Having started windsurfing in the early days of the sport, Cary Acord took lessons on Kailua Bay from Larry Stanley of Windsurfing Hawaii in the spring of 1977. A musician as well as an athlete, Cary Acord was in a band for five years. He still enjoys playing the guitar.
Though Leo Fender mass-produced the first electric guitar called the Fender Broadcaster in 1948, in reality, Les Paul built the first solid-bodied amplified guitar in 1941 and showed it to the Gibson Company in 1945. He was scoffed at by Gibson management at the time, but once Gibson saw the success and potential of the Fender model, the company sought out Paul’s help for an alternative design.
The story begins to change at this point depending on who’s telling the tale. According to Paul, he already had the concept for the Black Custom and Gold Top, and he had the final say at every stage in the engineering of the new instrument. Gibson, on the other hand, contends that it already had the guitar built, and Paul’s contribution was a name endorsement and some input on designing the bridge.
