![]() At age seventeen, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Texas Cowboys, and soon after he dropped out of high school to team up with Sunny Joe Wolverton's Radio Band in St. As a teen Paul experimented with sustain by using a 2-foot piece of rail from a nearby train line. Wanting to make his acoustic guitar heard by more people at the local venues, he wired a phonograph needle to his guitar and connected it to a radio speaker. While playing at Waukesha area drive-ins and roadhouses, Paul began his first experiment with sound. By age thirteen, Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music singer, guitarist, and harmonica player. Les Paul’s hands-free design is still widely manufactured today. During this time, Paul invented a neck-worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play both sides of the harmonica, hands-free, while performing on the banjo and guitar. After learning the piano, he switched to the banjo and guitar. Īt the age of eight, Paul began playing the harmonica. Before taking the stage name Les Paul, he performed as Red Hot Red and Rhubarb Red. His mother simplified their Prussian family name first to Polfuss, then to Polfus, although Les Paul never legally changed his name. His parents divorced when he was a child. Paul's mother was related to the founders of Milwaukee's Valentin Blatz Brewing Company and the makers of the Stutz automobile. His only sibling, Ralph, was seven years older. Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to George and Evelyn (Stutz) Polsfuss, both of German ancestry. Paul is the only inductee in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed. Īmong his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ![]() His licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques, and timing set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. ![]() His early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing, and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention. Paul is credited with many recording innovations. In the 1950s, he and his wife, singer and guitarist Mary Ford, recorded numerous records, selling millions of copies. Paul taught himself how to play guitar, and while he is mainly known for jazz and popular music, he had an early career in country music. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype, called the Log, served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul. Lester William Polsfuss (J– August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. ![]()
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