1952
LES PAUL MODEL
launched. Multisection maple top, mahogany body and neck. Gold-finished top (a few had gold back and sides also), twin soapbar P-90s, trapeze tailpiece. Shallow-angle neck-set means strings have to wrap
under
bridge, preventing palm muting, to make setup geometry work – turning a good bridge design into a flawed one. Shallow neck-set also made later conversion to stopbar tailpiece or Tune‐o‐matic problematic. Single-ply cream binding – though very earliest models omit neck binding. Single-ring Kluson tuners with no brand name. Tall ‘barrel’ control knobs. Silk-screen ‘Les Paul Model logo on headstock’.