The Paul

To ballast William Polfuss , more known under the name of the Paul , was born the June 9th 1915 with Waukesha, in the Wisconsin. It is a Guitariste and American Inventeur which played a big role in the development of the electric guitars with full body (solidbody) , the techniques of multitrack Enregistrement and various systems of sound special effects such as reverberation and the echo rooms.

Biography

Beginnings of the artist

Before adopting very “the Paul” like name of artist, his own mother called it “Polfuss” runs by simplification. Its interest for the music starts with old 8 years lorqu' it receives a Harmonica in gift. At 9 years, his/her mother makes him take courses of Piano, But after some lessons, according to her Biographe Mary Alice Shaughnessy, her professor the renvoit at the house with a saying word for her mother: “Dear Mrs Polfuss, your Lester boy will never learn the music, keep your money. Please do not send it more to me, for any lesson”. Towards the 12 years age, after a short attempt to play of the Banjo, always according to Shaughnessy, It starts to play of the Guitare on an instrument which it bought of occasion $5, gained by sorting potatoes. As of 13 years Paul is already a musician semi-professional. At 17 years it enters the Rube Tronson' S Cowboys , a regional orchestra of Country music. Little time afterwards, it stops going to school and becomes a professional musician.

Of St-Louis to New York

During the Years 1930, Paul is initially engaged in the Wolverton' S Radio Band , orchestra of radio station KMOX to Saint-Louis, Missouri, then it “migrates” towards Chicago where it begins a career of musician of studio. In same time he plays and records music style hillbilly under the pseudonym of Rhubarb Red , he plays of the Jazz at radio station W.I.N.D and accompanies at the time of the artists by Blues under the name of the Paul . In 1938 it leaves Chicago for New York, where it is engaged with its trio as musician high-speed motorboat in the radio program of Fred Waring' S Pennsylvanians . It should be remembered that at that time, the radio stations employed many musicians and of orchestras because the majority of the musical programs were carried out on line (live) .

“The log”

Towards the end of the year 1930, Paul is not very satisfied with the electric guitars marketed at that time. They are “electrified acoustic guitars” difficult to amplify effectively without generating big problems of distortion of the sound and Larsen . Inventive and “handyman”, it launches out in all kinds of experiments to find solutions viable with the amplification of the guitars. He readily acknowledges “to have massacred” a great number of guitars to conclude his experiments.

Is Paul informed of the “frying pans” ( frying side ), prototype of Electric guitar with full body (solidbody) equipped with a micro magnetic, created 10 years earlier? It is probable. What seems obvious it is that it understood that one of the major causes of the Larsen is due to the assembly of the microphone directly on the case of resonance of the guitars with case digs (hollow body) . In 1941, It requires of the Epi company which produces and markets the guitars Epiphone to use their workshops Sunday in order to continue its experiments which lead to a prototype known thereafter under the name of The Log (the log). This rudimentary instrument is in conformity with the concept solidbody . In fact, the body is composed of a simple block of wood of pine of a section of approximately 4x4 inches, “the log” on which it fixes a sleeve taken on a guitar of Jazz Gibson L5, 2 magnetic microphones, a metal rest and a kind of rope-maker integrating a system to vary the tension of the cords using a lever (principle of the vibrato). Then to make resemble this “funny thing” a guitar, it cuts out into two the case of a Epiphone guitar and fixes the two halves as “wings” on each side of “the log”. When towards 1946 it meets Maurice Berlin, the president of CMI (Chicago Musical Instrument) owner of the Gibson company, to study the commercial potential of his “work”, it is answered to him: it' S nothing goal has broomstick with has pickup one it (It is anything else only one handle with brush with a micro top). Crosby is very interested by the experiments of Paul, concerning the techniques of Sound recording and it supports it financially. Little time after the second world war, Crosby impressed by a demonstration which had made him Jack Mullin with a Magnétophone (spoil of war), modified on behalf of the small company Ampex, decides to sharpen it as sound engineer chief and invests $50000, a fortune at the time, to make it possible Ampex to develop and to market these tape recorders. When Paul can finally lay out of one of very first the Ampex Model 200 , it adds recording heads and of reading thus creating the first multitrack tape recorder .

In 1948, it is victim of a serious road accident. To save its left arm, the surgeons must immobilize it using pins. The Paul asks so that one fix his arm at an angle of 90 degrees, which enables him to continue to play of the guitar.

Duet with Mary Ford

In 1949 William To ballast Polfus (her patronym lost a “S”), wife Colleen Summers, a singer having for name of scene Mary Ford. From 1950, Paul carries out with it a series of recordings by using the technique of the Re-recording with the multitrack tape recorder which he developed. In the Years 1950, the duet occupies a place primodiale in the sphere “music business” with their radio programs and television and their successes discographics. They obtain two n°1 in the classification of the best record sales in the United States, in 1951 with How High the Moon and in 1953 with Vaya idiot Dios (May God Be with You) . At the end of the decade, with the beachcomber of the Rock'n'roll “Roll in the United States of America, the duet is seen a little relegated to the background of the entertainment world. In 1963 the duet dissolves, the Paul and Mary Ford separate and they divorce in 1964.

The Paul and Gibson

1952 is one year important for Paul who sees himself proposing by Gibson, whereas it had been gotten rid of a few years before, a commercial contract the binder with the company to make the promotion of the news and first guitar solidbody of the mark and which, according to the terms of the contract, was to bear its name the Paul. One much said and wrote on this famous contract and in particular on the contribution of Paul in the development and the settling of this guitar. According to Shaughnessy

Random links: