Les Paul — the Waukesha native known for his hand in creating the solid-body electric guitar and innovative recording techniques like sound-on-sound recording — would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Tuesday.

Sue Baker was a close personal friend of the famous inventor and musician, and she’s currently the program director of the Les Paul Foundation. She described the "Wizard of Waukesha" as inspirational.

"He was always trying things, whether it was music, or early technology, or just fun kid stuff. He was always thinking," she said.

In addition to his technological contributions to the music world, Paul was also an innovator of sound. Baker attributed some of Paul's musical creations to his mother, Evelyn Polfuss. Once, said Baker, when Polfuss had traveled to Chicago to see Paul perform, she said she thought she had heard him perform on the radio. But Paul told her she was wrong — he was on the stage instead of the radio.

According to Baker, his mother replied: "'Well then Lester, you better do something about it, because you all sound alike to me.'"

So Paul went back to his home in Hollywood, set himself up in his home studio, and he said he didn’t come out of the garage until he had found a new sound.

That unique sound involved licks, trills, chording sequences, and novel fretting techniques and timing.

Even though he became a musical legend and moved away from Waukesha, Baker said those who knew him said he never lost that "Midwest charm."

"What they mean is that you’re a genuine person, that you really care about other people, and you don’t see yourself more important than anyone else. And that epitomized who Les was," she said.