Independent Research entry

For this week four blog-entry, I wanted to talk about Lester William Polsfuss, better known to the world as Les Paul. Les Paul was an American country and jazz guitarist, songwriter, and inventor.  He is often credited with many recording innovations such as ‘sound on sound’, tape delay, phasing effects, and multi-track recording even though he was not the first to use the techniques. He was also a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar, even though some say he created the solid-body guitar. Either way, thanks to that innovation, we have the Rock & Roll sound. He was also involved in the development of the Sel-Sync technology, which led to the first commercially released, overdubbed recording, made on multi-track magnetic tape “Lover (When You’re Near Me)” by Les Paul. You can hear Paul’s innovations all over popular music today. Overdubbing, for example, is a common technique inside recording studios today just like tape delay and multi-track recording especially. Overdubbing, if you may not know, is also known as ‘Sound on Sound’, and is a technique to add a missing part to a previously recorded record, such as a guitar or piano solo. Vocalists use this technique a lot to harmonize with themselves, but overdubbing has many uses.  His inventions were so influential that he is one of a handful of artist with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The Les Paulverizer was also a huge invention and a game-changer, which he often called his little black box. This was basically a looping device that captured anything fed into it and then played back for other parts to be captured in the loop. This was a one-man band’s best friend. As a listener, Les Paul was one of the best master guitar players of our time, and as a music professional, Les Paul is simply an influential innovator and a genius.