Les Paul, the red-headed gentleman who inspired countless musicians with his innovations and inventions over almost a century, passed away Thursday at the age of 94.

Those of us old enough to remember the 1950s have fond memories of a ground-breaking pop single called How High The Moon. There was nothing like it before Les Paul and his wife, Mary Ford, recorded the tune using a multi-tracking tape recorder Paul invented, that for the first time enabled overdubs in the studio.

Prior to this invention, every recorded performance was made "live from the floor" and if there was a mistake made by one of the performers the entire performance had to be repeated until the track was deemed perfect.

Paul, who had been driven by a strong creative bent since his youth, came up with the brilliant idea of using two or more tape recorders side by side for the same song. This way, he reasoned, he could add layers of sound to the song, then blend (or "master") the layers into one seamless monoraul whole (this was in the days before stereo sound).

Using this technique Paul was able to accompany himself on guitar and Ford was able to harmonize with herself on vocals, creating a virtual "wall of sound" on the brilliant How High The Moon.

It was a technique that revolutionized the music industry, and inspired all who followed, such as The Beatles' producer Sir George Martin, who cut and spliced raw tapes into the unique pieces of music created by the Liverpool quartet. It also led to true multi-track recorders that allowed blending of sounds from 64 or more sources.

Paul's tinkering with electronics also led to creation of one of the most prized solid-body electric guitars, the Gibson Les Paul.

Paul, who started out on the jazz circuit in his youth, used a very large archtop acoustic guitar in order to be heard in an orchestra of horns and drums. Paul had experimented with winding his own electronic pickups to amplify his guitar but was dismayed that the sound from the speakers would easily reverbrate inside the large hollowbody guitar, making a howling "feedback" noise as the speaker sound travelled through the guitar back to the speaker.

He wasn't the first to do away with the hollowbody guitar in favour of a slab of solid wood to defeat this unwanted feedback. But, arguably, no one did it better.

He sold the Gibson Guitar company on the idea and after some initial resistance from the established guitar manufacturer, the first Gibson Les Paul came out in 1952.

This guitar was not a runaway success at first — the Les Paul guitar was extremely heavy and the bright-sounding ceramic pickups often "hummed" — which led to the creation a few years later of the "humbucker" pickup, so named because the two coils of wire inside each pickup reversed the polarity so that the hum was eliminated.

Paul's singing guitar playing style (captured on a timeless duet album with another late guitar giant, Chet Atkins, called "Chester and Lester") faded from public popularity as the rock and roll explosion of the 1960s took over. However, Paul earned the undying love and respect of many of these new rock and rollers who utilized the "fat" sound of the Les Paul guitar, equipped with two or three humbucker pickups.

Jimmy Page, an in-demand studio musician in early '60s London, is perhaps the most famous early proponent of the Les Paul guitar. Using it through a giant Marshall tube amplifier, and inspired by American blues performers like Muddy Waters, Page created the crunchy blues-rock sound that made The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin famous around the world.

Many players followed, and some players like Eddie Van Halen "refined" the Les Paul guitar into new models — but anyone who owns a Les Paul guitar will tell you that there is nothing like the genuine article.

I started out playing Fender guitars, as I liked the brightness of the single coil pickups for country-style "chicken picking" and the option of using distortion pedals for the Jimi Hendrix sound.

However, I had always wanted a Les Paul and about 15 years ago I came across an old Les Paul Deluxe that I couldn't resist. The Deluxe model came out in the late '60s (mine is circa 1970) and utilized the smaller Epiphone humbuckers, which had a brighter tone than the fatter Gibson humbuckers.

It fast became my favourite guitar. The workmanship is exquisite in its beautiful simplicity and the range of tones is perfect for any style of music, from jazz and pop to hard rock and blues. The neck, a shorter scale than my old Fender, was like playing butter when it came to bending the strings, even when performing my guitar-behind-the-head stunt (see video). The Deluxe was also lighter than earlier models, while retaining the famous sustain that seemed to hold a note forever.

I never got to see Paul perform live, and envy those who did. My jazz guitar playing uncle, Kaare, did see Paul perform in a small New York nightclub during a business trip from Denmark about 10 years ago. Kaare said Paul was still a brilliant player even in his 80s.

Paul did keep performing in New York nightclubs up until recent months when he was admitted to hospital with pneumonia. He succumbed to complications on Thursday in hospital.

If there is an afterlife, we can be sure Les Paul is still playing his guitar and making sweet sounds with all his friends. How High The Moon, indeed.