Have you ever wondered why the early Les Paul Standards were Goldtops? The first models, produced between 1952 and 1957, were retroactively given the moniker “Goldtop” due to their all-gold solid top paint. However, according to the famed luthier and PRS Guitars founder, Paul Reed Smith, the decision was less about aesthetics and more about practicality.
And, as he recalls in a new interview, he got the information straight from the horse's mouth – i.e., his mentor and former Gibson president, Ted McCarty.
“[McCarty said,] ‘Well, we knew that Leo didn't have a carving machine, and we had discovered that if we put a maple top on a mahogany body, it sounded better,’” he tells Reverb.
“‘And we didn't want him to know, so we painted ’em gold so he wouldn't know that they were maple.’ I said, ‘But Ted, you can see inside the horn, where the binding goes up that it's got a maple cap.’ He goes, ‘Shut up,’” Smith adds with a laugh.
As for his relationship with another guitar giant, Smith recalls, “Leo Fender used to come by my booth, and he would pay his respects to the young, new guitar maker and give me his approval.
“They were looking after their industry,” he asserts. “These guys didn't play guitar – they were making guitars that were the fundamental core of this new kind of music that people were picking up and making them do things that they weren't supposed to do.”
As he puts it, “There were these old teams of people at Fender and Gibson that made electric guitars, who started a whole industry, and some of it's magic, if you don't go look at it, I'd be Looney Tunes.”
Smith has recently looked back on his legacy and shared why he isn't interested in chasing Fender or Gibson, but is solely focused on cementing PRS in history.
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