Gibson Les Paul 1996 Standard Ebony
The Gibson Les Paul Guitar – one of the most iconic in history
The Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul is one of the most iconic of all guitars ever produced. The Les Paul guitar is named after Lester William Polsfuss (9/6/1915 – 12/8/2009), AKA Les Paul, an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype, called the Log, served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul.
The modern Les Paul comes in many varieties – mine is a Les Paul Standard, but there are also editions such as the Les Paul Custom, Les Paul Studio, Les Paul Tribute, Les Paul classic, Les Paul Special and Les Paul Junior.
The Gibson Les Paul comes in a left handed model aswell as the traditional right handed version, and has changed throughout the decades, with people paying top dollar nowadays for versions such as the Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s models or Gibson Les Paul Standard 60s.
Gibson versus Fender
You've all heard the whole "two wolves" story, right? It's a classic myth ascribed to all sorts of traditional wisdom, which basically goes like this.
There's a black wolf (the baddie) and a white wolf (the goodie) inside you. They're locked in a constant struggle, which looks a bit like the yin-yang symbol.
So which one wins? Well, here's the "wise" bit: whichever one you feed.
This is where you're supposed to go "ahaaaa, I see" and be inspired to do kind things (e.g. feeding the white wolf).
In the world of rock'n’roll, guitars are exactly the same – inside every guitarist there are two guitars locked in eternal struggle: the Fender Stratocaster, and the Gibson Les Paul. Which one wins? Well, the Les Paul obviously, because it's a way sicker guitar.
…but the point is, at some point early in your career as a guitarist, when it’s time to consider which of all the electric guitars you should buy, you'll quite possibly need to choose between Gibsons and Fenders.
Both sides have their legendary elders.
Proponents of the Gibson guitar include Slash (Guns'n'Roses), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Angus Young (AC/DC), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) and Pete Townshend (The Who).
Rocking the Fender, you’ll find Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Rory Gallagher, Buddy Holly and Jeff Beck (The Yardbirds).
Real rockers tend to prefer Gibson guitars because of their double-coil humbucker pickups, which makes everything sound bigger, crunchier and louder. Lesser rocking people prefer Fenders because they like the warmer, softer, moodier sound which you get from single coil pickups.
My Gibson Les Paul
1996 Standard Ebony
This was my only electric guitar for nearly 20 years. I’ve played a heap of gigs and more jams than the sky has stars with this Gibson Les Paul, and it’s never let me down. I’ve also put in a huge amount of practise with my fingers crawling up and down this fretboard for hours a day, years on end.
Sadly, I lost all of my belongings to a house fire in 2001, including my guitars. Rumours abound that I was simply shredding too hard on my previous axe and this created sparks and a subsequent fire, but these are simply that: rumours.
After the fire, I used the insurance money to buy this as well as my Seagull acoustic guitar.