For sheer impact on the music community as a whole, I have to go with Jimi Hendrix. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to see Hendrix live, but I have seen many recorded concerts. I also have a very extensive collection of bootleg concerts and interviews. He was one of those musicians who, when he was ripping a solo, would go to another level of being; a whole other place. His impact on music and the guitar-playing community is unmistakable. Virtually every great modern guitar player mentions Hendrix as a major influence on their own playing. His innovation on guitar and in the recording studio will live on forever.

For pure virtuosity of playing, I’ll go with Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was a pleasure to witness this man playing guitar…usually with your jaw on the ground. I was fortunate enough to see SRV a couple of times; both times were absolutely remarkable. When he went into a solo, it was impossible to look away. I found myself fixating on his fingers as he climbed around the neck of 1963 Stratocaster. Pure genius! He too seemed to go to some other place when he was shredding. I once heard Eric Clapton refer to SRV as a channel…music just flowed through him and erupted out of his fingers. At times, I felt sorry for the rest of Double Trouble as they tried to keep time and keep up!

For total innovation on the six string, I’m going with Eddie Van Halen. The first time I saw him play with both hands on the neck, I was completely blown away. What was this dude doing? Where is his pick? I’ve seen VH many times and watching Eddie perform his guitar solo is well worth the price of admission. In my opinion, he brought the use of two hands on the neck to rest of the world and into the mainstream. Many modern guitarists added this style to their repertoire, but nobody perfected it, or plays it better, than Eddie.

I could easily go on and on about great guitar players. After all, there are so many phenomenal ones to talk about. From the likes of Django Reinhardt through Les Paul, great guitar players have spanned the generations. Other modern guitarists who easily deserve mention are guys like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Tom Morello, Jeff Beck, Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen…somebody stop me! Let’s all enjoy these guitar virtuosos as they shred their six string things.

The source for the awesome Eddie Van Halen photo is here!

Lester William Polsfuss was born in June of 1915. You may know him better as Les Paul. He apparently had an uneventful childhood in Wisconsin until around age 8. He then discovered music by way of the harmonica. He moved on to the banjo and eventually settled in to play the guitar. By the age of seventeen, Les Paul was a professional musician who had played guitar and harmonica on many recordings and radio shows under several different pseudonyms. As successful as he was, he was unsatisfied with the limited sounds that he could create on a ‘traditional’, acoustic hollow body guitar and set out to produce the first solid body, electric guitar. It was dubbed ‘The Log’ because that’s basically what it was; a regular old 4-by-4 piece of lumber with a bridge, neck and self-invented pickup attached. I don’t want to muddy the waters (no pun intended), but Leo Fender was working on a solid body guitar around the same time (so was a fellow named Adolph Rickenbacker). I mention this fact because the folks at Gibson were not interested in Les Paul’s ideas regarding solid body electric guitars until Fender put out an instrument that was well-received…Gibson didn’t want to take the chance. Eventually though, the Gibson folks relented and in the early fifties, Gibson and Les Paul struck a deal and designed the first Gibson Les Paul guitar. And the rest is history, as they say!

Jimmy Page with Les Paul Guitar

Besides the solid body, electric guitar, Les Paul had a huge impact on the recording of music. Les Paul invented many of the recording techniques that engineers and musicians take for granted in today’s industry. For example, he pioneered the use of overdubbing and multi-tracking. He would cut acetate records with an original recording, and then play those recordings and play guitar along with them, thus creating the sound of two guitars playing. He did this over and over again until he achieved the sound he was seeking. He also invented many of the delay features such as tape delay and phasing. It always amazes me to read about innovators like Les Paul or guys like Eddie Kramer (the sound engineer for Jimi Hendrix) who can just imagine some sound they want to recreate and then figure out a way to make it materialize.

I have often wondered why many of the well known guitarists in music decided to play the Fender Stratocaster instead of the Gibson Les Paul. I’m talking about guys like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck. I guess these guys know the sound they’re looking for and couldn’t get that sound from the Gibson. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of good guitar players playing Gibson guitars; Slash, Ted Nugent and Alex Lifeson, just to name a few. Regardless of which guitar a person chooses to play, there is no denying that Les Paul will pop up in the conversation of great guitars and great guitar players. In the words of The Edge: “His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten.”

Thanks, Vodes, for helping us remember a great guitar player, fun musician, and exciting innovator. Thanks for the tunes, Les Paul! Sources for the first photo and the second photo.