How wide is a Les Paul?

Answer 1

According to the 1962 edition of Rolling Stone magazine, published article by Edgar Winter, Les Paul was known to stand a cool 6'8" 'sogging wet' as Eddie Van Winter would put it. But some of the more modest reports regarding Les' Tall Paul were that, erect or not, the man cut a rug standing just shy of 6'2".

Of course these estimates were made during the height of the jitterbug craze of '57 when Zoot Suiters were known to hunch while swinging their Zoots to the beat of Santana's #4 album. Rob Thomas was interviewed in '92 after Santana's exquisitely smooth hit, The Right Stuff with Boys to Men starring Mark Faraday. In this interview, episode 27 of Pop up Video on VH1, Mark Thomas, Rob's younger brother who also starred in the band with Santana's Right Stuff, is quoted as saying,

"When Uncle Les and Rob and me all used to get together around the annual tire fire out in the backwoods Memphis nights each Christmas, Les looked like a giant of a man who breathed the wind into the world with his smoove voice, crying Mary before Jimi were knee high to a grasshopper. It would make a man slap his granny to hear such a powerful man stand above the world as he did, at his full height of 7'1", as if the great Andre The Green Giant were alive before us on those sweltering nights."

And so you see, Mark Thomas, godson of Les Paul but no relation to Stephan Miller, has painted the most accurate portrayal of Les' Tall Paul as it were, fully erect, for us to reflect on for the stature of a man who sadly had come into the world afflicted of polio in his earliest years. But, just as Johnny Winter had corrected his brother in that 1962 Rolling Stone report, it was Les who knew the polio would be a wicked great style in later years and was actually very fortunate to have had some of the earliest shirts from Ralph 'Polio' Lauren before they were a hit with the new wave artists of the 80s. And we all know the history of the Paul fortune from there - simply history. Marko Polio, aka Marco Thomas aka Rob Thomas' brolio, is known to polio for sholio. Snizzle.

7"1' - Les Paul was 7"1', I believe.

Answer 2

The comment most people make when picking up a Les Paul for first time: "Wow, it's heavy!"

Answer 3

The two of us spent 20 -30 minutes standing together talking backstage once. I'd guess about 5.8"

Answer 4

The LP is about 1 3/4 wide in body.