The Gibson Les Paul Book: A Complete History of Les Paul Guitars (Hardcover)

by Tony Bacon (Author), Paul Day (Author), Les Paul (Author) "LES PAUL was born Lester William Polfus in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in June 1915..." (more)
Key Phrases: separate bar tailpiece, crown markers, phase slide switch, Los Paul, Bruce Bolen, Maurice Berlin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
The Les Paul guitar has been the instrument of choice for many of the world's top rock guitarists since its introduction in 1952. This book, which follows the authors' The Fender Book (Miller Freeman, 1992) as the second in a guitar profile series, documents the instrument's history and development. The guitars are discussed within the context of both popular music and the international guitar market. All models are covered, and the appendix includes a comprehensive reference section listing information needed to identify and date each model. High-quality photos highlight differences in model specifications and showcase many beautiful and collectible pieces. Designed to appeal to musicians, guitar collectors, and rock fans alike, this volume will prove useful in most libraries. --Eric C. Shoaf, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Much of the history of rock 'n' roll focuses on the personalities of a steady progression of guitarists, who, in turn, often focus on the personalities of their guitars. Many of those guitars, including those used by stars of the caliber of Eric Clapton, were the Gibson Company's electric models named after Les Paul, the guitar ace of the 1940s and 1950s, and have become collector's items. This complete history of the Les Pauls explains the company's collaboration with Paul in 1952 to produce the instruments and then covers in detail their technical and commercial history down to the present day. Not only is the book tricked out with a lavish profusion of color illustrations (mostly portraits of the instruments), but it also presents quite a variety of historical facts in the main text and concludes with appendixes full of model identification data and extensive chronologies. Rock fans who revere the hardware as much as the players may well enjoy Bacon and Day's effort, and guitar collectors and fanciers will find it a valuable reference. John Shreffler

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879302895
• ISBN-13: 978-0879302894
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #402,243 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Title Should be LESS PAUL, June 23, 2000

By A Customer

Bacon gets points for overall organization but looses a great deal for leaving out key details and making too many mistakes. For instance, the early years were covered well, but the end of and the post Norlin period was full of glaring ommissions and mistakes. As an avid Les Paul collector and frequent contributor to vintage guitar magazine I was sorely disappointed. There was no mention of the 1988 Showcase series where Gibson installed EMG pickups in its guitars. No mention of the experiment with Steinberger and the bizarre mutant Les Pauls that surfaced in 86-87 timeframe. The Norlin 81 Silverburst was not covered nor was there any mention of the Kahler tremelo collaboration, the Ferrari Red and other color experiments. The reference tables are packed with errors and more omissions. This book wont help a collector identify or understand Les Pauls. If you are going to write a book about the Gibson Les Paul then make sure it is accurate if not complete. This book has great photos and a very good summary of key early year facts....but enough already about the 59-61 bursts already. There is no much more to the Les Paul history.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So So Guide To Les Paul, January 15, 2003

By	Brian W Robinson (Newburyport, MA United States) - See all my reviews

Depending upon your degree of knowledge about vintage guitars and Les Pauls in particular you may find this book a helpful and informative resource or a complete waste of time.

Tony Bacon has written a lot of books on vintage guitars and guitar collecting. I like his stuff, but he very often gets things just plain wrong. I am certain it has more to do with mistakes in the editing process than anything, but there are some nit-picky errors in this book.

The best treatment of Les Pauls and vintage Gibson electrics that I have seen is A.R. Duchossior's excellent and exhaustively researched book "Gibson Electrics - The Classic Years" (published by Hal Leonard).

This little book is a good introduction to the history of this important model and it has some nice photographs of various iterations of the Les Paul model from 1952 to the date of publication in the late 1990s, but if you're looking for a completely comprehensive guide/history to the Les Paul guitar that is 100% accurate this is not it. Still, if you're a guitar nut (like me) it's a nice little book to have.

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent book for guitar "anoraks"., July 7, 2002

By	sir_isaac_newton (UK) - See all my reviews

The book is rather small and thin -- despite that it contains quite a lot of information but unfortunately much of it is in a dry tabular form. That said, what text there is inside is quite enjoyable. The story of the magical 1959 Les Paul is insightful. They varied tremedously as they were hand made by old ladies for the most part -- so the whole concept of a 1959 specification and 1959 is really somewhat flawed. I also like the pictures: 2 of Jimmy Page's Les Pauls and Gary Moore's "Peter Green Les Paul" (yes that Les Paul, the one with the reversed magnetic in the neck pick-up). Some of these guitars have passed into guitar folklore -- they have become well known characters over the last 43 years or so of their existance. Pity they didn't have an image of Eric Clapton's Les Paul -- the one used on the seminal Beano album -- as it was stolen back in the 60's. [There was a rumor recently -- in Guitar Techniques magazine -- that another London professional, Bernie Marsden, is currently playing that guitar but who knows.]. The book should be brought up to date and some holes filled in - hence only 3-stars (actually more like 3.5) but if you like Les Pauls, I mean really like Les Pauls - then you will probably want to take a look at this.