From the Les Paul Book, Tony Bacon & Paul Day............ "It seems that CMI boss Maurice Berlin said he wanted these proposed models to be about half-an-inch bigger around the body outline, so that they would be more visible on stage and TV screen. Despite the suitability of the guitars' electronics to recording studios, and the fact that the extra weight would mean a very heavy guitar, this larger size was adopted for the production versions of the Personal and Professional models."
From Gibson Guitars, 100 years of an American icon, Walter Carter.......... "Stan Rendell felt that it should be a little different than the high-impedance Les Paul models, so the body was made a little larger. It was more like The Log and played like a hog. Lester said, 'I'm going up to the Mayo Clinic and I'm going to pick out a room and call it the Les Paul Room for people who come in with back pains. But they sustain, I'll tell you that.'"