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14-08-2009 :Les Paul overleden
Gisteren, 13 augustus, is Lester William Polsfuss ak Rhubarb Red ak Les Paul overleden in een ziekenhuis in New York. Les Paul leed aan een zware longontsteking, en is 94 jaar geworden.
Iedereen kent Les Paul en zijn werk. Hieronder volgt een verslag, geschreven door Les Paul, over zijn bezoeken aan de Larsons. Les Paul probeerde gitaarbouwers August en Carl Larson in 1934 ervan te overtuigen om een gitaar te maken met een heel dik bovenblad, om er later een pickup in te zetten. Het was een eerste aanzet naar een echte elektrische gitaar, nog voor zijn beroemde 'the log' experiment.
Les Paul, November 26, 1983
"It may have been Doc Hopkins of the Cumberland Ridge Runners who brought me to the Larsons'shop. It was in 1934.
I think I remeber the place so well because it was so much like a barn. The wood front was unpainted and weathered. I would pull a string by the door wich rang a bell on the second floor. August would open what was like a hayloft door and say,
'Who is there?'
I would say, 'Rhubarb Red.'
Then he would pull another string to lift the latch on the door. When I got up to the shop on the second floor, August's opening line would always be:
'Say what you've got to say 'cause I'm busy.'
Then he would look over his bifocals, get a piece of paper and start writing.
This one time I explained the guitar I had in mind to August and when I got all done, he said you have to talk to Carl about that cause he does that. Carl was back in the shop by the furnaces bending sides for guitars but he was near enough that he may have heard the conversation. That's how small the shop was. It seemed like August didn't want to talk to Carl, so I had to go back and tell the whole story over again to Carl.
At that time I hosted the WJID country-style show in the mornings as Rhubarb Red and then did the WIND jazz show at night as Les Paul. The Larsons knew me as Rhubarb Red and would say to me:
'Les Paul is a better guitarist than you.'
All the time it took to make the three guitars, the controversy went on. I would say Rhubarb Red is better, and they would tell me,
'You got to learn to play like Les Paul.'
Later, I had a hard time convincing them that I was both of them.
I jammed a lot at the Barrel of Fun up on the north side on Broadway. A lot of musicians hung out there. I brought a lot of these guitar players down to the Larsons' shop.
The Larsons never tried to sell you something. They tried to to talk you out of something if it sounded to them like you didn't need it. Like,
'Why do you need another guitar if you already have one?'
When I told them I wanted a maple guitar with a 1/2 inch solid maple top with no holes in it, they argued with me that the sound could not come out. I told them about the pickup, but they said,
'I don't see how any sound can come through a pickup. I disagree with you. You're waisting your time and mine.'
This was in 1934. August wanted to make it perfectly clear that I knew how much this guitar with no holes was going to cost me before they started building it. He said,
'This is going to cost you; it will be $45.'
I assured him that I could afford it, and the project began.
They did a great job on this 1/2 inch top solid body. It was a cutaway arch-top with a tailpiece. It had 14 frets to the body and a total of 20 frets. The neck had a permanent non-adjustable truss rod in it. The braces where installed in the length of the body so they would be out of the way of the pickup holes to be cutout by me later. It was very similar to the Gibson L5."
uit: ("The Larsons'Creations" door Robbert Carl Hartman)
(ISBN 0-931759-77-3)
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Er zijn enkele fantastische stukken birch in de werkplaats te zien! De stukken hout hebben een fantastische grove tigerstripe/ riegel tekening. Perfect als gitaar top. Birch geeft een wat minder schelle hoog weergave dan hard maple. In combinatie met een mahonie body kun je een mooie warme gitaar verwachten met een iets heldere attack. We raden aan om de birch te laten aflakken in hoogglans.
Op een onlangs gerepareerde basgitaar van Fender trof ik op de halsplaat deze fabrieks sticker aan....
