Goldtop Believers: The Les Paul Golden Years(Book). The creation that would become Gibson's Les Paul guitar hit retail stores in 1952. This was Gibson's introduction to the solid body world of electric guitrs. In the early 1950s, demand for electric guitars was reaching a new customer base. Rock 'n' roll was just around the corner and ready to explode. The timing was right and Gibson took off with this idea and introduced other guitars to the Les Paul lineup. However, the new single cutaway