Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as
Les Paul, was an American
jazz,
country, and
blues guitarist, songwriter,
luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the
solid-body electric guitar, which made the sound of
rock and roll possible. Paul taught himself how to play guitar and while he is mainly known for rock music, he had an early career in country music. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with
overdubbing (also known as sound on sound),
delay effects such as
tape delay,
phasing effects and
multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.