The Gibson Les Paul was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation back in 1952. The guitar was originalluy designed by its namesake, American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, Lester William Polsfuss (Les Paul), also by the Gibson Corporation's president at the time, Ted McCarty. When the Les Paul guitars first came out they offered a gold finish, and in 1968 started to offer the guitar in the sunburst finish that you see in the picture.
The sound of the Gibson Les Paul is more of a soulful rock sound. When the guitar was first developed it was designed with two P-90 pickups; although, these days they are well known for their PAF Humbucking pickups. A humbucking pickup is known to be a two coil that is to help cancel out any interferance when plugged into an amplifier. They get their name from making a "humming" sound. A P-90 pick up is a single coil pickup that gives the guitar a more brighter sound than the humbucking pickup.
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