Not only did Les Paul revolutionize the modern electric guitar, he also did the same for multitrack recording, overdubbing, phasing effects and tape delay. His technical achievements also had him admitted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame in addition to being admitted to the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And now Gibson, who own the Les Paul brand, have released a new set of reference monitors in Les Paul's honor - well that's what manufactures say when they're cashing in on a famous name but in this case that have put some serious effort into making their claim plausible.

Here's the announcement from Gibson:

With high expertise in musical instruments, speaker systems and recording, Gibson Brands created a line of monitors that satisfy the needs of true audio professionals and music enthusiasts alike. These monitors represent a new level of performance, allowing to make easy mixing decisions and were made to become the personal reference whether you are recording, mixing, producing or simply listening to your music.

The monitors combine superior definition with the iconic Les Paul styling and utilize exceptional materials including diamond-like carbon-coated titanium tweeters, non-woven carbon woofers, and custom-made amplification to ensure ultra-clean transient impulse response and large headroom. The Les Paul Reference Monitors are available in three different sizes and multiple color variations such as cherry, cherry burst and tobacco burst.

These 2-way active monitors come in three different sizes and color schemes as pictured above.

All three sets include a lightweight non-woven carbon woofer and a 1" diamond-like carbon-coated titanium tweeter. 'Diamond-like' refers to the dense arrangement of carbon atoms but in reality it just means the material is dense and not like the graphite in your pencil - a little bit of marketing hype.

The Les Paul 4 has a 4" woofer -provides 103 Watts and is listed at $599, the Les Paul 6 has a 6" woofer and 247 Watt amp and is listed at $799, and finally the Les Paul 8 has an 8" woofer but the power is incorrectly stated as 247 Watts by Gibson (I'll update when I get the true power rating) and it is listed at $999.

Detailed specifications for each of the Les Paul Reference Monitors are available at the links above.

At these prices you won't be getting the greatest value, but they sure look good and I wouldn't mind having them sitting in my home studio - and I expect that's who the target market are, people like me who like the Les Paul name and the guitar aesthetics rather than people who are only interested in price/performance.

If you are primarily looking for value for your money then check out my article: The Best Studio Monitors For Under $500.