Gibson Les Paul Studio Flood Blue Swirl

Gibson USA Anniversary Flood Les Paul Studio

The Nashville flood of May 2010 devastated not only the city in general but the music community in particular—and Gibson lies right at the heart of that community. Countless guitars, both vintage and new, were subsumed by waters that seemed would never stop rising, and for many of their players it was hard to see how this community would ever recover. But however hard the times, and even in our darkest hours, the music lives on. To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the flood, Gibson USA presents the Anniversary Flood Les Paul Studio, a special-issue model that represents the enduring ability of the human spirit to salvage the music from the raging waters. Dressed in the minimalist Studio style, these guitars nevertheless offer a stunning new look in two commemorative high-gloss nitrocellulose finishes: Marbelized Blue Swirl Burst, and Marbelized Green Swirl.

At its core, this model remains pure Les Paul. Just like the most revered Les Paul Standards of all time, this Les Paul Studio starts with the classic tonewood combination of a mahogany body with solid carved maple top. Together, these woods offer outstanding tonal depth and richness from the mahogany, with superb clarity and "snap" from the maple. In this model, the strategic placement of several tone chambers enhances resonance while also reducing the guitar's overall weight considerably, without sacrificing an ounce of punch or sustain. And even in this more affordable instrument from Gibson USA, the glued-in solid-mahogany neck is cut in the "quarter-sawn" grain orientation for superior strength and optimum resonance transfer between neck and body. To further maximize all that vibrational energy, Gibson includes its legendary Tune-o-matic bridge and stud-mounted stopbar tailpiece, arguably the most legendary hardware partnership in the history of the electric guitar. At the headstock end, a set of great Grover™ tuners—long considered an upgrade on several Les Paul models—help to keep it all pitch perfect.

Plugged in and amped up, the Anniversary Flood Les Paul Studio screams, purrs and moans like the best Les Pauls, too. Its tonal heart lies between a pair of Gibson USA's most popular humbucking pickups, a 490R in the neck position and a 498T in the bridge. Both are made in the image of Gibson's hallowed PAF humbucker: the 490R has vintage-wound coils and an Alnico II magnet for smooth, creamy vocal tones; the 498T is wound a little hotter, with a punchy Alnico V magnet, for screaming lead tones and gut-thumping crunch. Route them through the traditional Les Paul complement of an independent volume and tone control for each pickup and a three-way toggle switch, and you've got one of the most versatile tone machines on the planet.