Les Paul Estate Auction
 

http://www.juliensauctions.com/image.../icatalog.html

Yes, this is a smarmy Beverly Hills auction house, yes the prices for many of these items will be obscene. Nevertheless, this man and his inventions fundamentally shaped electricity-based music as we know it, and it is super cool just to see all this stuff in this detail and all in one place. Whether you like his music or not, you like what it has allowed others to create. Cannot help but admire and respect. While his music is tame buy today's standards, his inventions were highly experimental and radical in their time. Kind of upset I made my travel plans before I knew this was happening, I leave town the day of the public viewing. I'm sure LA studios will buy up his analog recording gear, hope people get to use it. The pdf catalog and online auction site are fascinating, I was wondering if some of his unfinished experimental guitars might be cheap, but it looks like bids are already rolling in for those. His homemade acoustic panels look really cool, might make some as functional art at some point. Profits go to his foundation to spread music and engineering education, which is really cool.