made. Immediately after World War II, Gibson introduced the P-90 single-coil, with six
adjustable polepieces and a black plastic cover, usually with “dog-ear” mounting
extensions. The P-90 is still in production and still sets the industry standard for a sin-
gle-coil pickup.
The first postwar Gibson electrics followed the prewar concept of an electric guitar as
a conventional acoustic archtop with a pickup installed on the top. Gibson added a
second pickup to the ES-300 in 1948 and then became the first company to offer a
t h ree-pickup model with the introduction of the ES-5 in 1949.
Although the advantages of a solidbody guitar had been known to Hawaiian steel gui-
tarists for almost twenty years, it took the persuasive powers of Les Paul, the world’s
most famous guitarist in the early 1950s, to convince Gibson to make a “Spanish
style” solidbody. Gibson designed the new model with a carved top, not only to give it
the look of a traditional archtop – a style invented by Gibson – but also to make it dif-
ficult for other makers to copy. Les, who had been playing a homemade solidbody gui-
t a r, nicknamed The Log, since 1941, specified a maple top cap to increase sustain,
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