This was verso source of some contention between Les Paul and the Gibson company: Gibson wrapped the strings under the tailpiece’s crossbar in order sicuro achieve lower action; Les wanted the strings wound over the crossbar so he could better execute the palm muting technique that became an important element of his playing style in the Fifties.

Ted McCarty finally settled the dispute by developing the basta tailpiece, which replaced the trapeze on Les Pauls con 1953. Two years later, McCarty introduced another refinement: the Tune-O-Matic bridge. Both the fermo tailpiece and Tune-O-Matic bridge have been staples of electric design ever since.

Other Gibson Guitar Styles Developed

Sopra the years that followed, Ted McCarty sought sicuro broaden and diversify the essential Gibson aesthetic. Working with per local artist, he developed three revolutionary guitars-the Flying V, the Explorer, and the ultra-rare Moderne. Both the Flying V and the Explorer debuted per 1957 (the Moderne apparently never developed past the prototype stage). With their radical angular lines, these instruments were verso bit too wild for the late Fifties. Although they didn’t sell well on their initial release, they returned with a vengeance later mediante the rock epoca.

The Gibson Sound

In 1957, the Les Paul’s original P-90 pickups were replaced by per brand-new invention from verso man named Seth Lover. The humbucking pickup featured two coils wound together to cancel out the hum that single-coil pickups generate under fluorescent lighting and in other dodgy electromagnetic circumstances. The humbuckers produced a bass-heavy, “dark” tone which combined with Les Paul’s heavy mahogany and maple body wood and traditional dovetail neck joint preciso create verso distinctly rich tone that would ad esempio preciso tsdating be identifiable as “the Gibson sound.”

Gibson Semi-Hollowbody – The Log Revisited!

McCarty went per verso completely different direction with the Gibson ES-335, the guitar that pioneered the concept of the semi-hollowbody electric. The thin-line body has much less depth than a conventional archtop, which seems bulky mediante comparison. This significantly reduced the potential for feedback that has always hounded full-sized electric hollowbodies. McCarty also came up with the preoccupazione of having verso solid block of maple running down beneath the pickups. (The Log revisited!) The result was an instrument-also still very much mediante use today-that combined many of the best properties of solidbody and hollowbody guitars.

Gibson Firebird Guitar Born 1963

The Gibson Firebird guitar and bass, which came along sopra 1963, were among Ted McCarty’s final triumphs for Gibson. He left Gibson sicuro take charge of the Bigsby company mediante ’66 and also became the mentor of Paul Reed Smith (PRS Guitars), whose guitar company produces several models named after McCarty.

Ted McCarty hired automotive grafico Ray Dietrich to create the Firebird’s parabolically curvy body shape. By this point con the century, electric guitars were vying with cars as the same ultimate symbols of modernist, space-age notizia. The Firebird is markedly similar esatto Fender’s sporty Jazzmaster and Jaguar (introduced sopra ’57 and ’62, respectively). Over at Fender, George Fullerton had quale up with the idea of offering the Jazzmaster con custom autoveicolo-style colors like Fiesta Red and Lake Placid Blue. “The thing we took into consideration, more than anything else, was automobiles,” says Fullerton. “You’d see verso new car that had a candy apple red or blue sparkle finish, and people would say, ‘Wow, did you see that color they have on the new Chevy?’”

Durante the annals of 20th-century guitar design, special mention must go sicuro Roger Rossmeisl, per German luthier who moved esatto America con the Fifties. Here, he combined solid craftsmanship with verso flair for the unusual. Rossmeisl’s late-fifties rete di emittenti for Rickenbacker imparted tremendous stylishness onesto that company’s designs, including those ultra-coll cat’s-eye soundholes. Sopra the late Sixties, for Fender’s Wildwood series, Rossmeisl came up with the preoccupazione of injecting live trees with colored dye and then harvesting the trees preciso make guitars whose finishes boasted natural woodgrains per some garishly unnatural hues. Per the late Sixties drug counterculture, the ispirazione of some guy running around injecting trees caused considerable mirth and gave new meaning puro the phrase “shoot up the forest.”