There was that 'prototype' Les Paul that was floating around, and misinterpreted and misreported by the press, that looked like it had homemade low-Z pickups installed. it was (probably) an early '50s Black Beauty that had been machined entirely through the top to reveal a set of weird DIY pickups:
Looking at this, it is clear that Les didn't baby his instruments or ever really think about making his modifications pretty! Give him a 'burst 1958 Les Paul and he would have yanked out the PAFs, added some shonky home brew tremolo unit and probably fitted a connector for a gooseneck microphone somewhere. I've been watching old clips of Les Paul and Mary Ford, and it is interesting to see (apart from the passive sexism in pretty much ever clip) how whacked up his guitars are. You would think Gibson would require him to mime away on off-the-shelf guitars, not something he was clearly booglarising in his workshop.
I find Les Paul a fascinating mix of old-timey
schtickmeister and absorbed electronics engineer. I do quite admire his iconoclastic approach. It is maybe worth remembering that he wasn't actually that happy with the design Gibson implemented, and liked the various iterations (including the bursts) even less! To him a Les Paul guitar should have had low-Z pickups, so those less loved '70s instruments were actually closer to his vision.
I thought EMG came to fame for basically making cheaper versions of Alembic designs?