Les Paul is one of my guitar heroes. Not so much for his playing, which was outstanding and innovative, but for the many things he invented, primarily the Gibson guitar that bears his name, the first solid-body electric guitar. Nearly every guitar player of note has played either a Gibson Les Paul or a Fender Stratocaster at some point in his career. But Les’s innovations go far beyond his guitar: he designed the echo chambers used by Capitol Records on their high-end recordings, as well as a technique for multitrack recording in the studio and “the Paulverizer,” an effects box that allows him to reproduce the sound he got in the studio in live concerts. So, when he says that there are no rules for originality, I tend to believe him. As a friend of mine said recently, creativity is becoming familiar with the rules, then messing with the vocabulary.

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One-Liner Wednesday is sponsored by Linda Hill, who has the rules and list of other participants at her blog.