pearsonrk Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Well....I just got my Nighthawk back from the shop today, and I got to say, this is the best gutiar I have ever owned. Total investment is 300.00 new for the guitar, (Got it at Cream City Music in Milwaukee, by the way), and 260.00 for the improvments. For a total of 561.97 with tax. What I did was change out all the electronics to USA parts, put on Tele chrome knobs, push pull pots on both tone, and volume, changed out the saddles to Fender Vent, put an SM-3 in the neck, SSL-5 in the middle,( with a few mods ), and a JB in the bridge. Sound on this thing....I couldnt believe. I am very happy with this buy and the upgrades I have done. Pics to come soon, wife is away to DC on a biz trip, and has the camera.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfine Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Cool! I've been thinking about getting one of those myself. How did you get the new middle pickup to fit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearsonrk Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Cool! I've been thinking about getting one of those myself. How did you get the new middle pickup to fit? Coustom Shop, got it done for 55.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearsonrk Posted May 18, 2012 Author Share Posted May 18, 2012 Coustom Shop, got it done for 55.00 and a 21 day exchange on a SSL-3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkfanatic Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 Yep, these things are amazing with some mods. They are great stock, but mods make em killer. I will tell you tho, the wiring is the key to making them sound right even w/o pickup swaps, tho that is a big help too. But i totally changed mine by using a few wiring tricks that improved it big time along with the callaham saddles which also make a huge diff. One thing you can do to make the middle pickup sound as good as most anything you're gonna put there is just strap a 470k resistor from the middle pickup's hot wire at the switch to ground. By doing that you are taking the volume put value down to 250k when in the 2, 3 and 4 positions. what i found was the middle pickup's tone was bad with a 500k pot, and at 250k it's about as good as any good single coil. It also makes the 2 and 4 positions sound much fuller. For pickups i tried a duncan 59 at the bridge but hated it. So i stuck a ceramic magnet in it in place of the alnico 2 which is a super soft sounding magnet. Gave it much more punch and cut. I still will eventually replace it my mounting the coils of another pickup on the stock plate once i decide what i think will work in it. For the neck i have a dimarzio mini on the way right now. I read up on it and from the reviews i saw of the duncan minis and the dimarzio, the dimarzio sounded more like what i wanted. It's a fairly new pickup so theres not a lot of reviews, but the ones i did find were glowing and described exactly the tone i want. As of now the guitar is just fantastic except for the neck pickup, which will no longer be an issue by next wednesday hopefully. On a side note, i am and always have been a total fender man thru and thru and as good as the NH is, it could wipe my azz for me and make me dinner and i'd still prefer my fenders. But in 40 years of playing this is the first gibson style guitar I've owned that i didn't want to sell after a month or 2. Nothing else feels and sounds like a great gibson yet has the ability to cop fenderish enough tones to pull off songs that need that tone. I can only imagine how much better it will be at that once i get that mini because the fender clean to slightly driven neck and neck/middle tones are worthless with the stock mini. The dimarzio is supposed to be very chimey. Can't wait. If i had to recommend anyone with this guitar what to do to it, the #1 thing i would say is saddles. Then wiring including a particular bleed circuit and that resistor on the middle pup. Those 2 things really balance everything out and allow lots of tonal variation with the volume pot. The pickups i can't say because they are too subjective. I've seen several people say they love the mini, yet i find it worthless for anything but hot single note solos. But once you get it right for you, theres hardly anything out there thats going to compete with the versatility and tonal quality this thing has, not to mention how incredible it plays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearsonrk Posted May 27, 2012 Author Share Posted May 27, 2012 Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad1 Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 HNGD ! That's a great looking Trans Black finish on that thing! The white binding really stands out against it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggs Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Here Pete Pete Pete Pete Pete... Here Pete Pete Pete Pete Pete.R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggs Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Bump for PeteR's enjoyment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSAR Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Bump for PeteR's enjoyment Mine too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggs Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 I think Nighthawks may very well be the most 'hot-roddy' geets ever created Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malchik Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Wait, don't these come with a JB in the bridge stock? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearsonrk Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 Wait, don't these come with a JB in the bridge stock? Nope.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rednefceleb Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Looking at the Trans Black N'Hawk made me a believer in that color. Johnny Lang plays a Trans Black guitar, I believe that's a Tele. Those Seymour Duncans look really right. Good Job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuicey227 Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 That was the one i wanted also trans black, they told me it would be a 6month wait, just got mine 2 weeks ago , ended up getting fire burst, i don't care its great, i love it! i love staring at it . Its so beautiful! Looking at the Trans Black N'Hawk made me a believer in that color. Johnny Lang plays a Trans Black guitar, I believe that's a Tele. Those Seymour Duncans look really right. Good Job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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