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You may have heard the news by now, but Les Paul, the guitar wizard who did wonders for both guitar players and guitars themselves, passed away today at the glorious age of 94.

Most know his name because it is also the moniker for one of rock and roll’s most popular instruments, the Les Paul guitar by Gibson. But Paul was also a true virtuoso of the instrument as well as a technological innovator who pioneered the solid-body electric guitar.

The rockers who’ve played the instrument fill out a diverse list including Frank Zappa, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, and of course, Slash.

Many know his instrument better than his music (myself included) so here’s a super old-timey video of Les Paul and wife Mary Ford singing “World is Waiting for the Sunshine.”

This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2009.

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Thank You Les Paul

by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon
August 13, 2009

<h1>Thank You Les Paul</h1> <p class="byline">by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />August 13, 2009</p> <p>You may have heard the news by now, but Les Paul, the guitar wizard who did wonders for both guitar players and guitars themselves, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/08/13/ST2009081301806.html" target="_blank">passed away today at the glorious age of 94.</a></p> <p>Most know his name because it is also the moniker for one of rock and roll's most popular instruments, the Les Paul guitar by Gibson. But Paul was also a true virtuoso of the instrument as well as a technological innovator who pioneered the solid-body electric guitar.</p> <p>The rockers who've played the instrument <a href="http://www.lespaulguide.com/famous-les-paul-players.php" target="_blank">fill out a diverse list</a> including Frank Zappa, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, and of course, Slash.</p> <p>Many know his instrument better than his music (myself included) so here's a super old-timey video of Les Paul and wife Mary Ford singing "World is Waiting for the Sunshine."</p> <p><object><em>You need to use a flashplayer enabled browser in order to view this video</em></object></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> http://www.youtube.com/v/7iGXP_UBog4 </div> </figure> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/thank-you-les-paul-2134025/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=11765&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/thank-you-les-paul-2134025/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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