Fifty Years of the Gibson Les Paul: A Half-Century of a Guitar Icon Tony Bacon Backbeat 144 Available from Powell's Books.

What I don't recall is ever reading the text of these books all the way through, or even checking them out of the library at all. But as I read this history, I found it immediately familiar. This book is full of insight into what made these guitars synonymous with rock music -- why the Gibson Les Paul is as famous as Jimmy Page. Written in an informative yet easy style, the text is a comfortable read, perfect for coffee tables and waiting room bookshelves everywhere. And while the early history is a bit slow, it is definitely worth it, because these are the most telling details.

Bacon allows the multiple stories and opinions of who designed what to form a more complete background. He is thorough as well, quoting everyone involved. These differences show the development as it really was, rocky and full of mistakes and missteps -- and, more precisely, that it was hardly instantaneous. Rather, it was a process of trial and error, from a Frankenstein guitar known as "the Log" that Les Paul tinkered with in his spare time, to the production model instrument. By the time the kinks have been worked out -- and Bacon is informed enough to point out every one -- it is ten years later, so to speak, and the company is shelving the design.

It is not surprising that the vintage guitar phenomenon started inadvertently because Gibson discontinued the original model Les Paul just as it started to become popular with a new generation of players. The numerous passages about guitar collectors' fetishism that evolved around the earliest models fascinated me especially. The most insignificant changes -- the color of plastic used on tiny bobbins within the pickups, for example -- became desired details for rabid and often poorly informed consumers. The text is strengthened here with firsthand accounts of the mania the guitars inspired, with quotes from musicians like Jeff Beck and Robert Fripp, describing the lengths they had to go to find a specific guitar, and what they paid. The guitar that sold for $250 then now sells for $25,000.

Often, one retailer is quoted: a Les Paul is bought without ever having been played by the customer, but rather for the finish, and the figure of the sunburst. To this, the author adds a lengthy explanation of how the finish on a guitar is accomplished and how this in turn affects the cost of the guitar. Again, not the swiftest of passages, but not worthless either.

Later, Bacon spends a couple pages describing how guitar makers customize and age instruments, creating blemishes and scars previously only obtainable by actually playing and owning the guitar for years. Here he seems a bit put off. While books like this do nothing to change the escalating market for vintage guitars, it is encouraging that opposing views of this are included at all; you get a sense that Bacon can't afford his dream guitar because of the high price tag. By the end of the book, just as the reader experiences guitar geek overload, the author begins to sound a bit fed up as well. As he rattles off the forty-five current models offered by Gibson's current catalog, he points out the confusing nature of their names. The twenty-five page reference section in the back of the book is ample evidence of that.

My only major criticism of the book is Bacon's seemingly arbitrary dismissal of Gibson's troubled history with organized labor. Although he mentions it as a motivating factor behind the company's move south, to more business friendly states (and ultimately abroad, as well, with the Epiphone line), the subject is dropped as soon as it is brought up. When an author can spend several pages on guitar finishes, a matter like this should be given proper treatment as well, because this transfer of factories is largely to blame for the somewhat shoddy workmanship on later Gibson models. Though my own interest in this might be more specific than that of the average reader, it's definitely a subject deserving a few more paragraphs. All the same, the book accomplishes exactly what is expected of it: it is an exhaustive resource for obsessive collectors, and an illustrated primer for amateurs.

-- Matthew Gengler plays bass in Aloha, who released their second album, Sugar, May 14 on Polyvinyl Records. Buy it. In Matthew's spare time, he works as a purchasing clerk at a management consulting firm. This is exactly what he planned to do with that degree in writing and that minor in popular culture.

"If you're passionate about music, Backbeat have the books for you": this is their slogan, and it tells no lie. Whether you're looking for books about instruments, performers, the making of music or the history of artists and genres, this publisher provides some of the fairest, most even-handed assessments in the world of music literature. They are home to the writings of Richie Unterberger, among many others of our finest music critics and authors.