The following is true and unsolicited. I swear on my old dog's head... Every Wednesday, our tech, Supa Jake Sharp comes over to the 'Elkcave to set up and fine- tune the guitars we have for sale here. He does this to every single one so that when it arrives to your home, it is ready to go, out of the box. That's called 'Elk style. Anyway, Jake comes over yesterday and we've got about 16 guitars for him to do. He comes in, we chat for a few and he goes right at it. I'll go get us lunch (usually it's just for him and I because Lee's swinging from a tree somewhere) and after we finish eating, he goes back to the workbench. He'll finish up around 3:30 or 4:00 and come down with the list of what he did and to get his pay on. That's how we do it with Supa Jake. Easy as pie, no muss, no fuss. So, I had previously listed this guitar on the MyLesPaul forum and said that it "sounded like a freight train" and it does sound great- I don't know if it's the combination of the chambered body and pickups or maybe the guitar is just pissed off, but I like it. Nice, aggressive tone that gets attention. Oh, back to the story... So Jake finished up yesterday, came downstairs and like I always do, I asked him if there were any problems or anything we should know about. He says the usual. "The Takamine needs a new battery, there's a little fretwear on the '80 and '83 Les Pauls, but they play fine, and you need to get some more cleaner", etc., etc. Yesterday, he asks, "What's up with that real lightweight Les Paul? The sunburst one." I smiled to myself and said, "That's a custom ordered one- off. Sounds great, don't it?" Supa Jake's not a real big talker, but says, "Yeah, I like that one. It sounds the best of the bunch" and that was it. With those few words, he had spoke volumes and vindicated my thoughts that this was an exceptional guitar. Fact is, it was custom- ordered back in 1999, with black binding and appointments which give it a very cool Tak Matsumoto look. The pickups are exposed coil '57 Classics and the fretboard is ebony, which gives this thing a bright, snappy sound. I guess you could even call it arrogant. The body looks to be a chambered Les Paul Elegant body and the pots date to 1997. Gibson has confirmed the above and I was pleasantly surprised that they had this much information about the guitar. Call it good luck for a great guitar and it's going to make someone out there a very happy man, so if you are looking for something a little different and with a bucketful of attitude, this '99 just might be the beast for you. After all, the world would be a dang boring place if everyone just walked around with black Customs...