Who made you want to be a Les Paul player?

I’ll admit it.

Ace Frehley
Dickey Betts
Duane Allman

Deftone said:

Me. I never liked them until I played one through my rig. Been my #1 ever since.

I always though Joe Perry's Black LPC look cool tho...

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Ha!!! The album sleeve insert from "Rocks"!!!

Semie Moseley and Leo Fender.

First it was Page. Then Joe Walsh. Then Steve Jones and Mick Jones. Then Mike Ness. Then countless other punks...

There's a Les Paul Custom on front and back covers of CCR's Cosmo's Factory. My first Les Paul was a Custom around '73-74.

Ace Frehley
Jimmy Page
Alex Lifeson
Joe Perry

Page
Ace
Robbo and Gorham

They were the primary LP players I idolised as a teen, but in the end it was the way a LP plays and sounds through my rig that made it my fave guitar. And that didn’t happen till I was middle aged and way past the point of buying a guitar because a famous player used it. My all time fave guitar tone is ACDC but I don’t currently own a SG and never owned a Gretsch.

It was Page
Later it was Gibbons
After that it was Perry

And then Johnny Thunders led me to the P90s.

mdubya said:

Clapton
Beck
Page
Peter Green
Marc Bolan
Mick Ronson
Ian Hunter - 'there's blood on my amp and my Les Paul's beat...'
Space Ace
Johnny Thunders
Joe Perry
Brad Whitford

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mdubya said:

Actually,

Angus
Iommi
Buxton
Bruce

Had a bigger influence.

I was more of an SG player.

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Funny thing, I was (still am) kind of a weirdo.

I never wanted to emulate someone else. But I liked their guitars and their tones.

If I wanted to BE anyone, it was Jimi. But I didn't want to do it by emulating him. Weird.

But I always wanted to look retro cool. I never wanted anything that looked new. I wanted old.

Why not? All the idols quoted in this thread were weirdos.

This isn't exactly the square community.

Peter Frampton

mdubya said:

I never wanted to emulate someone else. But I liked their guitars and their tones.

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THIS.
I didn’t wanna “be” anyone.
I had zero ambition to wear a Space Ace suit or pose for an album photo shoot.
I just wanted to make that sound.
For ME - I don’t care if no one else is there to hear it.

In the middle of Kiss, Frampton, and Led Zep, I heard the roaring Les Paul in Toto’s “Hold The Line.”
A straight up pop song.

See?
This works ANYWHERE!

Page

For me it's Jimmy Page hands down, but to be honest I just liked the look and feel of the Gibson Les Paul over Fender Strats et al. I also preferred humbuckers, so that helped lock me in. Ironically, if anyone would get me to play a Tele or Strat, it'd be Jimmy Page. I love LZ1 tones from his Tele / Supro combo, and later on I thought his Lake Placid Blue Strat was really cool.

CB91710 said:

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It's amazing to see the burst looking so vibrant here. Pictures from later look almost like a flatish honeyburst.

Guess I gotta go with Kossoff. I was floored by his playing before I even knew what kind of guitar he was playing. But in the late 60's and early 70's you were either a Strat or an LP guy

dc007 said:

But in the late 60's and early 70's you were either a Strat or an LP guy

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It was still just as true ten years later. I had a bad bolt-on LP copy and a worse Strat copy. Loved them both, but dreamed of the day when I'd stride the world as a musical colossus, owning a REAL Gibson and a REAL Fender.

Ironically, during my gigging days the LP role was taken by a brilliant Tokai Love Rock and Strat duties by a succession of pointy headstocks. I got my first REAL Gibson about 5 years back and have never to this day owned a Fender Stratocaster.

Southwest said:

… dreamed of the day when I'd stride the world as a musical colossus, owning a REAL Gibson and a REAL Fender.

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Exactly.
I snapped this pic over 20 years ago, after I got my first Marshall.
In my estimation, I finally cleared the bar.