Les Paul celebrated with Google doodle of playable 'guitar'
Les Paul, the electric guitar pioneer, has been celebrated on his 96th birthday by one of Google's most complex doodles – a playable and recordable 'guitar'.
Paul, who died in 2009, was an American guitarist and inventor who is best remembered for his work in the development of the electric guitar, which made new styles of music such as rock and roll possible.
Having built one of the world's first solid-body electric guitars in 1940, Paul's design - called The Log - was only put into production by manufacturer Gibson in 1946 when rival company Fender put its Esquire model on the market.
But he was immortalised in 1961 when Gibson, without Paul's knowledge, changed the design to create a lighter and sleeker instument which they named the Gibson Les Paul.
Google's tribute pays further testament to the country and jazz music star's innovation by letting users create - and record - their own tunes on the search engine's home page....