Interesting interview of Ted McCarty

Found this interview on Reverb, it was a good read but I'm not really sure what to make of it. Makes it out to sound like Les just signed on after it was done. Anyone have another perspective on the story?

https://reverb.com/news/former-gibs...9_blogbacongibson&utm_medium=FB&utm_source=FB

I've always had a chip on my shoulder, growing up and reading in magazines how Les claimed to do all this and that, but really was just an endorsee, something further solidified by Larry Aller's son in the Golden Era book interviews section.

Was Les Paul’s only contribution to the design the long tailpiece?

That’s the only one.

He’s said that he designed more than that.

What? What does he claim he did?

In one interview he said he designed everything but the carved top.

[Laughs.] Well, actually, I have told you exactly how it got to be a Les Paul. We spent a year designing that guitar, and he never saw it until I took it to Pennsylvania.

So why would he say that?

I don’t know. But what is there, outside of the carved top, and the shape, to the design?


How about the gold-finished top?

We did that because the gold finish covered the blemishes in the wood, the cosmetic appearance. Because guitar players are strange. Now [speaking in 1992] they’re making guitars with maple with... what do they call that? Quilted maple, yes. In the early ‘50s you couldn’t give one away. If it was maple it had to be fiddleback maple, had to be perfect, couldn’t have any blemishes, couldn’t have any mineral streaks in it.

Click to expand...

Love it. :3zone

Thundermtn said:

Found this interview on Reverb, it was a good read but I'm not really sure what to make of it. Makes it out to sound like Les just signed on after it was done. Anyone have another perspective on the story?

https://reverb.com/news/former-gibs...9_blogbacongibson&utm_medium=FB&utm_source=FB

Click to expand...

There must be dozens of them. :ganz

One of those unpopular notions but one that is supported by pretty much every piece of information out there. I personally think there's evidence to give slightly more credit than McCarty in that Les’s contributions to the guitar probably are:


The tailpiece, largely an untested idea and primarily a money grab but Les’s none the less.


Possibly the rounded off cutaway. The known prototype has a very sharp cutaway. I once read an interview with Les where he mentioned in passing that he found the prototype cutaway too sharp and it doesn't appear to have been changed till he was on board.


The goldtop finish. All first run (no neck binding) Les Pauls have centre seam, sometimes mildly figured, tops. Which means that all of the white wood production was done before a very 11th hour decision to paint them. So ... might be his idea.


The VERY low string height on the first 2 production lines. It’s worth noting that Les NEVER used a 53-60 model after Gibson fixed the design problem, and even apparently didn’t receive a single burst period guitar from production. In fact the customs he received (a few first run models plus a few flat tops in 58) all appear to have been delivered to him with abnormally low string heights (sunken bridges etc.). My guess is that the "never discussed" reason that Gibson took a year and a half to fix this flaw (including a revised production run on the middle where they completely retooled) is that this was one of Les’s specific requests and that he argued internally against it being changed.


McCarty’s comment that Les didn’t know the tops were different is probably untrue (Les was hacking up guitars as soon as he had samples) but does suggest it was never part of the discussion.


One more contribution, Les never ever used the stock neck pickup and would stick DeArmonds under a P90 cover (probably Gibson did this for him in an attempt to keep things looking tidy), without a doubt the Alnico neck pickup on the Custom is an attempt to copy the Dearmond as a nod to him.

There's a link to another Les Paul interview also done by Tony Bacon in there, I read it right after reading the McCarty one and they do seem to have differing stories about the development of the LP guitar, Les does claim a lot more input into the design then McCarty gives him (especially the bit about Gibson mistakenly putting the maple cap on the GT instead of the more expensive Custom, which was all mahogany, according to Les). The real story probably lies somewhere in between I would bet.
Al

Good interview and thank you to the OP for posting . I found it most interesting the comments in regards to Leo Fender , very insightful into the competitive nature between Fender and Gibson . I also found it very interesting Ted McCarty's comment bout Fender not participating in the trade show , and now fast forward to Gibson blowing off NAMM this past January .