GOLD RUSH

Gibson archivist Mat Koehler traces the first 10 years of the Les Paul's history, in which it transformed from an elegant jazz guitar to the weapon of choice for the 1960s' rock and roll revolution.

- JAMIE DICKSON

AS SENIOR DIRECTOR of product development at Gibson, Mat Koehler is behind the company's drive for maximum vintage authenticity in its reissues, from Epiphone Coronets to Custom Color Firebirds. But the Les Paul - and the man who put his moniker on one of the most iconic electrics of all time was the guitar that sparked his interest in working for the Nashville company and it remains one of his ruling passions.

"I'm from Waukesha, Wisconsin, Les Paul's hometown," Koehler says, "so the name Les Paul has always been legendary to me. My uncle had a music store there called White House of Music and you'd always hear whispers that 'Les Paul's in town.' I was always around guitars, but the Les Paul had the mystique and that led to me wanting to to work for Gibson. So yeah, in a way, it means everything to me."

With this thought to conjure with, we sit down with Mat to get his forensic view on the large and small transitions the model made in its earliest years, including the anomalies and one-offs thrown up by the breakneck speed of change as the rock and roll era took off.

What's your take on the early years of the Les Paul Model? It saw quite a few revisions in short order.

First, I should say that it wasn't just Les Pauls that were constantly evolving in the 1950s and 60s it was everything. Gibson really had this model-year mentality where they wanted to add features and benefits and make changes. And if something was selling well and working well, normally it would stay in the line for a little bit longer, but even then they were trying to stay ahead of the curve. They had a lot of competition at the time because this was the guitar boom era.