Les Paul

Les Paul invented multi-track recording, developed the solid-body electric guitar that bears his name, and pioneered overdubbing, close-microphone technique, and tape delay — all before 1955. His guitar designs at Gibson produced the Les Paul Standard, the instrument that Page, Clapton, Bloomfield, Green, and every subsequent hard rock guitarist would use to define their sound. He built his earliest solid-body prototype, The Log, in 1941 by attaching guitar parts to a four-by-four piece of pine. The instrument he created is now the second most influential guitar in rock history after the Stratocaster.