Does anyone think gibson should bring back the Nighthawk?

[ibis]

I'd certainly like to try one. What's the upper fret access like?

[BJSnapper]

Upper fret access to me is very good, but I'm completely hooked on Nighthawks so I may be a bit biased! I've got a fireburst with the 3 pickups (& coil tap) and a custom vintage sunburst (2 pickups) with the slick ebony fretboard. Contrary to what some people might say, they won't exactly replace a Les Paul or a Strat-but it's close. I've also got a Les Paul and a Strat and I won't be parting with them on account of having the Nighthawks. The Nighthawk bridge pickup seems beefy-until you play a Les Paul. The "strat" bridge sound is more of a a P90 sound-a bit warmer than strat but very nice. The big advantage with the 3 pickup coil tap version is that you get 10 different good sounds, including a great "tele" type sound. The light weight is also a good thing. The sustain is very impressive-they are strung through the body which probably helps. The custom seems to have a slightly chunkier neck and weighs slightly more. If I HAD to keep (or buy again) just one electric guitar for ever-it would have to be the 3 p/u coil tap Nighthawk. I've never understood why they are not more popular. They only sell in the UK for between £450 and £590-considerably less than a Les Paul would fetch. Can anybody suggest why they don't fetch higher prices?

[Notes_Norton]

I'm into lightweight guitars, owning an ES-330 and a Casino.

 

I've always wanted to try a nighthawk or a blueshawk, but have never seen either one in person.

 

Notes

[hans]

No, I don't think so. It is visually out of balance and unappealling. I have no idea how it plays though.

[86general]

I was at my brother's house this weekend and played his Blues Hawk. Similar guitar, I guess.

 

Anyway, what a nice little guitar. Great Gibson neck. Light as a feather, and comfy, a perfect couch guitar. Great sound from P90s, and the Varitone options. As they say, "what's not to like?"

 

I even cleaned it up for my big brother, put some Meguiar's auto cleaner/wax on it, and it looked like a million bucks.

[marius]

I like my nighthawk std a lot. lightweight , very good playability. remember that the guitar has a fender-like scale, 25 and a half, which make it a little "stiffer" to play. good sounds from the pickups.

[FirstMeasure]

I have a '95 Heritage Cherry Standard Nighthawk that I use as one of my Two Primary Axes. The sounds So Brown, and it Chunks up so nicely. Plus the slanted pickup has a really thick Clean Tone thats good for Chicken Picken. Mine only has two humbuckers so I don't know what the single coil pick up sounds like, bit Splitting the Buckers doesn't reall give you a Strat like sound, but it does give you some nice Options. And it's easy to back off for rythm, just flip the selector to the 4th position and you blend in with the band. The Mini Humbucker in the neck position gets some classic Gibson tones, like Johnny Winter And,m Santana, or Claptons Woman Tone (Just roll that one tone knob back).

 

The Small single cutaway "Trimmed Les Paul" body took a little getting used to and you absolutley need Good Strap Locks (Schaller for me), but that extra-hot Slanted Bridge Pickup and buttery Neck and 25.5 in scale length sold me instantly.

 

I'd really like to see Gibson do a Double neck Nighthawk.

[nolongermike@gibson]

I figured in time this would happen. I was part of the marketing team that had to get the Nighthawks into the dealers and sell them through. I personally cherry-picked over a dozen for top artist to play, got their photos done for ads, the whole nine yards. We pushed the guitar hard, because it was a great little guitar. Tele-style scale and through-body stringing, tons of versatility, light, Gibson-feeling neck, and some of the flame used on the Standards and Customs was just sick, put some of the AAA LP Classic Plus models to shame those years at times. But alas, the dealers were really hard on the Nighthawk. They didn't want them, they were new, they weren't black LP studios, etc., etc. Now here we are 15 years later and frankly, its pretty rare than one of these nice Standards or Customs shows up on eBay. I regret selling mine, as well. I had a lovely fire-burst flame top Standard 3PU, but I traded it off for a Chet SST which I "needed" at the time for gigs. Live and learn.

 

Here's some Nighthawk trivia for you though..... only TWO were ever made left handed. One went to JT, the R&D guy who made it by hand from scratch, the one that went to Elliot Easton, who did a dozen clinics for us that year. He's the only artist to ever get a lefty Nighthawk, and it was made from hand, start to finish.

[brundaddy]

Hey Mike, mine has very low frets. Was that a factory spec or did some knucklehead level the frets before I bought mine used?

[ilovegibsons]

I've never played one, but they look cool

[nolongermike@gibson]

Somebody must have done that to yours, because they had standard Gibson frets.

 

 

 

Hey Mike' date=' mine has very low frets. Was that a factory spec or did some knucklehead level the frets before I bought mine used?[/quote']

[FirstMeasure]

I figured in time this would happen. I was part of the marketing team that had to get the Nighthawks into the dealers and sell them through. I personally cherry-picked over a dozen for top artist to play' date=' got their photos done for ads, the whole nine yards. We pushed the guitar hard, because it was a great little guitar. Tele-style scale and through-body stringing, tons of versatility, light, Gibson-feeling neck, and some of the flame used on the Standards and Customs was just sick, put some of the AAA LP Classic Plus models to shame those years at times. But alas, the dealers were really hard on the Nighthawk. They didn't want them, they were new, they weren't black LP studios, etc., etc. Now here we are 15 years later and frankly, its pretty rare than one of these nice Standards or Customs shows up on eBay. I regret selling mine, as well. I had a lovely fire-burst flame top Standard 3PU, but I traded it off for a Chet SST which I "needed" at the time for gigs. Live and learn.

 

Here's some Nighthawk trivia for you though..... only TWO were ever made left handed. One went to JT, the R&D guy who made it by hand from scratch, the one that went to Elliot Easton, who did a dozen clinics for us that year. He's the only artist to ever get a lefty Nighthawk, and it was made from hand, start to finish.[/quote']

Maybe you can tell me what the 3rd and 4th position on the Pick Up selector do to the pick ups on the 2 pick up model. Near as I can Figure;

1-Split Bridge PU

2-Full Bridge PU

3-?

4-?

5-Full Neck Mini Bucker

[nolongermike@gibson]

Man, its been a decade and a half, but best I remember it was combinations of the pickups two pickups together in those positions.

[Bluezboy]

Hey Mike what about the Blueshawk? I would loooove to have one but they got discontinued a year before I picked up guitar

[nolongermike@gibson]

I was involved in the original beta testing of the Blueshawk, and as I recall we have seven different configurations of it made, which we had at the Nashville Entertainment Relations office, and had a check-list with them for road and studio artists to come in and fill out as they gave us their opinions. Please don't ask me the seven variations, it was a long time ago and my brain has been through a lot in fifteen years. Lucky if I can remember what I had for lunch. The test models were all Nighthawk Special bodies/necks, configured with different wiring, pickups, etc.

 

It was essentially a Nighthawk with P-90s and a varitone switch, as I recall it and they ended up with an F-hole on them as well. I believe they came out as a full line item around the time I left Gibson in early '96, or maybe in '95 after I left the Nashville plant marketing department and started up the web division for Gibson to handle all of the website stuff. At one point I believe they tricked one of these Blueshawks out and dubbed it the "Little Lucille" but I don't know how long they lasted on the market or how many were made.

 

 

Hey Mike what about the Blueshawk? I would loooove to have one but they got discontinued a year before I picked up guitar

[Bluezboy]

I was involved in the original beta testing of the Blueshawk' date=' and as I recall we have seven different configurations of it made, which we had at the Nashville Entertainment Relations office, and had a check-list with them for road and studio artists to come in and fill out as they gave us their opinions. Please don't ask me the seven variations, it was a long time ago and my brain has been through a lot in fifteen years. Lucky if I can remember what I had for lunch. The test models were all Nighthawk Special bodies/necks, configured with different wiring, pickups, etc.

 

It was essentially a Nighthawk with P-90s and a varitone switch, as I recall it and they ended up with an F-hole on them as well. I believe they came out as a full line item around the time I left Gibson in early '96, or maybe in '95 after I left the Nashville plant marketing department and started up the web division for Gibson to handle all of the website stuff. At one point I believe they tricked one of these Blueshawks out and dubbed it the "Little Lucille" but I don't know how long they lasted on the market or how many were made.

 

 

[/quote']

 

Do you remember why they were discontinued?

[FirstMeasure]

Man' date=' its been a decade and a half, but best I remember it was combinations of the pickups two pickups together in those positions.[/quote']

Thanks, They're great Rhythm settings. It took me a month just to figure out the second position was the Full Bridge PU.

[brundaddy]

I have a nighthawk, I love it, it's a great little guitar... and Gibson should let it R.I.P.

 

A model I'd like to see is a mini ES 135 (Gibson's already making a mini ES 335).

 

Gibson's already making lightweight LPs, chambered or whatever... (like Gretsch has made their Jets for over 50 years!!)

 

So why not do a smallish semi-hollow with f-holes and florentine cutaway? It would be a beast! **Esp. if it had an Axcess neck heel** If Schecter can make set-neck guitars with "Ultra Access" why doesn't Gibson?

[nolongermike@gibson]

That was after my time, but as a general rule, most models go through a discontinued period at one time or another.

 

 

Do you remember why they were discontinued?

[kawa]

I have a "Special 3-PU".

It is very useful in bigband.

I can make almost kind of necesaly sounds by only one guitar.

People ask me "What's model so good guitar".

Nowdays H-S-H with tap-Switch models appears.

I hope reissue "Nighthawk".

Impprovement items: Body thickness up for tone stability.

It is only one weak point.

My main guitar is "ES175D"

"Night hawk" is my only one solid guitar.

I love and like this model very much.

[kawa]

I have a "Special 3-PU".

It is very useful in bigband.

I can make almost kind of necesaly sounds by only one guitar.

People ask me "What's model so good guitar".

Nowdays H-S-H with tap-Switch models appears.

I hope reissue "Nighthawk".

Impprovement items: Body thickness up for tone stability.

It is only one weak point.

My main guitar is "ES175D"

"Night hawk" is my only one solid guitar.

I love and like this model very much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[d.callaghan]

My guitar teacher infomormed me that his friend who works for Long and McQuede (large music retailer in canada) was informed that Gibson may in fact be ressurecting the Gibson Nighthawk. So keep your fingers crossed.

 

I myself own a Nighthawk Special which i love. It is a neet little guitar and has a cool look also. I have nothing bad to say other than that i wish i purchased it earlier so that it could have been preserved better.

 

I say, bring back the nighthawk for a victory lap

[pauline]

I would appreciate a lot if they were available.

If not from Gibson - why not an Epi-version ?

 

Peter

[lpdeluxe]

According to The Gibson Electric Guitar Book (Backbeat Books, 2007) by Walter Carter, the Nighthawk was introduced at the NAMM winter show in 1993, where it won an award from The Music Trades magazine.

 

Production variations were the Custom, Special and Standard, all offered 1993-98. No production figures, but obviously Gibson didn't make a lot of them.

 

Versatile they no doubt were (neck mini-humbucker, middle NXS single coil, bridge slanted humbucker) but they were also (to my eye) oooglie! Gibson, like Fender, is always fighting against its own history: the popular models, after fifty years, remain the Les Pauls and 335s, and, with a slightly shorter history, the SGs, just as Fender finds itself producing endless Teles, Strats, Jazz Basses and Precisions.

 

I'm as guilty as anyone -- I own a Les Paul, a 335 and an SG, and my basses are Fender Precisions, including the '51 reissue. And I don't feel drawn to the Nighthawk: I like guitars with individual voices, and a jack-of-all-trades just isn't something I want or need.

 

Carter notes in his book that the Nighthawk had a small following among studio cats, and the G E Smith was a big fan -- but when he played in public, it was on a Les Paul.

[kjr]

any pics?