[Bret L]

Yes, he was. Most people do not realize that he, with wife Mary
Ford, was enormously successful as a pop artist in the postwar/prerock
years, particularly the late 40s and early 50s.

While he did a great deal of technical innovation, most of it either
has not ever been available as a commercial product (Les Paulverizer,
his stage rig of tape looping which was crudely imitated by Robert
Fripp) or was marketed fitfully and unsuccessfully (the low impedance
LP Recording guitar series). No one else really sounded like Les, and
for better or worse no one else really wanted to.