As a lifelong guitar player, music lover and student of a good blues riff, I wanted to take a moment to recognize the passing of the father of the solid body electric guitar – the original axe man – Les Paul. Les was the consummate tinkerer. His first cut at a solid body electric guitar became known as the “Log” – a bare bones prototype built out of a 4 x 4 piece of lumber. Things got a bit snazier after that. Maybe somebody else would have eventually invented the electric guitar but Les Paul did it first. He was also the first to use multi-track recording techniques which revolutionized the music recording industry. Stop and imagine a world without the electric guitar and multi-track recording – no Beatles, no Rolling Stones, no….the list would be endless. Thank you Les. You made all of our lives richer and more interesting. I think I’ll listen to some Eric Clapton tonight and toast to your very cool life. Rest in peace man.

Tags: electric guitar, Les Paul, music