THE FIRST – OR JUST NUMBER ONE?

Les Paul’s guitar tech, Tom Doyle, explains why ‘Number One’ was the first LP that Les signed off on

When news of the auction went public in August, some Les Paul aficionados questioned why, if the guitar was supposed to be “The very earliest approved production model of the famed Gibson Les Paul electric guitar”, it featured binding on the neck, which was absent on the first production examples to hit stores in 1952.Tom Doyle, who was Les Paul’s personal guitar tech and repair man for over 40 years, says this is a common misconception about ‘Number One’ that overlooks the exceptional treatment Les received from Gibson, as the star lending his name to the instrument who had also guided its development. “It may be true that the early factory production models that were shipped to music stores did not have binding, but Les’s Personal ‘Number One’ is not, and…

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Guitarist (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2021

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