The Les Paul Award was created in 1991 to honor those individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards in the creative application of technology examplified by its namesake. Since achieving international fame in the early 1970s as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, he has forged a successful career as a solo artist, songwriter, and innovator in the use of recording technology. Among the first major artists to record in his own studio, Young owned one of the first digital multitracks in the United States. Most recently, he has been doing 5.1-channel mixes on a state-of-the-art analog 2-inch, 8-track machine. Young has played a customized Les Paul Standard, among other Gibsons, throughout his career

The TEC Awards will be held Sunday, September 27, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. For more information contact Karen Dunn at (925) 939-6149.

By 1952, Les Paul was not only the most popular guitar player in America, he was also a leading innovator in guitar and electronics design. He had been experimenting with electric guitars for as long as there had been electric guitars. He had once mounted a guitar string on a railroad tie to confirm his belief that a solidbody guitar would maximize sustain, and he had incorporated a mini-railroad rail-a 4"x4" piece of pine-into the body of a homemade solidbody electric guitar he nicknamed "The Log."

Les had approached Gibson in the '40s with his ideas for a solidbody electric guitar, but Gibson was already leading the industry with archtop electric guitars. In the early '50s, when the solidbody guitar first became commercially viable, Gibson designed an instrument that would change the image of the solidbody electric from a simple plank of wood to an elegant, stylish piece of art. Such a guitar would be a radical move for a traditional company like Gibson, but Gibson had been founded on the radical mandolin and guitar designs of Orville Gibson back in the 1890s. This new model would have the same carved-top contours that had set Orville's instruments apart from all others.

With the new model almost ready for market, Gibson approached Les Paul, the obvious choice to help launch it. Les was already intimately familiar with the unique characteristics of a solidbody electric guitar. And he was at the top of his career. His 1948 hit, "Brazil," featured six guitar parts, all played by Les in a virtuoso demonstration that would eventually earn him recognition as the father of multi-track recording. When he combined his guitar and electronic talents with the vocals of his wife Mary Ford, the result was gold-two million-selling records in 1951, "Mockin' Bird Hill" and "How High the Moon."

The Les Paul Model, as it was originally called, has changed little since its debut in 1952. Except for an updated bridge and humbucking pickups, the Les Paul Standard of today is still the same guitar. The Les Paul has been the driving force behind many changes in popular music. It powered the blues rock sound of the late '60s and the southern rock of the late '70s. By the '90s the Les Paul was providing signature sounds for every genre of rock, from alternative to metal.