Cloud 9 Chambering same as Elegant???

[LesterP]

This has been discussed a million times. Lets make it a million and one.

I know that the early Elegants ('97, and perhaps '98) had three chambers. The later ones ('99 and on...?) have one large chamber like the Cloud 9's.

Obviously, the Clouds get the historic woods and long tenon, but is the actual chamber the same shape? Some have said they are different, though I'm not so sure.

Here's a pic of a '99 Elegant. Anyone out there care to post a similar pic of a Cloud 9 chamber?

 

[DANELECTRO]

That pretty much looks the same as a Cloud 9.

Here's a couple images of a CAD model I made that shows the mahogany slab of a Cloud 9.

 

[CR9]

I have been told that the chambers on the Elegant are different. The Elegant has either one or two chambers depending on who you talk to and they do not go up into the horn or close to the switch. They are kind of kidney shaped and in the large part of the body by the tail and bridge. I have a feeling that the chambers on the Elegant, Class 5, Frampton 3pu LP, and the Chambered Historics (Cloud 9) are probably all the same now just for the ease of manufacturing. A few years back, they were all different. I do not have any proof at this time, but this is a photo of Chambered Reissue (Cloud 9) route.

This is a photo I took this summer and was told it was an "Elegant" but the piece of tape on it said "CH":

The Cloud 9 name is not a model name or a Gibson trademark. It was coined by the 3 dealers that contracted Gibson to build them to use to identify them in the ads. Read the history at: http://www.cloud9guitars.org/cloud9history.htm

Does anybody have photos or official drawings of the other chambered models?

 

[clayville]

Those are much more informative shots than these, but here goes. For the 336 and 356, Gibson used to have an instructive little site about how they are made, with lots of pop-up windows and the stage-by-stage building process, etc. I didn't archive the images before they turned it off (wish I had), and have been able to resurrect just these two bits plus a teeny shot that was a rollover link to a bigger image through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Very low res...

(can't find the part in the middle)

I tried, though!

 

[rockpit]

I've been trying to upload pics, and can't execute . Any tutoring would be appreciated.

 

[LesterP]

I just changed the picture in my original post, now showing two different views. Looks exactly like the pictures you've posted Danelectro.

 

[Hammertone]

...[]... I have a feeling that the chambers on the Elegant, Class 5, Frampton 3pu LP, and the Chambered Historics (Cloud 9) are probably all the same now just for the ease of manufacturing. A few years back, they were all different. ...[]...

A million times is right.

Add the LP Bantam, Florentine, Ultima and Catalina to the list. They all have/had the same chambering. I have a 90's LP Florentine w/no f-holes that has the same chambering as the newer guitars. Mike Slub has a really cool birds-eye-topped Florentine w/no f-holes - there are pix of it in his LPF article on "Unusual Custom Shop Les Pauls and More!" .

I bugged Gibson for awhile on their forum to answer the related question about which guitars had which chambering.

The Class 5 is different - it is not chambered, but has a series of 17 small weight relief holes that are different from the 9 larger holes used in production LPs. Lots of posts and photo evidence of that around here.

- Hammertone