Gibson Discontinued the Les Paul — the Fall and Rise of an Iconic Electric Guitar

Quick Take

What it is: The story of how Gibson discontinued its most iconic electric guitar in 1961, replaced it with what became the SG, and was pushed into bringing it back seven years later.

Who it's for: Anyone who owns or wants a Les Paul and assumed it had been in continuous production since 1952.

Price: Not applicable — this is a brand story, not a gear review.

The catch: Exactly how hard Gibson had to be pushed to reissue it isn't documented; the clearest surviving evidence is the wording of their own 1968 ad.

Gibson discontinued the Les Paul in 1961, seven years before bringing it back. If you just looked over at your favourite Les Paul in disbelief, we have a story for you — because one of the most revered instruments ever made was very nearly lost to the sands of time.

The Les Paul timeline — Fast Facts

• 1941: Les Paul pitches Gibson a solidbody electric guitar. They aren't interested
• 1949: The Fender Esquire arrives — the first production solidbody electric, and the reason Gibson changes its mind
• 1952: The first Gibson Les Paul ships, and is an instant hit
• Late '50s: Rock 'n' roll players want lighter, contoured guitars. Les Paul sales start to dwindle
• 1961: Gibson replaces it with the Les Paul SG — a complete redesign by Ted McCarty
• 1963: Les Paul ends his endorsement deal. The guitar becomes simply the Gibson SG
• Mid-'60s: Clapton, Page, Beck, Richards and Bloomfield hunt down used Les Pauls. The vintage guitar market is born
• 1968: The single-cutaway Les Paul returns

Why did Gibson turn Les Paul down in 1941?

Because in 1941 there was no obvious sign that solidbody electric guitars would ever have significant appeal. Gibson was already an established maker of stringed instruments, and while they may well have seen the potential, they had no compelling reason to invest in a wholly new method of building guitars.

Les Paul — born Lester Polsfuss — had already built his prototype by then: the famous "Log", made from a 4x4 piece of Douglas fir, designed to eliminate the drawbacks of hollowbody guitars. He paid his dues on hollowbody jazz guitars first, pushing the boundaries of jazz at night in the blazing Chicago scene of the 1940s and playing country during the day. He shared a stage with Nat King Cole in Los Angeles, recorded with Bing Crosby, and cut several albums for Decca.

What changed Gibson's mind was the competition. In 1949 the Fender Esquire became the first production-model solidbody electric guitar. The gauntlet had been dropped — and Gibson happened to know the perfect people to design it and promote it: Ted McCarty, and Les Paul.

Ted McCarty and Les Paul — brothers in innovation

Ted McCarty shared Les Paul's passion for innovation, and he would go on to revolutionise practically everything about the electric guitar. McCarty is the reason we have humbucking pickups. He created the Tune-o-Matic bridge system. And he is responsible for some of the most iconic guitar designs ever drawn — the Explorer, the Flying V, the Moderne, the Firebird, and the Gibson SG. Hold on to that last one.

The first Gibson Les Paul reached the world in 1952 and was an instant success. Gibson's reputation and Les Paul's playing did the rest. The now-iconic profile was inspired by the shape of hollowbody jazz guitars, which made it feel familiar to early adopters — you kept some of the look and feel of your hollowbody, without the constant risk of feedback on stage. By the mid-'50s the Les Paul had earned a place in the hands of some of the top players of the era.

And then rock 'n' roll happened.

What actually killed Les Paul sales?

Comfort. In the late '50s the pioneers of rock guitar were creating a vibrant, bright, loud new sound, and the way they played changed with it. Bands performed standing up, sometimes with choreography, rather than sitting down like the jazz greats before them. Players loved that a solidbody resisted feedback and let them play louder than ever — but now they also wanted contoured, lightweight guitars that were easier to wear and play. That demand made the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster the guitars of choice for late-'50s rockers.

Les Paul sales began to dwindle. By the start of the 1960s, Gibson executives were planning a thinner, sleeker solid body to compete with Fender all over again — and that was the beginning of the end for the Les Paul.

Was the Gibson SG originally a Les Paul?

Yes. Gibson tasked Ted McCarty with completely re-designing the Les Paul, and the result arrived in 1961 as the Gibson Les Paul SG — SG for "solid guitar". Players wanted a thinner body, comfortable contours and lighter weight, and Gibson delivered exactly that. The original SG was a Les Paul signature model.

And Les hated it. "Hated" may be a touch strong, but his distaste was enough to end his endorsement deal with Gibson in 1963. It didn't matter to him that Gibson's sales had doubled in the SG's first year — he felt it had strayed too far from his original vision. Once the deal ended, Gibson could no longer call it the Les Paul SG. From that point it was simply the Gibson SG.

It's wild to think about. Inside roughly one decade, Gibson revolutionised the guitar world and then discontinued what would become its most iconic instrument ever — and one of its other most popular models started life as a Les Paul.

How the discontinuation created the vintage guitar market

The discontinuation probably seems like a much bigger deal in retrospect than it was at the time. It took a few years before it became obvious that something was missing from the musical landscape. After nearly a full decade of the Fender sound dominating the airwaves, young players started looking for alternative tones — and budding guitar heroes like Keith Richards, Mike Bloomfield, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page began scooping up used Les Pauls in thrift shops. They were cheap, and word had got round that some extremely talented musicians had favoured them in a bygone era.

In a way this was the birth of the vintage guitar market: the newest trend was finding an old Gibson Les Paul and chasing a forgotten sound. There weren't nearly as many reputable instrument makers then as there are today, so finding a real Les Paul in a pawn shop felt like hitting the lottery. They had been out of production for years and their growing popularity was making them hard to find. We can thank the discontinuation of the Les Paul for the vintage guitar market as we know it.

Eric Clapton and the "Beano" album

Beyond being cheap and well made, there was one more huge factor in the Les Paul's resurgence: Eric Clapton. The same rising star who was practically synonymous with the Fender Stratocaster. His tone and raw emotion on the Blues Breakers "Beano" album was a revolutionary sound that players everywhere had been chasing.

Word didn't travel in the '60s the way it does now, but it wasn't long before guitarists worldwide were hunting for a single-cutaway Les Paul. It's hard to encapsulate how revolutionary the sounds of that decade were — the technology was young, the creativity was fresh, and the urge to make never-before-heard sounds was stronger than ever. Clapton showed the world you could create something new with a forgotten relic.

Who got Gibson to bring the Les Paul back?

Les Paul himself. Management at Gibson seemed unaware of the rising demand for the single-cutaway — but Les had noticed, and it would have been hard not to once musicians started turning up at his house to ask how they could get one of his guitars. Yes, that happened.

So what do you do when strangers are knocking on your door asking about a signature guitar that was discontinued years ago? Les did what he had done more than 20 years earlier: he contacted Gibson, told them about the demand, and pressed them to reintroduce the single-cutaway Les Paul. In 1968 it returned, and has been the guitar of choice for generations since.

It's a bit unclear exactly how much Gibson had to be badgered about the reissue, but this line from a 1968 Gibson Les Paul ad says it all: “The demand for them just won't quit. And the pressure to make more has never let up. Okay, you win.” We like to think that ultimately, music won.

The guitar that nearly didn't survive

The next time someone tells you the Gibson Les Paul has always been an icon, you have the rest of the story: seven years out of production, a signature model its own namesake walked away from, and a comeback driven by players rather than by the company that made it. If you've ever wondered why Gibson discontinued the Les Paul, that's the fall — and the rise — of an iconic electric guitar.

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