Photo: Les Paul’s Gold Top Guitar (a replica – from the Gibson website) By Anthony Mason, CBS News – Sunday Morning | Lot #1 in what Christie’s calls “The Exceptional Sale,” an auction later this week, is one of the most influential instruments of the past century: Les Paul’s #1 Gibson Goldtop, the first approved prototype, his son Gene says, of his father’s now-iconic electric guitar.
Correspondent Anthony Mason said, “It still makes a pretty good first impression – it is stunning. It’s absolutely beautiful.”
“And the next part to stunning of how it looked,” Gene Paul said, “is how he played it!”
Mason asked, “What did this guitar mean to him?”
“Everything,” said Gene. “This was his crowning achievement. This was 30 years of experiments, of his dream, and his obsession with getting Gibson to make it.”
> > > > > > > >
Paul is the only artist inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Inventors Hall of Fame.
Go here to read the rest of the story – and to see the videos – and to hear some songs:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/les-paul-gibson-goldtop-electric-guitar/
https://www.gibson.com/Guitar/USA85B326/Les-Paul-Standard-50s-P-90/Gold-Top
A “perfect rock ‘n’ roll machine”: Les Paul’s Crowning Achievement
