Gibson Les Paul - Historic McCarty Electric Guitar Art

This auction is for a set of two reproduction prints from the original 1955 U.S. Patent drawings for the Gibson Les Paul model guitar.Ted McCarty, then president of Gibson, filed his application for this patent with the United States Patent Office on January 21, 1953. By this time, the original Les Paul model guitars had been introduced and deemed unplayable due to the bizarre system that had the strings wrapping under the bridge, making palm-muting virtually impossible, among other things.His solution is described in the present patent drawings, showing two possible arrangements for combined bridge and tailpiece assemblies with the strings wrapping over the top of the bridge. The design shown on page one is recognizable as being progenitor to the bridge/tailpiece used on many current Paul Reed Smith models.In addition to the new bridge/tailpiece design, this Les Paul model is notable for its P-90 'Soapbar' pickups. By the end of the decade, these had been replaced with the now classic 'Patent Applied Fo ... Read More