Well, here is the point as I (a Yankee) see it. 1st: The guitar is either ugly or cool. That much is one's opinion. What is FACT, however, is that it is a waste of a pretty ass piece of flamed maple. Can you imagine that with an expertly applied sunburst? 2nd: I don't know how many of these they plan to sell or how much dough they think they'll raise for them, but I question how much of that money (as The Muse has already put it) will actually get to the very people that it is supposedly being raised for. JeffR suggested that if Gibson really wanted to put instruments in the hands of musicians who lost their gear (and livelihood) thanks to Katrina, they should load up a semi with Les Paul Studios, park it on the corner (pronounced kah-nah) of Decatur and Canal Street and distribute them. No one could find fault with that, and I think they'd allow the Edge to help them hand them out. 3rd: NO ONE in New Orleans plays a Les Paul. It's all Strats. Strats, Strats, and more Strats. Sometimes a Telecaster, but their usually from out of town (probably about 45 minutes south).