Who Came Up With the Les Paul Shape?

Wilko said:

The Bigsby headstock shape has already been shown to be a copy of the Stauffer/Martin guitars, and those are traced to romantic guitars and lutes.

Click to expand...

I used to think that, then when I was working with S.Mosley he told me about that headstocks shape, as told to him by Bigsby himself. It was meant to resemble a music note. The Stauffer is a different shape and after I looked again I think I saw what M. Travis (a cartoonist and drawer) and P.A. were going for. That first Bigsby did not have a cutaway, that was added later.

Big Al said:

I used to think that, then when I was working with S.Mosley he told me about that headstocks shape, as told to him by Bigsby himself. It was meant to resemble a music note. The Stauffer is a different shape and after I looked again I think I saw what M. Travis (a cartoonist and drawer) and P.A. were going for. That first Bigsby did not have a cutaway, that was added later.

Click to expand...

Oh man!!! I would LOVE to hear about your experiences with Mosley!!! there's another guy who, IMHO, doesn't get the recognition or credit he deserves. perhaps another new thread dedicated to sharing some of this?

in re-reading this ancient writing,
it seems, as in music and all art,
while the APP resembles previous spansih body shapes, but with cutaway, be it martin or Gibson or ditson, wards or whatever

and bigsby headstock , to me, indeed resembles a stauffer/martin /musical note

many have borrowed and refined from earlier art and music to 'reinvent',

but
you will not convince me, that the APP is not in fact the inspiration-

if someone can point me to any other solid guitar that looks like it, and which so closely resembles (to my eye) a 52 LP, with its trapeze and general proportion, I would be grateful.

I guess, simply, when I found the APP in a book, its date, there was a "Eureka" moment for me. Combine that with what I recall from perhaps "The Gibson" book in which either ted or seth explains how in the late 40s early 50s there was an extremely small group of builders which routinely exchanged ideas, I conclude someone saw the APP, and from there on, it was adopted and refined.