Les Paul
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"Lester William Polsfuss", known as "Les Paul", was an American jazz guitarist/jazz, country guitarist/country and blues guitar playing/blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid body/solid-body electric guitar, which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as History of sound recording#Electrical recording/sound on sound), Delay (audio effect)/delay effects such as Delay (audio effect)/tape delay, Phaser (effect)/phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.

His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including Lick (music)/licks, Trill (music)/trills, chording sequences, Fingerboard#Frets/fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.

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I have younger friends who don't work, and they aren't doing so well. My secret is to keep going, keep working.

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When I got my first guitar my fingers wouldn't go to the sixth string so I took off the big E and played with just five strings. I was only 6 or 7.

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One minute we're over here, the next minute we're doing something completely different. But it's interesting because you are producing so many things you couldn't do with analog.

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My first guitar came from Sears & Roebuck and I believe it was $3.95.

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I used my mother's radio as a PA system. I'd take the telephone, the speaking part, and take those two leads off and lead them into the radio and the sound would come out of the speaker.

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Now I need to take a piece of wood and make it sound like the railroad track, but I also had to make it beautiful and lovable so that a person playing it would think of it in terms of his mistress, a bartender, his wife, a good psychiatrist - whatever.

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We go in there and we work on altering those ideas and in many cases go in different directions.

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Les Paul and Friends.

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We're switching the sounds, not so much the tone of the instrument. And when things seem impossible, it's back to grade school, soldering, re-developing - always building.

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