On June 9, 1915, Lester William Polsfuss—better known to the world as Les Paul—was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin. A self-taught guitar prodigy and brilliant songwriter, Paul became a massive pop music sensation in the 1950s, scoring a continuous string of chart-topping hits alongside his immensely talented wife and musical partner, Mary Ford.
Paul’s true legacy lay in his restless, visionary obsession with modifying audio technology. Frustrated by the acoustic feedback and thin sound of traditional hollow-body instruments, Paul locked himself inside a laboratory and single-handedly built “The Log”—one of the world’s very first solid-body electric guitars. Though executives initially laughed at his primitive prototype, it eventually evolved into the legendary Gibson Les Paul, an instrument whose massive sustain and biting tone revolutionized the music industry and provided the literal acoustic blueprint for the birth of rock and roll.
