Did Hendrix worship kill the Les Paul?

The Gibson les Paul was as popular among guitar heroes 40 years ago as the Fender Stratocaster, but did the Stratocaster become the guitar of choice over the Les Paul after Jimi's death and his iconic attachment to the Strat?

 

I'd say it held it's own through the '70s ......

 

Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck switched away from using a Les Paul during the seventies.

 

I felt like it was the opposite... while the Strat is still a blues icon, it seems like the Les Paul displaced it in the rock n roll world as rock lost its roll in the 70s due in no small part to the Les Paul/Marshall combo

 

The Les Paul is dead? That's a bit hyperbolic wouldn't you say?

 

Yes, but beck played one on his best selling album (Blow by Blow) and all up until then. It had nothing to do with Hendrix.

And Clapton played that SG in Cream, did he go back to LPs before taking up the Strat? He heard 'Big Pink' and wanted to go country-rock anyhow, so that Strat made sense.

Ditto Jerry Garcia, who went from P90 LPs to SGs to Strats (basically)

All to do with the sound they wanted rather than anything with Hendrix.

Also someone like Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic went from playing Strats because of Hendrix to playing a Les Paul later on in the 70s.

 

Whaat? No way. I don't know statistics of sales but there are a lot of guitar players who used Les Paul later on.

 

Really, when you think about it, the Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster snuffed all the Rickenbacker momentum once hard rock took hold.

 

http://media1.artspace.com/media/el..._landy_jimi_hendrix_fillmore_east_960x640.jpg

 

My point wasn't that Beck and Clapton's change had something to do with Hendrix, just that they switched away from a Les Paul. Both are popular players.

 

Since the 70's, when I've gone shopping in music stores I never see any Les Paul's. When I ask a clerk about if they have Les Paul guitars, they laugh at me!
"We haven't stocked those guitars since the early 70's" they say.
I ask why not.
"Why Jimi Hendrix killed the Les Paul.
Didn't you hear? There are none to be had!"
I sadly leave their store.

 

Les Pauls are alive and well in Michigan. Fender guitars are great, but the real deal is a Gibson.

 

I hate strats (yes I have one) and I love les pauls. for me it's not "strat and les paul", it's "tele and les paul".

 

Worshipping any guitar. . . is just wrong. That's like worshipping one way to skin a cat!

 

Since the late 60’s (until current times), I have seen a lot of guitarists playing Fender Stratocasters, Fender Telecasters, Gibson Les Paul’s and Gibson SG’s. Of course, like many players - I started with a Harmony guitar before buying my first Strat and SG.

 

Rickenbacker were still popular in the UK during the 70's..Especially in the Mod scene.

 

Never cared to own a Strat or an LP but they both seem to be doing OK without me. If I was somewhere without one of my guitars and playing one or other was my only option, hand me the LP.

 

Tastes in guitars come and go I guess. And a lot of depended upon what super popular musicians played which model. Les Paul on TV in the 50s probably sold a lot of those models. Then Buddy Holly on TV with a strat probably sold a lot of those.

However, "a lot" back then wasnt all that much.

Hendrix was very hi profile and so his dedication to the strat probably sold a lot, or, made people think "this is what an electric guitar should be" or something.. for a couple of years.

But it didnt last. I also heard Jimmy Page was so hi profile in the early 70s, especially in America, that he did the same thing with the les paul.

the point is, no, Hendrix didnt kill the les paul.. no single player killed anything.

If you want a ruder answer, try the forum at mylespaul.com, then return and report on ensuing carnage.

 

some players still used them in the late 60s and early 70s - John Fogerty for example, altho he had other guitars too, like a les paul.

Part of the reason for the big switch away from the Ricks was the arrival of huge hi powered amps. Ricks dont jangle when you plug into those old plexis and supers. They feed back like crazy. If you're the Jam, thats a good thing. If you wanted the fat chunky skull crushing sound with the sustain of notes that lasts forever, les pauls did that. If you wanted the hi pitched crazy sound with the whammy arm, strats did that. Ricks didnt do either, they excelled at something else.

At least back in the early 70s. Thanks to todays musical gear scene, you can make any guitar sound like anything you want. Back then? Nope. Not onstage anyway.

 

Nothing beats a Fender neck. It's that simple.

 

I hate Fender necks and put all-parts necks on every Fender I own.

to each his own.

 

It didn't really kill the LP at all. Through the LP's history, there were times of slow sales (gold finish boring now, switch to sunburst; body type being boring, redesign into the SG, etc.) but the Strat never really killed the LP at all.

In fact, there were slow sales for both at different times: the Strat was briefly considered to be phased out with the introduction of the Jazzmaster (but that didn't happen, of course).

I would say that Hendrix helped to boost sales of the Strat for a bit, but then not too long after you have the Beano album coming out and everyone wanting a Les Paul because Clapton had one on the back cover, and Clapton getting tons of cheap vintage Strats in Nashville.

 

Also for a good part of the 60s the LP as was out of production, the SG took it's place. It went back into production in the late very late 60s.

 

Beano came out in 22 July 1966.

Hendrix first album came out on May 12, 1967, August in the USA

 

They are both great for different sounds.

Clapton's solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Great Les Paul sound.

Clapton's solo on Bell Bottom Blues. Great Strat sound.

I wouldn't have those any other way.