Tommy Doyle Talks Les Paul
On a rainy Saturday afternoon, I ventured up to the Mahwah Museum with my good friend and guitar player, Barry Cooper, to hear a presentation by Tommy Doyle on one of Les Paul’s most famous guitars, the Klunker. If there is anyone who qualifies as an expert on this, or any of Les Paul’s guitars, it would be the man who was his guitar tech and master luthier of forty-five years. Telling those assembled how he got that job, when he began as a young apprentice with Les, he remarked “Tom, you have a God given ear,” and that’s how it began. Tommy told many other stories on this day, but those are for another time.
For those of you who don’t know, Les and his wife and partner, Mary Ford, bought their home in Mahwah in 1952, which Tommy called the house that Listerine paid for, as they were an early sponsor of the Les Paul and Mary Ford show. During the earlier years of 1949-1952, Les recorded their hit records on what was affectionately known as “The Klunker,” and Tommy spent three years sourcing the parts and building a replica which was on display this day. Finding parts like the lower pickup, which is a period correct Paul Bigsby, makes this guitar as close to the original as possible. Tommy pointed out that even though it started life as an Epiphone, as a good business man, he branded it with the Gibson logo since he was working for them. One of the things he liked about the Epiphone was that it hadtrap door in the back, so he could constantly work on refining the electronics to get the sound he was looking for. Les was very secretive about his work, and when he showed to others, he would put paper in the F holes so they couldn’t see the electronics! After the talk, Tommy, Barry and I posed for a picture, when he said why don’t you hold the guitar? Well, I picked it up and I couldn’t believe how heavy it was. It’s hard to believe this guitar was used to create those early songs. About that same time, Gibson gave Les five prototype Gold Tops in an effort to catch up with Fender who was the most popular brand then. After inspecting them, he told Tommy, “They didn’t know what they were doing,” and it took him nearly three years of taking them apart and rebuilding them to come up with what would become the most popular artist signature model in the history of the business. They later had a “Time Machine” program where they would take factory built Les Paul models and modify them to replicate the early fifties model.
I also talked to Tommy about the guitar he built for my friend and jazz master, the late Jerry Topinka. I told him it was one of the most beautiful and best sounding guitars, in my opinion. A master work for a player who could get everything out of it. He and Jerry were friends from the sixties and he actually recommended Tommy and his wife Sandy to us, and they did their Les Paul and Mary Ford tribute in the early days of Reckless Steamy Nights.
The Mahwah Museum has a wealth of Les Paul’s equipment, guitars and memorabilia. Anyone who is interested in the history of the man, his ground breaking inventions, his instruments and the music owes it to themselves to take a trip up the Parkway and check it out. www.MahwahMuseum.org