Les Paul Plays an Electric Tune (circa 1952) page 2

Naturally, my first question is where did he come up with the idea for a solid-bodied, fully electrified guitar. Paul, like many innovators, found necessity to be the mother of invention: "In 1928, I'm playing at this little joint out in the country", he says with a slight northern accent, "and the people were complaining I wasn't loud enough. And I'm singing over a telephone, and going through a radio. And they could hear my voice and hear the harmonica, but they said they couldn't hear the guitar." From this point on, Paul explored options of amplification for his own needs. As bands he played in were getting bigger and louder his instrument was becoming much harder to hear, a solid way of amplifying his guitar could help bring him back up front…where he likes to be.

It shouldn't be misunderstood that Paul is the first to amplify a guitar, acoustic based hollow-body guitars have been amplified in various manners for the past ten years. Paul's guitar, however, is not of this breed. He has essentially taken a solid block of wood much like that of a railroad rail, (delicately shaped into a pleasing-to-the-eye design, of course) and uses an electro-magnetic device called a 'pick-up' to directly amplify the vibrations produced by striking the strings. Paul came to this design for two reasons. First, to eliminate feedback: "Well, with these hollow-bodies being amplified, feedback became a huge problem. If you were too close or too far away from the amp, or move too much, you were going to hear a high pitched squeal! Increasing the mass of the guitar helped reduce unwanted vibrations and feedback, making it solid almost eliminated these problems. It was trial and error, really." Second, to get greater volume and sustain: "After experimenting with materials to amplify, I found that density had a lot to do with volume and sustain. Originally, I wanted to build a guitar that could sustain a note for 20 seconds. Using a mahogany wood base gave greater sustain, volume, and tone. One wouldn't think you could get all that just from wood." He actually stumbled on to the idea of a solid body while sitting waiting for a train. He saw how when trains approached vibrations in the rails continued to sustain, and he took this idea of sound and sustain to his guitar. Paul's approach to his invention seemed less than 'scientific'; he kept no solid journal, wore no lab coat, and was not granted money for research. On the other hand, Paul's method was scientifically brilliant in its simplicity; he experimented by trial and error, he observed results by playing for audiences, and used his observations to tweak for better results.

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