Friday, June 10, 2011

Google Doodle Les Paul


Les Paul celebrated with Google doodle of playable 'guitar'

Les Paul, the electric guitar pioneer, has been celebrated on his 96th birthday by one of Google's most complex doodles – a playable and recordable 'guitar'.

Les Paul celebrated with Google doodle of playable 'guitar'
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Google doodle to celebrate Les Paul Photo: GOOGLE
Paul, who died in 2009, was an American guitarist and inventor who is best remembered for his work in the development of the electric guitar, which made new styles of music such as rock and roll possible.
Having built one of the world's first solid-body electric guitars in 1940, Paul's design - called The Log - was only put into production by manufacturer Gibson in 1946 when rival company Fender put its Esquire model on the market.
But he was immortalised in 1961 when Gibson, without Paul's knowledge, changed the design to create a lighter and sleeker instument which they named the Gibson Les Paul.
Google's tribute pays further testament to the country and jazz music star's innovation by letting users create - and record - their own tunes on the search engine's home page.
It is one of a hundreds of doodles the company has featured on its home page in recent years, but is also one of the most complex and interactive.
Instead of seeing the Google logo above the search bar, users are presented with 10 stings of different pitches, set out to look like both a guitar and the company's name.
The 'guitar' can be played either by hovering the mouse over the strings, or by clicking a button below the strings that enables users to hammer out riffs using the buttons on their keyboard.
On some versions of the site, the keyboard is replaced by a record button which saves every note and creates a URL that aspiring muisicians - or bored office workers - can send to their friends or colleagues, allowing them to play over the top of it and create a duet.

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