Exotica: Gibson Cloud 9 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue.(Gear)(Product/Service Evaluation)

It's fun to watch expressions of amazement cross guitarists' faces when they first encounter Gibson's Cloud 9 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue ($7,669 retail/$4,886 street). But, as impressive as this guitar's accoutrements are, it's not the flawless flame maple top, the perfectly yellowed binding, the delicious washed-cherry finish, or even the dizzyingly high price that boggles minds. It's the fact that players expecting the 9.5-lb heft of a typical Les Paul find the Cloud 9 almost leaps out of their hands like a guitar-shaped helium balloon. This Les Paul weighs just 7.2 lbs. (Because of variances in mahogany, not all Cloud 9 Les Pauls weigh exactly the same.)

The more common weight-relief practice of drilling holes into the thick mahogany body--the "Swiss cheese" approach, if you will--does not apply to this guitar. Instead, the Cloud 9 features one continuous internal sound chamber that ensures resonance, balanced tone, and, of course, low mass. Gibson didn't disclose exactly where this chamber resides, but if you rap your knuckles across the top, the changing timbre clearly indicates a massive hollow zone throughout the upper rear section, right beneath where your strumming arm rests.

While this weight reduction makes epic four-set gigs more bearable, the most dramatic effect of the reduced mass is not on the spine, but on the tone. On a wild bar gig, I plugged the Cloud 9 through a Fulltone Distortion Pro into a Fender Vibroverb combo and let loose. I was rewarded with something remarkable: Song after song, the Cloud 9 shimmered with crystalline upper mids that soared over the band like no other guitar I've encountered. Add a buttery setup featuring a ruler-straight neck and frets nearly kissing the strings (courtesy of Music Machine, the Kennewick, Washington-based Gibson dealer that helped dream up the Cloud 9 series), and the ...