Want to wish Les Paul a happy birthday? You can play him a tune on today’s Google Doodle. Click here to try it out. (via Techland)
The Doodle, which features creatively arranged guitar strings that are actually pluckable if you mouse over them, allows users to experiment with sound, honoring of one of the pioneers of the electric guitar. Les Paul, whose 96th birthday would have been today, was a jazz and country songwriter and guitarist and played an integral part in the development of one of the first solid-body electric guitars, called “The Log”. And to celebrate his innovation on his birthday, Google has dedicated their own innovation to him.
(PHOTOS: A History of Google Doodles)
Google has increasingly been experimenting with moveable and interactive Doodles and today’s playable–and if you’re in the U.S., recordable!–design has been in the works for some time. Ryan Germick, Google’s lead doodler, told TIME that a friend of his had conceived of the idea for a Doodle with guitar strings that “you could pluck”, an idea that everyone loved.
(MORE: The Story of Doodles)
And while Doodles are typically conceived in order to celebrate a particular person or event, the guitar Doodle came before the idea to honor Les Paul. “We thought backwards,” Germick said. “Here’s a cool technology, here’s a cool idea, how can we use this in a way that celebrates something that we’re also excited about. And that’s where the idea for a guitar Doodle came.”
We have a feeling Les Paul would be honored. See more at Techland.
—by Megan Gibson and Josh Sanburn
*For more on the history of Doodles, check out the June 20th issue of TIME.