[Bret L]

As iconic as "his" guitar is, no one remarks on how Les had a sound
all his own-a sound no one else had, or seemingly wanted to have. For
years he kept his tech a secret, but in the late 60s he allowed Gibson
to sell a system very much like what he actually used. Sales were
dismal.

The electronics in the "normal" Gibson Les Paul model guitars were
nothing to do with what Paul himself had developed. At first, they
weren't all that popular and in fact by the time rock guitarists began
to play Les Paul guitars, the instruments were no longer
manufactured.

Most post-1968 Les Pauls were horrible guitars that weighed a ton and
had crappy, tone robbing hardware and often used acoustically crappy
wood. Consequently, the old ones became sought after instruments and
the craze in vintage guitars was ignited.

Although Gibson finally seemed to recapture many of the qualities of
the desireable vintage Pauls in recent years, quality is again headed
downward from all reports. Gimmicky special editions with doubtful
musical appeal, such as models named after race cars and drivers and
other non-musical celebrity tie-ins abound, as do such gimmicky items
as one model endorsed by "Buckethead" with arcade switches set up to
short the output when pressed (called a 'stutter switch').

Les knew about all this and seemingly didn't care. Les was a musical
genius, but also a bit of a huckster. Let's not forget that either in
the push to canonize the man.