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All my guitars are gently weeping... 

 

Inventing the electric guitar was just the beginning for the The Wizard of Waukesha.  He also pretty much invented overdub recording, had Ampeg manufacture the first mult-track recording device for him, and has a fistfull of gold records to his name.  He kept playing and inventing right up to the end, still schooling the kids.

From a tribute show to him, Eddie Van shows just how to play an electric guitar, with his friends Tony Levin and Jan Hammer
Eddie Van Halen - from Les Paul & Friends concert

But here is the old dog himself, still going strong, still inventing
les paul takes the pis out of eveys one

*gets out his Les Paul and plays a somber tune*

A true one and only American Hero 

Quote from: Osiris on August 13, 2009, 04:36:16 PM
*gets out his Les Paul and plays a somber tune*

I brought out Mary Ford and Les's "How High the Moon"

"The New Sound" still sounds fresh to me.

-Sandy(I always wanted a "Les Paulverizer")

I bet when they carry his coffin out they are all going to complain about how heavy it is.

Quote from: tekla on August 14, 2009, 10:02:59 AM
I bet when they carry his coffin out they are all going to complain about how heavy it is.

Yeah, he'll probably take that gadget to his grave... 

-Sandy

Yeah, everybody want's the gadget for sure (see second vid to find out what we're talking about) but someone told me that he had left it in his will to Eddie Van Halen to actually endorse and sell the rights to it (with the money going to his estate, not like Eddie ain't rich enough) so we shall see, its an amazing little box, for sure on that.  Imagine what a Jeff Beck, a Slash, or Eddie could do with that.

Wow! this is really sad . I don't play but I did buy one for my best friend when we had our little band back in the day. Kat, that second video you posted was just beyond wicked cool!

That "gadget" seems like a really advanced loop-station.

Damn, but that thing is cool.

yeah, but loop stations are huge, and have to sit on the floor, this one is a small box that fits on the guitar, and seems to be operated by the guitar itself in some ways. Like almost everything else, size matters.

Yeah, that's why I said a really advanced loop-station. It's really small, and seems incredibly flexible.

But then again, this is (was) the Les Paul. That this thing is tiny and powerful should not really come as a surprise. I was actually more surprised to see Eddie Van Halen, Tony Levin, and Jan Hammer on stage at the same time. Les Paul's wizardry is almost to be expected, though it's always amazing.

Hey, they called him The Wizard of Waukesha for a reason.  And the only electronics he studied was basic high school (back when high schools actually taught something) electricity.  He was pretty amazing.  In the first vid you can hear Eddie asking for one of those boxes and that was back in '88 or so.  Les and Eddie were always very close, as well Les had a long standing friendship with fellow guitar slinger and total gearhead Jeff Beck - though nether were known to play Les Paul guitars (Jeff likes the Fenders and Eddie had a long standing deal with Kramer) but Les treated them all like his kids - if there were jammin' on an electric, good enough for him.

With all the stuff about him being written almost unnoticed is his long standing friendship with Fred Waring, he played in Fred's band (the Pennsylvanians) for a while, and Fred was the guy who put up the money, and redesigned the original blender.

RIP, Les. Thank you for all of your contributions to music. You will be missed.