“It helped tidy up a lot of my playing and helped me grow as a player”: Joanne Shaw Taylor briefly switched to Les Pauls – and it dramatically improved her guitar playing

Oanne Shaw Taylor performs on stage at Newark Castle and Gardens on 8 July 2016 in Newark, United Kingdom. She is playing a Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar.

Joanna Shaw Taylor has revealed that adding a Gibson Les Paul to her toolkit was key to improving her technique and pushing her sonic palette. As a dedicated Tele player, incorporating a Les Paul felt almost like a painter using a “different paintbrush”.

“I mean, I’m still predominantly a Tele player, but around 2012 I was doing my third album [Almost Always Never], and I felt like my guitar playing had got a bit stale,” she explains in the latest edition of Guitarist.