BillyRadd Music

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Les Paul, An Inspiration


Les Paul, one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, was born in 1915 in Wisconson. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, Gibson Guitars, a company who owes a lot of its success to Mr. Paul's vision and inventiveness, honored him by adding a "100" to their Les Paul Signature Logo on many of the Les Paul models made in 2015.


Today, I am the proud owner of one of them, a beautiful Les Paul Classic in Sea Foam Green. In honor of Les Paul, and in order to make the most of his beautifully-designed instrument now residing at my home, I will be starting to take guitar lessons from a private teacher here in Asheville next week.  I need to develop some real "chops", and at my age, I need to progress in music theory which I've heard will help keep my brain functioning a little better through regular practice under the tutelage of a teacher/coach. And, as anyone who knows me can tell you, that is an ambitious but worthy goal.


This particular Les Paul model has many modern features (too numerous to name here) incorporated into its classic design.  You can check out Gibson's page to find out more details about this handsome musical icon, the 2015 Classic Les Paul guitar.

I've wanted a nice Gibson Les Paul since I saw Joe Walsh play his 1960 Les Paul Standard in a basement bar in Kent, Ohio, in around 1968. It's taken me a while, but I've finally got one. Now, if I could only play like Joe . . .