Music legend Les Paul passed away today at the age of 94.

On June 9th, 1915 a legend was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Lester William Polfus, who became loved in our hearts as the one and only Les Paul.  From an early age Les Paul found himself interested and surrounded by music and electronics.  He was a self-taught musician by age nine and with the wheels turning in his mind he created a crystal radio from Cadillac parts and an old dentist drill.  This inevitably led to his pursuit of a better recording device and a way to amplify his chosen instrument - the guitar.  

During his years as a top notch player - Les performed with various musicians within a variety of different genres of music, ranging from country to jazz.  Early in his career Les Paul went by the hillbilly persona "Rhubarb Red", though while playing jazz he became known as Les Paul, the name we know today.  During these years as a performer Les never stopped thinking up ideas to further the future of music, he came up with "The Log", which was an effort to create an electric guitar.  This was presented to Gibson in hopes to market the "Les Paul" solid body electric guitar, initially Gibson turned down the idea, but soon after Gibson realized that this design was the future of guitars and they took the Les Paul on.  The rest is history.  

Les Paul was always on the forefront of innovative ideas, and having come into the possession of a German tape recorder he decided to elaborate on the idea and quickly came up with a new design that allowed him to record multiple layered parts.  The creation of this multi-track recorder lead to such innovative recording styles as overdubbing, delay effects, and phasing effects, which are all still used today.  

Les Paul was one of the most influential figures in music and he continued to bless listeners into recent years. He will always be remembered as one of the greats - both as a performer and inventor.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, rest in peace Les you will always be remembered and kept in our hearts, thank you for all you have done.  

seth