Legendary guitarist Les Paul had friends in Prince William

Les Paul was a story teller and Larry Muller and Paul Wolff got to hear some of the stories he told.

The two Lake Ridge men counted themselves friends of the man who invented the electric guitar.

Les Paul died Thursday at 94.

Wolff said everything elicited a story from Paul.

“You can’t sit down and say ‘Hi, how’s it going,’ without it revolving into a story,” said Wolff, a sound recording equipment manufacturer.

Wolff met Paul when he worked on some of Paul’s equipment at his house in suburban White Plains, N.Y.

“I used to go up there and resolve issues for him,” Wolff said.

One of the stories that both men recall is the one about Les Paul getting a couple of Adolf Hitler’s state-of-the-art tape recorders from Bing Crosby.

The story was that Hitler recorded his speeches and used the machines along with impersonators to deliver the speeches so he could stay in hiding, Wolff said of the story as it was recounted by Paul.
A couple of U.S. Army generals took the recorders to Crosby’s studio and Crosby called Paul to look at the high fidelity machines.

In talking to Paul, the generals learned that the recorders were innovative for the time, but were of no military value. They gave the recorders to Paul, Wolff said.

Muller, a Lake Ridge dentist, said Paul was a “fascinating man.”

“He just loved to tell stories,” said Muller, who was introduced to Paul by Wolff.

Wolff took Muller to Paul’s house on one of the visits to repair equipment, because he knew that Muller played guitar and would be interested in meeting Paul.

“I take my dentist with me wherever I go,” Wolff said.

Muller has a 1998 Gibson Les Paul guitar signed by the great guitarist.

“I had always wanted a Les Paul, but I never really wanted to purchase one badly enough until I met Les Paul,” he said.

Paul also had the idea to make a tape recorder with multiple recording heads, so he could record one track and then accompany himself on other tracks, Wolff said.

Paul told the story of how nobody wanted to manufacture the thing until he talked to a company called Ampex.

Paul remembered details about the trip to the California facility, Wolff said.

“He told us everything. He told us about the hot girl behind the desk wearing the yellow dress with the white flowers on it,” Wolff said.

Wolff described Paul as a man who told it the way he saw it when he was among friends, but toned it down somewhat when recording equipment and cameras came out.

“He knew if he called Nixon a horse’s ass in an interview that it might make somebody mad, so he didn’t say it,” Wolff said. “He was not a very reverent guy.”

Wolff counts himself lucky for knowing Paul and hearing the stories all day, until the sun went down and Paul’s house grew dark.

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.