BluesHawk Club

[Vestapol]

On 2/26/2019 at 10:15 AM, NighthawkChris said:

Here's my Nighthawks. Left to right:

 

• 1993 Vintage Sunburst SP3
• 1997 Fireburst ST3 w/ Schaller (Floyd) Tremolo and locking nut like a Floyd...?
• 1996 Fireburst CST3
• 1994 Fireburst CST3

 

 

Gorgeous collection, Chris. Please send me the one on the right.

Doug

[NighthawkChris]

On 8/4/2019 at 12:46 AM, Vestapol said:

 

Gorgeous collection, Chris. Please send me the one on the right.

Doug

Thank you very much for the compliment!  And to answer the question about the NH with the Schaller tremolo, the nut locks like a Floyd rose trem would.  It's nearly identical to a licensed FR trem.  Either way, it's original to this guitar.  Works very well and sounds great. 

[Filbert]

I am now a proud owner of both a Nighthawk and as of today, a Blueshawk. Never heard of the models before but I must say, I am loving them so far. The Nighthawk is a little more beat up, being the older of the two and has obviously been used and loved way more. Posted these pics elsewhere (with standard apologies for the low quality of them) but here my two are:

Also, I am looking for info on resources on exactly what the various knobs and switches do on the Blueshawk - beyond the obvious! Mine didn't come with an owner's manual so I am a little in the dark.

Edited September 18, 2019 by Filbert

[mihcmac]

4 hours ago, Filbert said:

I am now a proud owner of both a Nighthawk and as of today, a Blueshawk. Never heard of the models before but I must say, I am loving them so far. The Nighthawk is a little more beat up, being the older of the two and has obviously been used and loved way more. Posted these pics elsewhere (with standard apologies for the low quality of them) but here my two are:

Also, I am looking for info on resources on exactly what the various knobs and switches do on the Blueshawk - beyond the obvious! Mine didn't come with an owner's manual so I am a little in the dark.

Nice collection.. Note on the Blues Hawk if you pull up on the Master Tone control it defeats the rotary VariTone switch.. So you can have the VariTone set on a filter you like, you can go back and forth by lifting or pushing down on the Tone knob.

Edited September 18, 2019 by mihcmac

[Blueshawk]

On 4/3/2016 at 8:26 AM, Blueshawk said:

For all Blueshawk-Lovers. The blueshawk.info site is shut down since a few months - why I don't know, but the guy who made it was sick as far as I know. Maybe he couldn't handle it any longer, but I hope he's alright.

Anyways, I found a site where you can look at the homepage as PDF.

Click here -> My link

 

 

As I wrote a few years ago - here's the link for some info.

Greets Blueshawk 

[dReit1]

Sure miss that site. Lot's of great info lost when it went away.

[Filbert]

Thanks so much for the info all of you, very interesting! I find position 2 to be the 'best' sounding, at least to me anyway; it cuts a little of the top end off so it doesn't sound too shrill or trebly but overall, a very subtle effect.

[Blueshawk]

I've installed new pickups on mine a few weeks ago, after I wanted more output but still the clear tones of the Blues90. I ordered a set of the Oripure Alnico 5 P90s (for about 60$ incl shipping @  amazon). They have alnico slugs, like tve Blues90 but more output. I disengaged the dummycoil, so they have more sparkle. I couldn't be happier now. 

Here are some pics: https://www.musiker-board.de/threads/infos-zu-oripure-pickups-spez-alnico-p90.695261/#post-8829975

Greetings from Austria 

Edited September 21, 2019 by Blueshawk

[Blueshawk]

Here a Soundsample of the Oripure Alnico P90 pickups:

 

Sorry for the sloppy playing - this was the 2nd time I played that song... 🤪

Recorded with my cellphone.

 

Edited September 21, 2019 by Blueshawk

[mihcmac]

I wish Gibson would re-introduce the Blues Hawk, specially upgraded with standard Gibson P90s. At least there is the Epiphone Blueshawk that comes with the standard style P90 PROs, I do love the growl they make... This is my favorite for feel, weight, sound and versatility, out of my stable...

Edited October 4, 2019 by mihcmac

[LJP]

Can anyone tell me if there's any difference in neck width between the Epiphone  Blueshawk and the Gibson Blueshawk?  I currently have an Epiphone  BH and no longer have a Gibson BH but I think I remember the Gibson having a narrower neck.  

[mihcmac]

On 12/12/2019 at 2:43 PM, LJP said:

Can anyone tell me if there's any difference in neck width between the Epiphone  Blueshawk and the Gibson Blueshawk?  I currently have an Epiphone  BH and no longer have a Gibson BH but I think I remember the Gibson having a narrower neck.  

There are subtle differences in the necks. The E Blueshawk is slightly wider by about the thickness of the binding, also the E Blueshawk neck is a about 1/16" farther outboard from the body than the G BluesHawk and the Gibson neck joint is also slightly larger.  One main differences between them is the E Blueshawk has more 50's sounding P90's while the G BluesHawk Blues 90's are more moderate and get more like a Jazz Master sound. I love Playing both of mine but tend to play the Epiphone more as it generates less line noise..

Edited December 16, 2019 by mihcmac

[Fitch]

There are still friends of this great guitar and I'm proud to be able to count myself among them. She has powerful mojo in the form of finish cracks and weatherchecking. But it plays fantastic and has a great sound.

 

My two favorite blues guitars combined ^^

[mihcmac]

On 2/14/2022 at 2:44 AM, Fitch said:

There are still friends of this great guitar and I'm proud to be able to count myself among them. She has powerful mojo in the form of finish cracks and weatherchecking. But it plays fantastic and has a great sound.

 

My two favorite blues guitars combined ^^

Looks like a very nice looking set of friends.

I found that I kept bumping my volume control while I was playing so I rotated the controls position putting the Vari-Tone where the volume was and the Volume down by the F-Hole. The new arrangement works much better for me.

My Blueshawk is still one of my top contenders and my only 25 1/2" scale neck. 

Edited March 7, 2022 by mihcmac

[toneblueshawk]

I bought my Gibson Blueshawk - a red one - in autumn 1998. I had been visiting it in a music shop in Birmingham (UK) for a some months when visiting in the city. I loved the look and playability, and when after a couple of months it was put in the 'Sale' - it was a bargain for a real Gibson and I bought it. Another attraction of the BH was its weight - this was to become a really important factor some years later when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. It immediately became my main guitar and I rehearsed and gigged it a lot in preference to my Strat Plus.

I've always spent a lot of time carefully setting-up and fettling guitars, and I was particularly fascinated by the control circuitry and spent time analysing the BH's circuit - confused at first until I gently pried up the dummy coil and found the choke associated with the Varitone in a cavity beneath.

Early in the 2000s I was off work for a couple of months and wrote a website about the Blueshawk. I produced 100 pages of content, including some info kindly provided by the BH's designer JT Riboloff. The site had several hundred 'registered users' and I had lots of correspondence with other 'Hawk owners. Sadly the website was lost when the friend who was hosting the site  became ill, and so did I - so no more blueshawk.info - and in the subsequent years I managed to lose the source code and most of the associated media. And then encroaching arthritis stopped me playing for a several years.

The BH was one of only two guitars I didn't sell at that time. When I started playing again the long-term tuning problems and the slightly 'meh' tone of the BH meant I usually grabbed Thinline Teles - in particular one I had built myself.

Then…. recently I started researching small-bodied, lightweight guitars to buy, until I remembered I had one on the wall, if only I sorted out the tuning problems and livened up the sound (which I'd always found a bit disappointing).

The solution (for me at least) was to give up on the idea of maintaining a pristine, unaltered BH and to fit better tuners and some really good pickups. I also suspected that the hum-bucking dummy coil was 'sucking tone' - coincidentally something Varitone circuits are often accused of.

In the end I fitted some decent locking tuners and a pair of Lollar P90s - the new pickups meant I had to lose the dummy coil - I carefully avoided hum-loops and copper-lined the control cavity resulting in a hum-free instrument. I kept the Varitone circuit which works brilliantly with the new pickups. I also installed a 5-way pickup selector. I've now had my Blueshawk for nearly 25 years and once again (fitted with 8-38s) it has become a go-to guitar that helps me cope with arthritic hands and body…

[merciful-evans]

8 hours ago, toneblueshawk said:

I bought my Gibson Blueshawk - a red one - in autumn 1998. I had been visiting it in a music shop in Birmingham (UK) for a some months when visiting in the city. I loved the look and playability, and when after a couple of months it was put in the 'Sale' - it was a bargain for a real Gibson and I bought it. Another attraction of the BH was its weight - this was to become a really important factor some years later when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. It immediately became my main guitar and I rehearsed and gigged it a lot in preference to my Strat Plus.

I've always spent a lot of time carefully setting-up and fettling guitars, and I was particularly fascinated by the control circuitry and spent time analysing the BH's circuit - confused at first until I gently pried up the dummy coil and found the choke associated with the Varitone in a cavity beneath.

Early in the 2000s I was off work for a couple of months and wrote a website about the Blueshawk. I produced 100 pages of content, including some info kindly provided by the BH's designer JT Riboloff. The site had several hundred 'registered users' and I had lots of correspondence with other 'Hawk owners. Sadly the website was lost when the friend who was hosting the site  became ill, and so did I - so no more blueshawk.info - and in the subsequent years I managed to lose the source code and most of the associated media. And then encroaching arthritis stopped me playing for a several years.

The BH was one of only two guitars I didn't sell at that time. When I started playing again the long-term tuning problems and the slightly 'meh' tone of the BH meant I usually grabbed Thinline Teles - in particular one I had built myself.

Then…. recently I started researching small-bodied, lightweight guitars to buy, until I remembered I had one on the wall, if only I sorted out the tuning problems and livened up the sound (which I'd always found a bit disappointing).

The solution (for me at least) was to give up on the idea of maintaining a pristine, unaltered BH and to fit better tuners and some really good pickups. I also suspected that the hum-bucking dummy coil was 'sucking tone' - coincidentally something Varitone circuits are often accused of.

In the end I fitted some decent locking tuners and a pair of Lollar P90s - the new pickups meant I had to lose the dummy coil - I carefully avoided hum-loops and copper-lined the control cavity resulting in a hum-free instrument. I kept the Varitone circuit which works brilliantly with the new pickups. I also installed a 5-way pickup selector. I've now had my Blueshawk for nearly 25 years and once again (fitted with 8-38s) it has become a go-to guitar that helps me cope with arthritic hands and body…

Good account of your experience there tbh. Especially your insight about the varitone.

I have osteo arthritis in both thumbs and have coped pretty well so far (16 years or so) but its changed the way I play.  

[rpavich]

I know that this is a necro-thread but I'm very excited!
My blueshawk (96 Heritage Cherry) will be delivered tomorrow...
I have a Nighthawk now and absolutely love it...and I'm hoping that I'll love this one too.

My back certainly will. 🙂

I've had to dump all of my heavy guitars and substitute light ones for them due to having degenerative disk disease....

[DGV]

Hi BH fans and owners. I see this is an old thread. Anybody around now? 

I've just fallen in long distance love with a Chicago Blue Blues Hawk in mint condition, with a "BB King" case, (not sure what that is).

The seller wants $2250 Canadian (1600 usd) for it. Though it's pristine looking, the price seems high. Anyone got an opinion, or even better, a blue one for sale? It doesn't need to be in pristine condition.

Cheers,

Doug

[DGV]

Hi, is anyone out there? I've got some Blues Hawk questions.

Cheers

Doug

[merciful-evans]

On 9/16/2023 at 5:26 PM, DGV said:

Hi, is anyone out there? I've got some Blues Hawk questions.

Cheers

Doug

Hi Doug,

I'm no expert, but there are experts here.

[joecool1164]

Is anyone still posting to this forum?  Has anyone seen what is considered to be the Blueshawk prototype before the guitar wet into production ?  I have pictures but don’t know how to post them . I need help .

[Phil OKeefe]

Welcome to the Gibson Forums. 🙂

To add pictures, just drag them into the message box where it says "Drag files here to attach." Or, you can hit the "choose files" link, and select files from your computer that way.  

[joecool1164]

It won’t let me use the photo I have , because it says it’s too large ( 2.6 mb) .

[merciful-evans]

18 hours ago, joecool1164 said:

It won’t let me use the photo I have , because it says it’s too large ( 2.6 mb) .

Use a hosting site. I use IMGUR. upload your pic and then select the 'direct link' (copy) option. Then paste in here.

 

[joecool1164]

 Here’s the “prototype.”