The passing of Les Paul

[John_P_WI]

Sad, the news today is that Les Paul died at the age of 94.

He was a true legend, local hero too.

[Bob-I]

I met him in the early 70's at the shop of Sam Koontz in Linden NJ. Sam was adjusting my Strat and asked me to watch his shop, this old guy walked in and picked up a custom carved top build for Pat Martino. As a 2 something kid, I went into panic mode. After the old guy played a riff I walked up to him and said "I'm sorry Mr. Paul, I didn't know your face but I know that playing". He answered, "It's Lester son, and that's the way I like it".

We talked for about 30 minutes and he told me that the reason he didn't renew the contract with Gibson in 1962 was because he was divorcing Mary Ford and he "didn't want the bitch to get my money"

RIP my friend Lester

[M Fowler]

Its sad how many great pioneers we are loosing.

[Structo]

Yes I just heard this as well.

Hell of a guy, great innovator and player.

He lived a great and full life, dead at 94.

[blinddog]

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=l ... +Paul+Jeff#

RIP Les! Thanks for the guitars, the tape delays and the multitrack recording. It seems the world just wouldn't be the same today without you.

He truly was the Wizard of Waukesha! (Wi)

I wasn't as lucky as Bob, but I got a chance to see Les play when he toured in the 1990's, he must have been in his 80's and he was still great. He brought Neil Schon and Slash with him. He left the stage and let the "kids" play and all I could think was I wish I heard more of him. The above link is from the early 1980's but Jeff and Les made quite a pairing, my second favorite Les clip after his Coor's commercial (What's your name old man? Les to the kid,"It's on your guitar, son").

Again, RIP Lester!

[Sonny ReVerb]

Sad day. He was a true innovator and legend. I saw a show about him one time - might have been this one: http://www.lespaulfilm.com/
He had an awesome shop full of electronics. I wish I could spend a week just wandering around in there.

Here's a couple nice pages about him:

http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/000818.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters ... sound/100/

[Baltar]

that was a really cool old man.
rip lester and thx

[Sonny ReVerb]

For those that haven't seen the Coors commercial.

RIP Lester. Say hi to Leo and the gang...

[img:450:448]http://www.clackamasreview.com/reuters_ ... S-PAUL.JPG[/img]

[Bob-I]

I was talking to our soundman at the gig last night. A few years ago he was on a recording date with Joan Jet and working on getting the right grind out of her Les Paul. Les walked in and said "All of these years I've been working on getting the distortion out, now your perfecting the distortion, I LOVE IT".

Typical Les Paul.

[tonestack]

Les Paul sweeps picks in this clip from the fifties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iGXP_UBog4

[KellyBass]

Here's a very cool video from the NY times...

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/08/ ... l?emc=eta1