11/05/2025
A rare snapshot from the early 1960s of Les Paul in the studio with a newly designed 1961 Les Paul Custom.
By the late 1950s, the Gibson Les Paul-originally introduced in 1952-was struggling to compete with the more lightweight and contoured Fender Stratocaster. Sales were lagging, and Gibson decided that a drastic redesign was necessary to reinvigorate the model. In 1961, under the leadership of Gibson's president Ted McCarty and input from the company's designers (not Les Paul himself, the Les Paul was given a thinner, double-cutaway body with beveled edges. This new design was lighter, easier to play, and had improved upper-fret access. It was marketed as the "new" Les Paul, but the changes were made without Les Paul's full involvement or approval.
Les Paul, who had a personal and professional attachment to the original single-cutaway design, was not pleased with the redesign. He reportedly disliked the new shape and felt it didn't align with his vision for the guitar that bore his name.
Compounding the issue, Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford were going through a divorce at the time, and Les was looking to distance himself from the guitar model. As a result, he requested his name be removed from the redesigned guitar.
By 1963, the guitar was officially renamed the Gibson SG (short for "Solid Guitar").
The original Les Paul design might have faded into obscurity had it not been for a resurgence of interest in the late 1960s.
Guitarists like Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, and Keith Richards began favoring the heavier, more resonant sound of vintage Les Pauls for blues and rock, sparking a growing demand for the original shape. Responding to this, Gibson reintroduced the original single-cutaway Les Paul Standard in
1968.
