Gibson Blueshawk

I bought my BluesHawk last fall at Mr. Music in Allston, MA. I only there because they had this guitar at a GREAT price ($550). The reason for the great price was that the thing must have been hanging there for ages, not surprising since the action was a mile high and the intonation was waaaay off...(Got me kinda nostalgic for the old days!) Still, the thing sounded good and, hey, I HAD driven all the way to Allston on a Saturday! I think the only "set-up" the store did was to super-glue the knobs on! This, of course, resulted in the demise of the tone control on the second day when I tried to change the knobs and pulled the shaft right out of the pot... Tone control still worked, but the push/pull switch in it was histoire... (The push/pull by-passes the Varitone circuit, why you would want to do that, I don't know...One of the 6 Varitone positions is by-pass anyway..More on this later!) I particularly like the Varitone feature. (Hint: Grind a flat spot on the Varitone shaft for the set-screw: This will absolutely stop knob-slip.) I replaced the tone push/pull with the pot/switch from a Torres Engineering Deluxe Varitone kit. I used the original cap. from the 'Hawk and wired-in one of the inductor sections of the Torres, these are selectable with the DPDT on the pot. The stock Gibson Kluson-type tuners are as good as any Klusons: I.E. They suck! I put on a set of Sperzels and they are infinitely better. The bridge is similar to a Fender Strat hardtail with strings through the body. This is nice because it gets the strings closer to the body than on other Gibby's, which I prefer over the tune-a-matic/stop tailpiece system. The BluesHawk is a lovely blend of Fenderish and Gibson features: 25.5 scale but with more of a Gibson string spacing. Fender-type bridge but P-90-type pickups. I disagree with the other review vis-a-vis the pickups: The "Blues 90's" are fine! I have a Tele with a P-100 in the neck and a P-90 in the middle (stock Tele lead) and the Blues 90's sound just as good, if not better! The neck is another outstanding feature: Nothing radical, just comfortable, sane radius and (if you like diamond-shaped inlays...) mostly perfect. For some reason, Gibson put a cap in series with the neck pickup only when both pickups are on together. I installed a mini-toggle to chose between cap or no cap: No cap is much better. The sound is so much fuller without the cap, Gibson would do better to use the push/pull on the tone control to bypass this cap. you get a big double-humbucker almost jazzbox tone!

This geetar gets all the tones I want and then some. I've been playing guitar since 1963 and the BluesHawk is the best I've played, let alone owned! (Especially with the few mods I've done to it: Sperzels; Torres pot.switch and the oddball-cap bypass switch.) Rock, blues, pop, jazz, whatever: the tones are there. It also responds very well to picking technique and dynamics. PLUS its real easy to get what Billy Gibbons calls those "whistlers": Where you pick and get a little meat from a spare finger to touch the string afterward. The things I DON'T like are mostly just personal taste: I've never liked gold hardware, to me it looks cheap! I REALLY don't like that stupid "BluesHawk" decal on the top, although I don't see it anymore! I don't relly like the diamond inlays: Gimme dots anyday! The only really salient thing is the tuners, but has there EVER been a Gibson made that came with good tuners??? No. I would also prefer a regular Gibson Les Paul-type PU selector switch: It comes with a 3-way Tele-style switch that's in kind of a tough spot to get to, above the vol. pot and in front of the Varitone. The Varitone and volume controls are easy to get to, though.

The factory setup was so bad I thought I had stumbled into a time-warp back into the sixties! Outside of that, though, the guitar was fine! Everything always needs ajusting on a new guitar anyway (Even if its perfect off the rack, I still have to diddle with it...!) The fit and finish are up to Gibson's current (fine) standard. There is a maple top on a poplar body. The maple is unspectacular, but, then I only paid $550 NEW! The guitar is built similar to a 335 with a solid centre block and hollowed-out on the sides rather than built like an arch-top like the 335. The wiring job is not as neat as it might be, but neatness doesn't help the sound!

I have a 1963 Gibson SG Junior. It still works and plays perfectly. Its been gigged to hell and back. I see no reason that the BluesHawk won't last just as well! The hardware except the deep-sixed tuners, is solid and should stand-up to everything except 5 years in the case in a damp cellar! The finish is that great looking Gibson cherry: I love that finish! The strap buttons are now straplocks, but the OEM's were fine with a much heavier screw on the bottom: Nice! If i had only one guitar to take to a gig, or anywhere, this is the one.

The only customer support I went through was a couple of e-mail questions to the Gibby web-site and they were answered promply and completely. if you've read the above, I think you'll agree that I managed to voind most of the warranty changing the knobs! BTW: Gold hardware and cheesy black knobs??? God speed knobs take this baby uptown!

I've been playing 35 years... (Yep, had a Beatle wig...AND WORE IT IN PUBLIC!!! once... Everytime I try to tell my kids they look ridiculous, that Beatle wig comes back to haunt me!) My other guitars: 1964 SG, Jr./1973 Strat hardtail/Rick 360/1994 Ovation Collector's/1993 American Standard Tele(With P-100 neck, P-90 middle and stock Tele lead) Peavey fretless bass. Sunn/Traynor/Carvin tube amps...It's a sickness.... If you're looking for a guitar with single coil clarity and humbucker (sans the mud) balls: look no further! This ax beats the crap out of the '59 re-issue LP that I had: Better tone, playability, OK, the Paul had a killer figured top... You never saw it, though, because it sounded so lousy it stayed in the case! God, I TRIED to like that guitar... If my BluesHawk were stolen I'd get another in a heartbeat! Maybe a custom order so I wouldn't have to perfect it myself! Oy! So, in closing, I'll just say :GET ONE BEFORE GIBSON FIGURES OUT WHAT THEY HAVE AND JACK THE PRICE UP! You just can't tell me that any new Les Paul is worth $2000-$5000 when they can list the BluesHawk at $1000 and retail them for much less!

USA Made in 1997. It has 22 frets on a 25.5 inch scale neck that has V provile. The neck is mahogany with Kluson tuners. The body has a maple top on a polar body with a nice cherry red finish. The top is pretty plain and although bookmarked, the finish doesn't really show it off. This guitar is semi hollow with 2 F holes. It comes with two passive Blues-90 P90 style pickups, a three way strat style pickup selector and a 6 position varitone switch. The body style is like the rest of the hawk series, a modified LP shape. The finish is the normal Gibson style finish. The bridge is a fixed fender style bride with the strings through the body. Came with a nice quality gig bag.

This guitar has a nice mid-ranginess similar to an other semi-hollow. I play is straight through a quality tube amp, no effects. With the stock pickups (Blues 90s) it had a very bright voice. The Varitone helps get a wide range of sounds; this control removes or emphasizes various frequencies, mostly in the midrange area. I must admit that the Blues90s didn't really give me enough punch with a band. When I examined them, they looked like a wide strat pickup, not as big as a real P90, which explained the thin sound. I solved this by buying a pair of Duncan P90s which improved the sound considerably. The sound the guitar gets is like a cross between a 335 and a Ric 360, which is very woody and responsive. It also has a good acoustic voice (not very loud tho!). Since I changed the pickups, I also removed the humbucking dummy coil, but the guitar is pretty quiet for using single coils. If you get one and don't like the sound, replace the pickups. For a hundred dollars, it improved the guitar 100%. This guitar is probably best suited to blues, classic rock or jazz. Not really bright enough for traditional country or metal. Very rootsy sounding.

I changed the strings to 10s and readjusted the neck and bridge, but the factory settings were fine. The pickups were adjusted well. The finish and frets were very well done.

I use this guitar live and it is really great. It seems built to last.

Gibson has always been helpful to me when I've called.

This is a nice guitar for what I bought it for - a more bluesy and jazzy guitar. It is really awesome for slide. I like everything about it except the stock pickups; Gibson should use real P90s, but for what they charge for it an extra $80-100 for P90s isn't too bad.