gibson styles.. my 2020 inspired by gibson 50s les paul has the same headstock pretty much
Les seemed like such a great person. Wish I could have met him. He is truly a legend and huge inspiration and influence on me. He was also an adorable old man 😂
It was also widely reported that, when asked about Pete Townshend smashing Gibson’s, Les supposedly said that he loved it because it meant Pete had to buy more!
Ain't nothing wrong with Epiphones from a player's perspective. A bit more maintenance prone than mainline models, but they look, feel and sound great all the same.
Totally off topic but I’ve noticed you haven’t documented an Ace Frehley Les Paul Custom from ‘97. Is there a reason for that? It’s honestly my dream guitar and would love to see you go over one.
@@JokersWild70 I’ve seen that one many times, was just wondering what Trogly would have to say. I realize they probably aren’t the greatest playing guitars and if they weren’t so damn expensive on Reverb I’d have it for display but unless I win a lottery I’ll never buy one.
There used to be a guy on EBay who tried to sell old contracts from King's X and Anthrax concerts that had band members' SSNs and addresses on them, clearly visible in the auction photos. 😒
Les Paul's contract did expire but he was also about to go through a divorce and by signing a new contract that will automatically give his wife half of the deal so they waited until everything was finished and then a couple physical years had passed. Where didn't he could sign a new deal and not be taxed by his wife who not just as wife, but just as famous as he was but apparently that's not how divorce court works
With Les having pretty obvious ties to the Gibson company and he was a known tinkerer, it's not totally out of the question that he would have been able to get real Gibson silkscreen to put on copies just for fun
those "chibsons" could be from the same factory that ended up making the epiphones, just prototypes from before they decided switch from calling them gibsons and instead went with epiphone on the headstock, since they use the same scarfjoints
I havent watched the whole vid series yet but I would be suprised if Les did not have a original Bigsby in his collection. He was such an uppity prick though he prob wouldnt give Paul the satisfaction of showing respect and taking one!
Is it just me or is the sound, in lack of a better word, really "boomy" and trebly throughout this video? I'm listening with headphones and it actually got a bit painful after a while. I know it's not my headphones that's at fault because it's only this video that caused it
There might be some scaming going on in this auction...wow Les PAul had a 250$ chinese BC Rich Ironbird that now sells for 2,000$...a Chibson for 1,500$...legit...
LOL what a guy he had a telecaster in his personal collection and when keith went on stage to play with him he was like "you goddamn fcking son of a bitch! your playing a fender!?!?!?!?!" and keith was like "shieet well if its the blues ill play it" (the gibson les paul) hahaha its a really good jam session id search it up! RIP les paul the most innovative musician in history thank you for creating the best guitar ever built.. and revolutionizing recording music forever
