Gibson Blueshawk

American made, Poplar body with maple cap, looks similar to the Les Paul but has two F-holes. It's got a Blues 90 pickup, which most confuse with a P-90, but no, not the same thing, as well as another standard LP pickup. Laminated Top, Semi-Hollow body, Amazingly light, great on the back, quite comfortable.

It's got a volume and tone switch, standard, as well as a pickup changer , and an amazing varitone switch, it can play just about anything.

It's got 25.5 in. scale, and string through body.

I play just about everything, Blues, Classic Rock, Old School Rock, anything from the 60s and 70s, some Jazz, the list goes on. I was using it with a practice amp, and I wasn't expecting much from such a mediocre amp, but the sound was amazing, I instantly fell in love with the guitar, it's got a rich yet subtle tone that I can't get enough of.

The guitar can hit virtually every spectrum of music.

I got it use, so it wasn't that well set up, but everything it amazing, I know most people say there isn't such a thing as an amazingly set up guitar strait from the maker, but this might just be the one.

No flaws I can see, tuners could be better.

It stays in tune for a while, I can safely say I'll be playing this guitar ten years from now.

Eh, haven't dealt with it, and I dunno about the warranty.

Frank Zappa once said if you pick up a guitar and it says "take me I'm yours" then that's the one for you. I couldn't agree more, and the first note I played on this guitar was swimming with that, I instantly fell in love, bought it on the spot at went home, I've been playing if for about 5 hours, my fingers are killing me but I need to go on, I am in love with this guitar.

Gibson Blueshawk; made in 2005, no case--bought aftermarket case. NOTE: if you buy a hard case for this MAKE SURE THE NECK AND THE BODY LAYS FLAT. If it doesn't it could hurt the integrity of the neck and headstock, as uneven pressure in a case will be harmful in the long run. Black NitroCellulose finish, lightweight. Other specs have already been mentioned in other reviews, so I won't be redundant here.

This guitar has got to be one of the best-kept secrets around! I am surprised that it is not more popular, but I guess you either like this guitar or you don't. I do. It has many different sounds, from Strat to Humbucker tones. The humbucker sound is not as fat as a Les Paul or PRS Singlecut, but the variety of tones with great sustain nevertheless is the secret of the Blueshawk. And it it is sooo light---it's hard to see how this puts out such sweet tones from such a lightweight body. The lightest-sounding Strat tone is the weakest in volume(with the position switch farthest away from you) but the Varitone knob has different settings which increase the gain more. I like the 'chicken head' knobs----and I've found two more on a 60's homemade radio in case I lose one! Very classic and retro. I'm using it with a Fender Blues Jr.; low wattage amps seem to be a good fit for this as per other reviews. P-90s very quiet with the hum cancelling coil between them.

Sounds like the workmanship on other reviews has been very spotty; on this 2005 model, everything was right on. Maybe they got a clue to do things right by '05, one year before they stopped making it! Whoever had this guitar before me(I'm the third owner), they didn't play it much, for the frets have no wear. I've got 11's on it for strings; I think anything less than 10's would give a thinner tone. Nice smooth black finish, inlays tight and have no filler around them, gold hardware looks spotless. Only a correct hard case(see my opening advice about that) is hard to find but not impossible.

Strap buttons are way too small---they're the same ones on regular Les Pauls. Can't understand why they put those small one's on there--do they want an accident? Of course this would stand live playing, but I'd never gig without a backup no matter what the guitar was. With it's light weight, you could easily play this axe all night.

They seem to respond to questions in a timely manner.

Been playing 25+ years; mostly acoustic but this electric is a keeper in my palette of sounds.
I like the fact it produces such a variety of tones, just waiting for your creativity.
These can be found easily for $600 or under used---they are a fabulous value. You can't get a USA Fender for anywhere near this price. The different tones, light weight--like I said, this guitar is highly underrated by those who don't have a clue. I think the Blueshawk is a classic guitar--not made anymore but will ultmately be sought after by those who know what it can do. The Blueshawk is an unsung wonder in Gibson's history.

1997, first year i think, u.s.a. 21 frets? laminated top, volume, tone, three way switch varitone control,two single coil pick-ups,(blues 90) not sure about wood, red in color, thin line style body etc.

does everything well, us it with a fender tube amp from the 80's, many sounds, no noise, full, and bright does everything i like.

bought used, and was set up fine. tuning keys upgraded, everything has worked well for the 8 years i have owned it

guitar will last forever, if you take care of it. pick up covers rattle a bit, bit have fixed that problem. finish may wear with time, but who cares, this is meant to be played, not looked at. replaced strap buttons with locking model. i can, and do depend on it, no problem. always have a back up no matter how good.

gibson brain dead in service. no warranty, would not trust them anyways.

been trying to play for over thirty years. nope. if lost or stolen, i would look for another (not made anymore) a really unique guitar. i love the feel, the sound, the vibe, the color, the price, and have been very happy to have owned it. could of bought anything, but this one is in a class of it's own, for any price. too bad Gibson quit making these, because it really is something special

Updating a previous review - This guitar gets better through the years! Bought it new in the summer of '98 and have been in love with it ever since.

Features are simple but versatile. Less complicated than the Fender Jazzmaster, but more versatile than the Les Paul Specials or Juniors with P-90's. It's a hybrid of an ES-137 Custom, a Nighthawk, which was discontinued in 1999, and a Les Paul Special.

"Tone chambers" keep it light and accentuate some unique frequencies, but aren't really designed to resonate like a semi-hollow, so don't expect them to! "Varitone" switch lets you dial in tones reminiscent of older guitars like Rickenbackers or Danelectros and similar to Stratocaster and Telecaster sounds.

So sweet! I use it for everything from Rock to Pop to Jazz & Blues. Perfectly versatile for all styles except those that require a really crunchy humbucker sound. The resonance of the body is very similar to a '72 Thinline Telecaster, though the BluesHawk's set neck gives just a little more sustain and left-hand connection to your tone. The Blues-90 pickups are just like P-90's, only they sound a little more modern. Everywhere I go with it people are amazed at its tone.

Recently played through an Orange amp for a night and was absolutely blown away by the tone. Normally I use Hughes & Kettner amps and Electro-Harmonix effects, an Ibanez TS-9 for a little grit and a Boss RV-5 to fill it out a bit.

"Factory" set-up was garbage, but I get the feeling it was someone at that particular Guitar Center that didn't quite know what they were doing (which I hope is rare). A few adjustments and it played like a dream. Still does!
The actual construction of the guitar is pretty flawless.
The fit is excellent for smaller folks too. Feels like a Les Paul Junior.

After almost 10 years and about 50,000 miles worth of playing and touring it's still my number 1. It's held up extremely well. Intonation is good and it stays in tune on gigs.

Replaced one tuning machine after a freak accident broke it. Probably would have broken on any other guitar too... Cleaned up all the pots and switches twice, but haven't had to replace or re-solder any. Re-set the grommets that hold the pickup screws into the body. They started to come loose after a few tours, but it was an easy fix. Haven't re-fretted it yet, but it's about time I did. The finish is good and thick. It has taken a few scratches, but has only chipped off on top of the headstock from a couple run-ins with cymbals on stage.
The bridge is nice and smooth so strings don't break easily, and it's easy on your hands.
I wouldn't be afraid to use it on stage without a backup, but that just wouldn't be smart in the first place, no matter what guitar you play!

Gibson mailed me a new tuning machine, no questions asked, but that was about 8 years ago. I don't know how they are now, but back then they were perfectly helpful.

I do all my own repairs, and this guitar is simple enough that it doesn't require too much expertise.

If I lost this guitar I would be absolutely devastated! I wouldn't think twice before buying another one, no matter what the price. It's just so unique!

If I had the resources I might try to build my own Blues Hawk, only with a bigger headstock and an ash body.

Well made guitar ! Features already mentioned !

Initially my guitar sounded too honky !!! So I pulled the back off and compared the wiring to my friends Blueshawk !!! Only difference between the two , was that my black wire on the switch (bridge pickup) was soldered to the upper side of the capacitor ! So I soldered the black wire to the underside of the cap . This made the guitar more even in volume levels , but the honk was still there . I then reversed the black wire with the pickups white wire (reversed the polarity ) - now the guitar sounds like my friends - very nice !!!! You still get the honk in positions 1 and 2 (bottom setting on the varitone ) , but the other 4 sounds are great and useable ! The way it was wired , made the guitar almost useless !
So if you have a Blueshawk , check the bridge pickup wiring - as I believe some of them came with reverse wired bridge pickups !

Nice ly set up , low action , good neck ! All said before !

The gold hardware will eventually give way - but till then , I will enjoy this guitar !

No comment , have not contacted them yet ! But what worries me is the availablity of parts like the swithch , varitone selector etc.

Just a nice guitar now !!!!!!!!

I wrote this review mainly to mention some easy mods I've done. Mine's a red '98, apparently hardly played by the former owner.
The Blues 90 pickups with dummy coil is a unique setup. The varitone offers 6 positions, some more usable than others, including one that does pretty much nothing - but that can be fixed.
Love the feel of this guitar. I swore off Gibson years ago because of their high-and-mighty attitude while producing crappy guitars for extreme prices, but this little guy reminds me of what I used to like about them - the slick neck, the quality finish, the smell; it all takes me back to younger days.

Thanks to the Blues 90s and varitone this guitar is effectively capable of covering a lot of ground from jazz to twang. BUT I still felt some minor changes were in order. First, out came the treble bleed cap on the volume control. The value chosen (.005 uF) is much too large for that job; it effectively keeps the control from having any effect on volume from 10 down to about 2. What it does do is slightly cut BASS instead of volume; novel, but there are better ways to do it. Without the cap the control works like it should & I don't find there's much treble loss at all. The volume pot is 300K linear taper; the value Gibson has been using for years on various guitars for whatever reason.
Next I noticed that varitone position 1 (fully counter-clockwise) did almost nothing so I lifted the module wire from that switch contact and soldered a .002 uF cap from the switch to ground. That gives a kind of humbuckerish roll-off in pos. 1 now.
Next I noticed when shorting out the noise-cancelling coil the pickups gained a certain amount of Fender-y brightness, sort of like switching a humbucker to single-coil, adding a sweet Tele-like shimmer. Rather than just leaving it like this, or going to all the trouble of swapping the volume pot for a push-pot, I'm going to attach a small pushbutton switch just inside the f-hole for switching between "normal" & "bypass". Oh, and for what it's worth, without the coil the noise level goes DOWN, not up. YMMV.
Post-mods I'd rate this a 9.

I got the impression the former owner didn't play this much and doesn't know much about guitars anyway. When received, every single nut was loose - the pots, jack, & varitone all spun freely. Worse, the truss rod was left completely slack allowing the neck to warp....when left like this for years a neck will take a "set" preventing it from getting straight again without a fret or neck leveling. BUT, the action really isn't bad the way it is; it's just not all it could be and eventually I'll take it to a shop.
More annoying is the weak pickup mounting springs. Sometimes when I play my right hand knocks against the bridge pickup which sets relatively high off the body; the knocking sound actually comes through the amp because the pickup is bouncing up & down on its screws. After a while the screws work loose (rotating easily in their threaded inserts) and the treble end of the pickups gets right up to the strings. Next string change I'll fix this with foam padding and surgical tubing to prevent the screw rotation.

Some people seem to think this is a fragile balsa-wood guitar, it's not. It's a solid-body with 2 small chambers. It's not as effective in a barroom brawl as a Tele but if you're playing in those kinds of places you really should be exercising your second-amendment rights anyway. It needs straplocks. My tuners don't seem too bad but they're probably going to get get replaced with lockers anyway. The finish looks good but the Gibson "inlay" is a decal and the black paint (veneer?) on the headstock is sloppy. Inside the cavity the wood is rough & full of untrimmed shavings that have been painted over. I'd say it's as dependable as any solid-body out there and the light weight means your spine won't age before its time.

Been playing 45 years, since I was 10. I'm currently trying to pare down my guitar collection to a few bare essentials & I consider this Blueshawk one of them. Despite my habit of modifying everything I get my hands on, from cars to barbecue grills, the Blueshawk is a fine guitar just as it comes from the factory. It's different, innovative, and it's a blast for tinkerers. And for a Gibson, the current used prices are surprisingly reasonable. My other main guitars include a '52 RI Tele with a Bill Lawrence 280/290TL set; a Frankenstrat with splittable Hot Rails, 2 Carvin AE185s, a Rickenbacker, Guild, Taylor, Tacoma, PRS, etc. Amps are mainly old & new Fenders.

The Blueshawk takes everything I like about a Gibson and fixes everything I don't. 25 1/2" scale for more room on the fretboard and more tone and sustain than a 24 3/4" scale (the same reason a grand piano sounds better than an upright). Replace the Gibson humbuckers (which I find are imbalanced and harsh) with Blues P90s wired up to a dummy coil to keep them quiet like humbuckers without altering their tone. Varitone switch (5-position notch filter), trimmed down Les Paul style semi hollow body with f-holes, 22-fret set neck with rosewood fretboard, diamond inlays, through-body hardtail, and creme binding around the body. 2 small complaints, the tuners seem a little sub-par, they work fine now but they'll probably need replacement in 18 months or so. Also, the push/pull pot to activate the Varitone will be more user friendly on the fly once I've replaced it with a quicker push/push pot, makes a big difference.

P90's are a nice halfway-point between single coils and humbuckers. The Blues P90's add punch, grit, and output to the P90 but still sound distinctly different from humbuckers. Perfect match with a high quality tube amp, the tone is complex and organic. The Varitone switch opens up a lot of possibilities, Rickenbacker tones, Telecaster tones, the Brown sound, smoky archtop tones, even a lo-fi "guitar through a telephone" sound. The semi hollow body adds resonance and overtones. Very flexible, without sounding sterile and artificial like modern high-tech guitars (Line6 Variax, Parker Fly, etc). Great tones for blues and rock, perfect for jazz, even sounds killer for the hybrid jazz/deathmetal/fusion stuff that I play.
A word to the wise, these pickups are extremely honest and responsive, if you play sloppy, you'll sound very sloppy. They don't do all of the work for you like EMG's, and they won't lie to cover for you.

Perfect action and intonation (was setup by the music store prior to purchase). Love the fretwire. The soft V neck profile takes some getting used to, but plays great once that small adjustment is made.
The type of finish used is thin and porous, great for the guitar's tone, but smudges and scratches easily. Also gets a little sticky on the back of the neck, not a problem if it's kept clean. There are minor finish flaws where the neck meets the body and where the fretboard is glued to the neck.

This guitar is made to hold up to playing and gigging, but clearly not built to withstand a beating. A hardshell case is a must with this guitar (I gladly paid $150 extra for one). After less than 6 months of careful but frequent use, is shows some minor scratches, a couple small dents and a little tarnish on the hardware. It will not look new forever, but that's okay with me, I like a guitar with some added mojo.
More importantly, it still stays in tune, the neck and intonation haven't required adjustment, all electronics still perfectly functional.

I go through my local dealer, they kick ass. I've dealt with Gibson on different occasions, they kick ass too. No worries though, I typically do my own work, repairs, and maintenance. Never had to bug anyone else for anything too serious.

I've played 15 years or so, owned maybe 30 guitars, a dozen or more amps. I've owned and played instruments of much higher quality. Most of which eventually lost my interest. This guitar has a very inspiring quality, it's an instrument with some serious friggin' mojo, it truely continues to challenge me and sustain my interest. I'd like to buy another, just to own two, but they don't make them anymore so we'll have to see what happens to their used resale value. This is currently my favorite guitar I own, and in my opinion it blows away any other Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, or PRS, all of which being brands I've shopped excessively.

you know i am sure !!!!!!!!!!!!!

My style is blues and then at times I play real loud Blues !!i play my Hawk through a Fender Super Sonic 112 .I have really found a great sound with this combo !Alot of people on here have really knocked that amp but I think that with the Celestion 30 vintage and this guitar I have found Bliss.The guitar itself is really mild on the noise .It does have some buzz and some hum (not as bad as my strat of course but for sure not a "Paul")just a great great sound i mean there are so so many options with the Hawk .You can have a strat sound and a Tele cluck !and then pull the pull pot and its crunch time !Love it .the only thing that is of concern is it is a really fragile guitar (not a Fender ...thats for sure !!)i would get some strap locks on this thing ASAP!!if it falls on the neck (which is the heaviest part .its all over and ..Oh yea they do not make these anymore!!I do wish that it had a clear pick guard or maybe a small cream "paul" style guard ..but those are me being some kind of guitar builder and i am not .I think that this guitar has some how slipped through the cracks and it is just the best .I can not put it down !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

I put strap locks on it ASAP!!i had to adjust the pickups and the pickup mounting screw that the pickup fits into came loose from the body (i just glued them back in place ).The neck was bowed out, do to sitting at zoo music in ft worth on a stand high out of reach ..for six years ..(guy bought it new ,brought it right back and got a refund and it sat till I saw it !!It was covered in dust and the vari-tone switch was really loose (tightened ).Had it set up neck went back to new (in- toned) and its been "Christine "ever since ..I really like the bridge it has string guides for the string to ride in .(less string break )Also string through Body with the Gibson headstock angle = sustain sustain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Blues P-90s really high output and dummy coil !

this is where i have to give it some low marks ..Like I said it is a fragile little guitar .It came with a really padded guitar gig bag (way better than what fender would ever offer ..but on the other hand brand new this guitar is 1249.99 msrp ..Gibson for ya I guess)so I bought the old hard case with the PIMP shag purple fur on the inside and the Pimp cover that goes over it ...I dig it ,all goes well ..I mean its a Gibson right ..I would for sure consider this option.It looks like after some years it will have some serious pick marks and more than likley a ware spot where i strum ..Finish is good and it has a maple top .I keep her clean with dunlop polish and no probs ..You just have to take care of it ...

Gibson was great i emailed them and they emailed me back in a hour ..!!!!!!!!!!!!!

been playing dem blues six years ..i have a 2006 Fender highway nitro finish one strat (i will be the first to write a review and that monster too !!its Kick ass as well )If this thing was lost or stolen I would nt even belive it that it happened !!!I would buy another one asap ..i wanted to but another one (Black) but i dont think that it would be the same as the RED one that I have now ..I dont want to be dissapointed ,,ya know I think that this guitar is the best guitar that i have ever owned ever i play this thing all the time !!!!there is just something about it !!!maybe the pretty gold writing that says blueshawk (kidding )..I dont know !!I just really think that if you love the blues and like high output this is it for sure !!!!!

My Blueshawk has been customised at some time before I bought it, either that or it's a Limited Edition. It's called a BluesHawk Phantom. From the serial number it was made in '97. It's ebony black with all the usual Blueshawk details. The customised parts are : modified truss rod cover - engraved with "Blues Hawk Phantom" ; Mother -of-Pearl/Abalone scratchplate; Gold knobs and fittings. It also came in a fitted Gibson solid case. Otherwise it's as others have described - 22 frets, "Fender" scale length, Diamond inlays as fret markers, 2 x Blues 90 pickups, single volume and tone controls, Varitone switch, thru-body stringing, solid tailpiece, chambered with two f-holes, etc, etc. I've found more info about these guitars from the www.blueshawk.info website. The varitone swtich gives this guitar something like 18 tone options - which I find to be too many for most purposes!

I play mainly blues, hence why I bought this guitar. I bought it without having played it (ebay purchase), confident that I'd like it a lot. I've found this to be a very bright sounding guitar, although the tone control is very effective in allowing me to roll-off some of the brightness.

Can't say how well it was set up from the factory as I bought it 2nd hand. However with a few minor tweaks I've got it just the way I like it.

The gold on the vol/tone knobs is wearing off, but that's not a problem. Whoever made the scratchplate for it made a very good job of ensuring it would fit neatly and follow the shape of the body.

I'm not overly keen on the "Blueshawk" script on the guitar body, but I'm not going to try and take it off.

An annoying feature is that the pickups are mounted into the body on some kind of springs. When I play, I find that my right hand position is on top of the bridge pickup so I sometimes find that I'm pushing the pickup into the guitar. This isn't good so one mark off for this aspect.

I've only used it for a couple times live so can't comment on how it would stand up to a load of gigs, however it does seem well put together and the Gibson case will take whatever knocks come it way so it shold be sturdy enough. I've replaced the strap buttons with Schaller straplocks - nothing particularly wrong with the Gibson fit ones, just that I like to have locks.

I don't gig without a backup guitar, but I wouldn't expect to need to use it. This is a comfortable and versatile guitar - so it should cover a whole night of playing easily.

The hardware is simple, nothing much to go wrong here.

Not contacted Gibson, although I should contact them soon to find out about the "Phantom" model.

I've been playing for years and years. This is an excellent electric guitar which has a huge range of tones - thanks to the varitone switch. Having praised it, the varitone would be far more useful if it had some kind of marker (or collar) or some way of marking out which setting was which. I find it's not easy to remember which position gave which sound (OK so my ears can tell me, but it's nice to know what to expect). I might well add the marker/collar from a Lucille for this reason. High marks again in this section, as it does pretty much all that I ask of it.

If anyone knows anything more about the history of this model - The Phantom - I'd love to hear from you.

Just played my neighbors, and I'm going to save up for this guy. 22 frets, Maple Top, Poplar Back, Semi Hollow. The unique Vari-tone control is great. P-90's with dummy coils. This guitar is great. I would buy it just for the P-90's and the varitone. You can get any sound except for that real heavy metal sound out of this thanks to the varitone. Frets could be a bit bigger, but thats a personal preference. Everything you need to play the blues and jazz.

I play the blues and blues/rock. This guitar, paired up with the right amplipier can make any sound you want, except for that tinny heavy metal sound. My favorite tone is with the varitone set for its bassiest setting, playing through the neck pickup. Usually I play through the bridge pickup with my presence set all treble, but the warm buttery sound pushed through my Epiphone valve Special is great! I'm sure it could work as a decent jazz guitar, but as the name implies, this thing was designed for the blues. For that warm, smooth as butter overdrive, this guitar does a great job.

Playing this through both my Epiphone Valve Special, and my neighbors Fender, I must say this thing is sweet. And it can adjust to play pretty much anything. My neighbor plays the blues as well, but he's into the clean stuff. Personally I'm into smooth and buttery overdrive. No matter what you play you will love this guitar. The one question I have is for Gibson, and that is WHY DID YOU STOP MAKING THIS GUITAR...

I got this one on eBay. I was intigued by the morping of the Gibson/Fender factors in this guitar. Fender scale and hardtail style bridge. Gibson P90's (with a dummy p'up for humbucking) and odd Tele/LP dual"f" hole body. Poplar with a maple top? What's up with that? Also, one volume, one tone and the (in?)famous "Varitone." It has all the "features" I was interested in.

Buying this "blind" I didn't know quite what to expect. What I got was a fun guitar with tremendous tonal range. The fundemental sound is of a very woody and acoustic electric guitar. Think 335 with a bit more of an acoustic guitar attack/sustain profile. I love it. I'm mostly into blues and what's now known as classic rock and it suits these most of these styles/feels well. Know however, this little axe has its own sound - it doesn't sound like a Tele or an LP but like something in between. This guitar is really light which I think contributes to the acoustic guitar sounding qualities - attack and decay characteristics. The only 10 in this category belongs to a friend's 1958 Stratocaster - IMHO the best guitar I've ever heard or played.

This guitar is just fine. 9 out of 10. With some minor tweezing it could be better.

100% durable given the typical Gibson neck/headstock issues (don't frickin' drop this guitar on its head!).

Wouldn't know. That's why I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and giving them a 10.

I've been playing guitar since 1961 and have owned (and played) many of the "special" guitars ( '62 Strat, '61 SG/Les Paul, '67 335, '78 USA made Dean "Z"). Lately I've been building my own Fender "vintage" style Strats and Teles from parts and having a great time; the only abberation was a Tele with P90s. For me, the "Night Hawk" is a very cool guitar to be playing. I had forgotten how nice a very acoustic, woody sounding guitar with high output single coil pickups could be. I love it. In fact, it has inspiried my next project guitar - dual "f" hole Alder hollow body Tele w/TV Jones Filtertrons.

Mine was made in 1997.
It's black.
Pretty good shape..
Bought used over Ebay..
Pretty much the same features that everyone else has talked about on this thread.

I kind of got the yearning for that P90 sound after playing a Les Paul Special equipped with them. I own about 9 guitars but none with P90's. The Les Paul special I was looking at blew me away. Fortunately for me the seller wouldn't come off of his price, so I went out looking for other models with P90's. That's when I discovered the Blueshawk. What an outstanding variety of tones you get out of this thing. Tel-like and then with a twist of the varitone you sound like a 335. I have owned this axe for about 3 months and since I have bought it my ES175, Les Paul and all my other axes are collecting dust. Sounds so good. Running it through a Peavey Vintage with 6 10's for blues and a Roland Jazz Chorus for a really sweet jazz sound.

Bought the axe used and had to spend about 3 hours cleaning, setting intonation, adjusting action, etc.. After that it's just an awesome player. With the deep cut away you can absolutely play the WHOLE neck. Guitar just gleams and plays great. Haven't had any problems with the tuners.
The finish is somewhat disappointing. Used some Jim Dunlop fingerboard cleaner on the fretboard and everywhere this stuff touched the finish it became tacky so beware. This is definitely some sort of poly NOT nitro-cellulose finish. With Carnuba was it does shine up nicely and the Carnuba does protect the finish. The fret board markers could have been put in a little more professionally. Wood filler is visible if you look closely. For these reasons I'm giving it a 7 in this area overall. I does play great though..

Mine came with strap locks and I would think this would be a good investment. Not as sturdy as my Paul, but on the other hand I don't believe the headstock will break if it falls either due to it being so light-weight. You can play all night with this thing on a strap and never feel it. It's so light.
Seems to be exceptionally sturdy as well. Doesn't seem to be near as delicate as my ES175. I never gig without a backup.

Owned Gibson guitars for 40 years and have never, ever, had a problem with ANY that I have bought. NEW or USED.

I'm 52 at the time of this review and have been playing since I was 8. I own 9 other guitars, 6 amps, 2 PA's, GNX4, Guitar synths, etc. This little axe, (at the present time at least) gets played more than anything else I got.
If you're looking for that vintage P90 sound and don't want to spend a lot of dough this is the axe for you. As a bonus you get so many sounds out of this thing it's just incredible. This is definitely not a one trick pony guitar..

Made in Nashville, '95 & '97, I've got two! 22 frets, semi hollow body with very small cavities. 3 way P/U switch with a vari-tone switch(pull tone knob to put out of circuit) Single coils w/dummy coil on back. They call the pick-ups blues-90's, very nice sounding if you have a hot amp. Mahogany neck w/maple topped poplar body,and rosewood finger board. 25.5 in. scale makes for easy bending, I've got a cherry & an ebony both w/fixed bridges, extemeley sweet playing and very lightweight, sweet!!! Both have hardshell cases.

Sweet blues sound! suitable for rock, etc. Typical single coil type sound, which means you need a hot amp, but the vari-tone circuit boosts a variety of frequenceys for a killer lead tone, nice!! One of the best guitars I've ever played, I love these guitars!!!

I don't know? I bought both of them used on E-bay, I had to have both of them adjused by a guitar tech.,but other than that they are smokin'.

As with any Gibson w/mahogany neck they won't withstand a fall, but with proper care there is no problem. A very solid, sweet guitar, I can't say enough about the quality of these guitars.

Never talked with them, dunno?

35 years, on and off. I've got lots of guitars, and these are as good as it gets. I would kill for one of these!!

poplar body with maple top
maple neck
25 1/2 scale
rosewood fingerboard
22 medium frets
bigsby style vibrato system
two Blues 90 pickups
varitone switch
black
made in 1998

In my Band (60s Soul, 70s Funk, some Pop/Rock-Songs (let me entertain you by Robbie Williams for example) I play the Blueshawk mainly through a Fender Hot Rod Amp. I don't use extra distortion pedals or boosters, and normally I also use no other effects. So I can describe the pure sound of this guitar in combination with the amp.

OK, let's start: Although it has a poplar body and single coil pickups, it still sounds much more like a Gibson than like a fender. Compared to my Les Paul, it sounds a bit more thin, more fresh and some kind of ?airy? (due to the thinline character) (but some of my band mates cannot hear the difference!) . In my opinion this is a real advantage, because the les Paul can get a bit muddy (depending on the location where you play and where you place your amp) whereas the blueshawk stays clear all the time. Due to this, the hawk seems to be louder because I simple hear it better in Band situations (although the Paulas Humbuckers are hotter).
In general, all three pick up settings may can be described as a mixture of les paul and Gibson ES 355 with a little Fender attitude. In my opinion one of the best sounding guitars ever.

What I like nearly the most about it is the crunch sound. Although the Blues 90s pu's are often described as less rough compared to P 90s it reminds me to Pete Townshends SG (do you know the Who's Woodstock gig?) But again, there is a Semi-acoustic touch in it.

In general, the guitar can be used for many styles with the exception of metal and maybe country (but that's of course always a question of the personal taste).

I cannot say much about the Varitone switch - I never use it. When I bought the guitar I experimented some minutes with it but didn't like the sounds. So I never touched it again.

Many people mention the good strat-sound they can get from the Blueshawk. But I think that (despite it's tonal versatility) the BH has a own character and cannot imitate any other guitar very satisfying. If you want to buy one you have to consider this. But if you do, you will get a guitar that enables you to develop your own sound.

due to the scale length, the tension of the strings is higher than on other gibsons. But I love the feel of this. The cutaway is deeper than a les pul ones, and on the neck joint, the body is thinner so access to high frets is easier

Never had problems with it.

It looks and sounds fantastic and is really inspiring. If it was stolen I would want to get a new.

With 50+ reviews here, I don't think it's necessary to go into the features. Mine's a 1997 cherry-red job. Personally that's the color that sounds best ;>

Mine's all original, I haven't changed a thing and I've had it about a year. The varitone (which is basically a notch filter) is very cool, once you've played out with it for a few weeks you begin to understand how each setting sounds. I have to score it high in features for that, for the very usable vol and tone pots (as usual Gibson beats Fender in this category, even if it often fails elsewhere). Nice to have the dummy coil to bring hum way down, so throw in another point for that, another for the cool diamond inlays. Take away one for the tuners, which are not as bad as some folks claim (maybe I was lucky) but they are a little hard to tune.

Up another point for the Fender scale neck, which gives it more twang ...

The neck is very playable. Have to give this axe lots of cred for its light weight. I can play a solid 90 minutes without falling over, not so with any of my other gits (3 strats, 3 teles, 1 jazzmaster).

I play a lot of different styles but I use this guitar, strangely enough, for classic hard rock, eg, The Who, Stones, even Hendrix. For blues and pop I use a Tele. I think this guitar has an unbelievably good rock sound. To me it's like an SG with a bit more clarity.

It's pretty versatile and I can get by just using the Blueshawk on nights when I'm lazy to bring more than one axe. If I only brought one of my Teles I'd miss the crunch of the Blueshawk on songs like Shakin' All Over.

With the right setup it even mimics a strat pretty well. My favorite Varitone settings are bypass (no Varitone), notch 3 (dark and jazzy sound and notch 4 (strat/tele sound). I don't use the other settings much.

Love the feedback. It's not a semi-hollow, despite the F-holes, so I never get unwanted feedback, just lots of wonton feedback, when I need it.

Mine was pretty well made. I bought it used, but it arrived in mint condition, like the original owner never played it.

The finish is peeling bad on the upper bout so I guess the finish can be criticised. Otherwise the setup was great (maybe the first owner set it up, dunno). Pups are set at just the right level too. Neck is straight, action just right.

This guitar seems to play and sound best strung with 10s. On my teles and strats I use nothing but 11s but they just don't feel or sound right on the Blueshawk. It may also be that I'm able to get plenty of thick tone on this guitar even with 10s. I need 11s on the Fenders to get the juice I crave.

So far it's taken plenty of beating from me. It arrived nearly mint and within a month I had it looking like it was 10 years older than it is. Action and neck have stayed solid, not easy in the humid clime in which I live. Like all GIbsons, though, I wouldn't want to drop it as the angled headstock would mean an instant crack in the neck no doubt. Nothing beats a Fender for toughness but this is pretty tough for a Gibson. The fact that it's light means it's less likely to suffer severe damage if it falls off a guitar stand. When a Led Paul - excuse me, Les Paul - falls over the mass really packs a wallop.

NA

I've been playing 30+ years, gig three nights a week in a hard rock bar band. This guitar is great for classic rock and the thing I like most is that I can wear it all night long without getting tired. Or at least much less tired than with any other guitar I've played. In fact what first drew me to the Blueshawk was the light weight. I half expected not to like the tone but I love it. Likewise being used to Fenders I worried I wouldn't like the neck feel, but I suppose the Fender neck scale on this takes care of that. I'm really pleased with this guitar. If something happened to it I'd be at a loss. I'd get another one but would worry it didn't have the mojo this one seems to have.

For value I don't think there's anything else that comes close. $500 for a USA Gibson that looks good, plays good and sounds good? Fab value.

USA made, Late 90's. 22 frets. Solid-body with f holes, etc, etc

Overall fairly happy with the features. Although some people change the tuners, I think they are OK. The overall quality of the build is fairly high. One think that strikes you about this guitar is how light it is - mainly down to the choice of wood used and the construction.
The guitar is very easy to play, and is one of my favourites.
The varitone gives lots of options for different sounds.

The sound is what really sets this guitar apart. Gibson attempted to mimic Fender sounds with the Blueshawk. I have had the guitar for a number of years now and have struggled to get a good sound out it. The main problem is that it is far too bright. The worst position for this is with the bridge and neck pickups combined. In this position the guitar becomes very jangly and almost unusable. Even with just the neck pickup the sound is still exceedingly bright. After our last practise I got fed up with the sound and did some scouting around the Internet for some advice on this and came up with a solution. I fitted a small wire jumper lead across the capacitor/resistor unit on the volume pot (very easy soldering job).
Now the sound is much better. Much warmer without the annoying bright highs of before. Also the combined neck/bridge position now gives a nice mellow, more Gibson-like sound (more 335 ish). I'm very pleased with this mod, and would recommed it to other owners.
You still get the versatility of the variotone switch to alter the tone, which still allows you to switch from a Gibson-like to more Fender-like tones as needed.
Giving this a low score because of these original problems.

From new the guitar was setup OK.
I have adjusted the intonation. The action is on the high-side but this suits me.

Very light construction so won't take too many knocks.
Overall good quality parts used.
Would always take a back-up for a gig.

Never dealt with the company. There is a good unofficial Blueshawk site on the web.

Been playing guitar for 30 years. Own a Gretscg Synchromatic, Squier Silver Series Stat, Dearmond M77T,and a Fender Nashville Tele. Use a Marshall JTM30 with very few pedals.
If it was lost or stolen I'm not sure I would get another. I think a Fender Tele does a much better job for the type of sounds you get from this guitar.

The Blueshawk is full of features. Really has a lot of selectable tones. Mine is black (terrible finish, as others have noted, peeled in two places and cracked by one of the pots ((not just the finish, all the way through the wood!))) with pearly tuners that I bent one of terribly, so will replace with grover rotomatics. I want to change the nut, to either brass or graphite, but I keep reading it uses a Fender sized nut, but the mearsurements don't match, so I dunno. I love the Blues 90 pu's. they really regulate. If you're trying to make loud rock, which I am, you'll need some extra gain to overcome their quietness, but once you've got the proper amounts of OD at your disposal, these pu's will sing through it with a variety of interesting tones. Semi hollowbody, which also helps with the feeback and sustain...The bridge is fender-like, individual saddle heights, ho hum...nice diamond shaped inlays on the INCREDIBLE NECK THAT I LOVE! That's what I have to say about that. I bought it in '98 used, in perfect condition for $440. I was like "Yes!!!" Then I kinda fucked it up over the years, but its not all my fault. Gibson's quality control is jack crap. Really, no matter whether its 40 years old or straight from the factory, you've GOT to have a guitar tech that you know and trust, and just bring the guitar in to get set up after you get it. You'll be disappointed otherwise unless you're incredibly lucky. A Gibson just needs to be set up. Once it is, then evaluate it.

Well I just described the sound some, but I'll say a little more. It has adjustable push/pull tone pot for boost, 3 way pu selector and varitone control - which is fun to play with, different sounds from it appeal to different people. There's only two that I use, really. It can you all kinds of sounds, its a great, great guitar for leads, and a very adaptable guitar for rhythm as well. I've got 3 guitars, and one of them is technically better than the Blueshawk, its an SG, and one is worse, Epi Les Paul Jr., but I love this guitar, Its totally underrated, despite its flaws. It sounds so good, and its really fun to play. Can't say enough about its neck, somehow really narrow and yet very sturdy at the same time. I play psych / garage / pop and rock ish stuff with some atonal shit thrown in here and there. Guitar is overall bright, adjustable, adaptalbe. Well thought out sound system.

Yeah, again, you should have a guitar tech that you know and trust, have all new Gibsons checked out just to set the intonation properly - it most likely won't come correct from the factory. The finish, again, blows. Terrible. I'm fixing its crack though, and where it was just peeling, I used some black nail polish and laquer and that put an end to it. I'm replacing the tuners with solid gold looking grove rotomatics, I'm replacing the cream colored pu covers with black, and I'm going to change the nut once I find someone selling them in the proper dimensions. I will be quite happy to leave the rest of it alone, though.

Well, I'm giving it a hard time for the finish and cracking in the wood, but come on, that shit sucks. I could have stored the guitar in an airtight container or some shit, but I wasn't that bad to it! Lots of switch off breaking, but other than that its been pretty solid. The most important stuff has remained operative.

??? not under warranty when purchased.

I've played for 16 years. Almost half of that now, since I've owned it, the hawk has been the primary guitar I've played. Its cool and weird, but its also a workhorse, in a certain way. If it were lost, I'd investigate a nighthawk 12 string, maybe. I doubt another Blueshawk would hold the immediate sentimental value for me that this guitar does. I wish maybe that there was some kinda switch on the guitar to cancel the dummy coil hum cancelling thing for temporary boosts while both pus are selected. That's kind of a stretch though. Its pretty f-in' good overall.

This is a follow up to my last Blueshawk review. I have since changed the tuners to gold grover rotomatics. The grovers fit perfectly and do a marvelous job compared to the stock Gibson tuners. I believe the stock ones are made in Korea and leave a lot to be desired. The Little Lucille comes with Grover Rotomatics..what does that tell you?In addition, I had the frets leveled and changed out the plastic nut to a slipstone. Intonation is dead on, tone, Maestro trem (Bigsby B-5) works better, and guitar stays intune. I am rating the guitar a 10 now because it all works much better.

Sound is wonderful. The "Blues"p-90's with dummy coil works just fine.
I am getter a very please clean tone with my Fender DR, Vibrolux, Super Reverb, and Twin Reverb. In addition, the fulltone O.C.D., and FDII sound wonderful, with a fulltone fatboost. I am really enjoying the P-90 sounds in addition to to strats with Bill Lawrence L-280-290's and my LP's with Fralins.

I will give the guitar a 10 in the playing condition its in now. I am using Curt Mangan strings, 9-42..they feel and sound absolutley great and last a long time! The BH action now lower and the neck taper is comfortable. Keep in mind than my #1 guitar is my 74 strat with tall frets and a smaller custom neck taper that fits my hand perfectly. I was a bit skeptical about the BH neck. Now it works just fine for me.

I would expect the BH to last several lifetimes!

The gibson folks have been very helpful.

I really enjoy the light weightness and the body fit of the BH. I continue to receive many compliments on the overall look in Chicago Blue with gold trim. I am really enjoying the feature set: No hum P-90's; chambered body with f holes, varitone, and Maestro Trem. I would highly recommend the Blues Hawk providing you have patience and desire to make a few upgrades: A hardshell case...you can get the Little Lucille case..from sweetwater.com, around $135.00, a new set of gold grover rotomatics, around $50.00, a better nut, your choice,
change out the caps to your choice of mallory or sprague or SOZO. The Blues Hawk clearly has its own voice and its a sweet one! The Blues Hawk is one of those guitars that is affordable and sounds wonderful.

What year was it made? 1999 Where was is made? USA
How many frets? 22
Solid-Top? Laminated top? solid maple top
Which controls are given (volume, tone, 3-way selector, Varitone with on-off push-pull
Pickup configuration? 2 Gibson Blues P-90's
Make and model of pickups? Gibson
Active or Passive electronics? Passive
Body: Poplar; neck woods: Mahogany
The main feature set attraction of the Blues Hawk to me
Finish: Chicago Blue
Body style: single cutaway, thinline with body contour cut, F holes with chamber sides, maple block in the center
Bridge style: Gibson Tune-O-Matic with Gold Maestro version of Bigsby B-5
Tuners: Gibson Deluxe tulip style
Neck/Scale: Gibson "silght V", 25.5", medium jumbo frets, rosewood finger board.
Any included accessories: gig bag. I purchased a Gibson Little Lucille case for the Blues Hawk.
The main feature set which attracts me to the Blues Hawk are:
P-90s'(hum cancelling!),back body conture,very light weight poplar body, F holes, 2 chambered sides, solid maple block in the middle, bigsby style trem, 3 way crl type switch, and varitone.

How does it suit your music style: Yes it does. I play at least 2 nights a week. We play a huge varity of music: Rock, reggae, Blues, 70's and 80's dance stuff, etc. The BH has a large enough tonal palate to choose from.
What amps and effects are you using it with? I have a '73 Fender DR, 73 Vibrolux; 71 Super Reverb; and 72 Fender Twin. All my amps have been totaly restored both electrically and cosmeticaly to 64 specs as well replacing all the coupling caps with SOZO caps. Most venues, I use the Fender Deluxe reverb. In addition, the amp now has all SOZO coupling caps, as well as a Weber 12F150 with a weber beam blocker.
For effects, my pedal board consists of Boss TU-2 tuner>Fulltone Clyde Wha>Fulltone FDII>Fulltone OCD>Fulltone Fat Boost> Barber Tone Press Compressor>Fulltone Supatrem> Fulltone Choralflange>H&K rotosphere>H&K replex. I use Bill Lawrence Cable from my AKG guitar bug, through all the effect pedals and back to the amp.
Is it noisy? The guitar has a slight ground problem and is eliminated wht my hands are on the strings.
Rich/Full sound? Most definitly! Bright sound? I would say a very clear and distinct sound in all positions
What kind of sounds can the guitar make? 18 How much variety? 18
Likes and dislikes? So far just likes.
I am planning on rewiring the hawk with a 5 way switch and keep the varitone. Gibson uses a 300k ohm linear volum pot. I am planning on changing it to an audio taper pot possibly using a 500k ohm. I also replaced the cheap ceramic 500pf tone bleed cap with a 100pf Silver mica cap..much better!

How well was the guitar set-up at the factory? I purchased the guitar used. I changed the strings to a set of Curt Mangan 9-42, lowered the bridge height, intonated the bridge using a peterson strobe tuner, and re-adjusted the pickups. This is where the fun began.
As pointed out by several other reviews, the pickup installation leaves a bit to be desired. I needed to raise the bridge pickup pretty high to match the neck pickup output. The pickups are secured into the body via two screws in the center of the pickup cover, with two springs, then screwd in the the body hardware. The pickups mounting becomes weak when you raise them because you lose spring tension. So, at first, I removed the bridge pickup, then placed a few styrofoam peanuts in the pickup cavity. That works ok, however, if you press on the side of the pickup cover you can hear the sound of styrofoam, lovely. Latter, at the gig after one set, I noticed the bridge pickup was now hitting the strings. When I got home I check out the pickup and sure enough the knurled nut had come out of the body. I followed one of the reviewer's advice and glued the nut back into the body using 3M Super strength adhesive. Worked perfectly! I then replaced those cheap, garbage, no tension springs with surgical tubing, same stuff used on strats and teles. Voila! Now the pickups are secured perfectly as well as height and side to side string volume balance adjustment. In addition, the tubing helps eliminate feedback on the bridge pickup.
Did the guitar contain any flaws? Again, I bought the Hawk used and one fret needs work.
The tuners so far are doing ok, still too early to tell. I will most likely replace with either Schaller or Grovers. Just depends on which will be the best O.E. fit.
The finish is a knockput. I received many complements. The Blues Hawk in the Chicago Blue finish with the Gold trem is very classy.

Will this guitar withstand live playing? Yes it will
Does the hardware seem like it will last? Yes,
Is the finish good enough to last, or does it seem thin and easy to wear off with lots of playing? So far so good, way too early to tell.
Are the strap buttons solid? I am not having any problems here.
Can you depend on it?Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
I always have backup guitars on stage. Stuff always happens!

Gibson customer support has always been very good for me. I haven't purchased a new gibson in many years so I haven't played the warranty game with Gibson.

How long have you been playing? 41 years
What other gear do you own? 74 Strat with Bill Lawrence L-280-290; 76 Strat with Bill Lawrence L-280-290 ; 52 Tele RIwith Bill Lawrence T280-T290; 65 Jazzmaster; 75 LP standard with Fralins; 68 ES-345; 89 LP Standard with Fralins; Ric 350V63 with ric buckers; ric 660-12.
Is there something you wish you had asked before buying this guitar? No, the reviews at HC have been very helpful and I thank each and everyone for their input!
If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else? If I could find another I would replace the Blues Hawk with another Blues Hawk.

What do you love about it? The Fit; size; weight, whole feature set. What do you hate? Nothing about the Blues Hawk.

Did you compare it to other guitars? Yes, the NightHawk.
Why did you choose this one? P-90's, F holes, varitone, Bigsby trem
Anything you wish it had? A slightly smaller neck taper.
Anything else you'd like to share? I would to see a full Les Paul size body with Blues Hawk feature set from Gibson. The Blues Hawk is an incredible value. If you can find one for a reasonable $ amount..compared to whats out there at todays prices..I think the Hawk will increase in value in a very short period of time as well. Get one!

1997 Blueshawk. Two P-90's, Varitone with bypass. Black finish with F holes. Standard Gibson Kluson Keystone tuners. Everyone else has described the rest.

I really like the sound of the Varitone. I play it through a Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb and a Traynor YCV40WR. It sounds good through both amps. I like the small light body since I am an older musician. The P-90's are dead quiet. I bought it used and it had a loose ground. A trip to the local tech took care of the wiring.

Since mine was used it was well worn. It has some buckle rash on the back, but the finish is all still in tact. Nothing goes through the clear coat. The fit and finish are top notch. There is no flaking of the finish around the neck joint like on other Gibsons I've had before. The neck is smooth and straight. Very comfortable to play.

I've only had the guitar for a month, but It seems well built and I would feel confident to gig with it without a backup. I installed Schaler strap locks for confidence. Since my tech adjusted it and fixed the loose ground it is a fine player. It's already held up for 8 years without the finish fading or being beat up too bad. No reason to think it won't last.

I don't know, but Gibson did answer my emails when asking a couple of questions about the guitar.

I would say this guitar is very versatile. It's not for everyone because of the size and body shape. Seems like people either love them or hate them. I fall in the first category. I'm thinking of looking for a second one in a different color. The Varitone was the clincher for me. I just like the variety of sound you can get.

This is a 1997 USA Blueshawk with standard Gibson spec for the era and usual P90 Blues P/Us. Cherry Red - I think I would have preferred the black but hey that doesn't make it play any better.
The very first BH I saw was in a shop near where I live here in the UK but it had jumbo frets and my style of playing is more Eagles, Doobies, Mike and the Mechanics and always the STONES so that axe was really not what I needed.
The case is original perfect fit. 10 out of 10 for that!
I bought this one on e-bay from Ohio and first thing I did was to send it to my local fixerman to get it sorted

I have a Gibson Epihone Nighthawk built in Nashville. I owned a USA Strat but the kneck was kind of like a camel and even though I got it fixed it was too much country sound and that is not really me so that was sold. I have a Hamer also that doesn't get played too much. I liked the sound of the Nighthawk so much that I thought the Blueshawk had to be better especially with the variator that the Nighthawk just doesn't have but it doesn't quite do what I had in mind especially since the nighthawk sound is better. I fitted a vintage Gibson P/U in the neck position of the nighthawk and it's got this amazing sound but the Blueshawk is not as good

When the axe arrived in this beautifully crafted case with it's own red negligee covering the whole body I thought this it - a Gibby! Out of the case I was really disappointed. The action sucks. Far too high. Intonation was fine and tuners not so bad - it held tuning but the frets!! They could rip your hands to shreds at 10 paces. The finish on my so called cheap Epiphone with white binding is so much better. What happened Gibson. Even my guitar fixerman said that if the two guitars were not "named" he would put the Epiphone label on the blueshawk. The finish on the NH is also so much better

I haved gigged the nighthawk for 2 years and see no reason why the blueshawk won't stand the same test

No comment - no contact

I have been playing 30 years and owned a lot of guitars. Some absolutely dreadful that are selling now for stupid mega high prices in the "well thought of" shops. I wouldn't give one away.
I own a tele JD that I use for Stones numbers mainly and a Hamer that doesn't get much airing. I play the nighthawk and will now with the blueshawk through a Johnson 150 amp. On merit the Blueshawk is good. It's a pity that Gibson didn't give it the finish and proud to be Gibson badge that L/Ps have and in most areas the BH can hack it. Pity the frets finish are not as good

Late 90's, red, it's pretty good looking. That varitone is the real deal. Construction and features are pretty much well known, nothing new from other comments made here.

Some guys below say it's a good "rhythm" guitar, or for "Blues" or
it's not a "do everything" axe, some other such silliness... I say BULL!!! GET REAL!!! and then a new amp. What are they playng through,
a Pignose?

Let's see, didn't Leslie West (From Mountain) use P-90's ? Yes.
Didn't Tom Scholz (from Boston) use a 60's Paul with P90's? Yep again! Do you call THAT blues, or strictly rhythm? Get serious. This generation of P-90's do not hum like the old ones do, and give most of the same range as the original ones, with a bit less volume.

This guitar sounds GREAT without the Varitone. Crank it up, and it wails. Go to the varitone, and smooth it all out, or plug it into a higher end pedal and you're in for a surprise or three!

I play mostly original music, but dabble in Queen, Boston, Eagles and other 70's band music. I've not had a situation where I cannot get what I want out of the "Hawk" when I want it.

I like powerful clean amps that can be used with a decent pedal without a bunch of noise being added in the mix from a dirty amp.

If I had only ONE guitar it would be this one, no bragging rights of an expensive guitar with the "hawk" but you won't suffer at all with a "Hawk" where it counts. It's a good thing my Wife doesn't read this though.

Action is good, the finish SUCKS. It has peeled in two locations on the front while in my posession. It doesn't bum me out though... I play it, not sleep with it :-)

I've never known a Gibson that wouldn't outlive the owner with proper care, and a re-fret every once in a while. IMO, they (Gibsons) get better with age. Even if they look ratty, they generally sound great.

I'm not crazy about the new "floating" pickup mounts. I much prefer the
40's and 50's solid screw tight to the body mount, but on the hawk I
keep them pretty low to avoid problems caused by the mounting scheme.

Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, and ALL of them are pretty crappy here. I'm used to it, I expect it (lack of service) and don't need their "support".

Few guitars I've owned stand shoulder to shoulder to the "Hawk"

What can you get for under a thou that's decent? An American Strat, Epiphones, and that about does it. EVERYONE has them, along with boated expensive PRS, Gibson Les Pauls, and others. You want unique? This is it. You want sound, this is it.

You want to spend a bunch more on a semi-solid with varitone? An ES-345 will set you back four times what a Hawk costs, a Lucille three
times the cost and a 355? don't get me started! All this without the
real dollar "value" being there in the equation because the Hawk is not inferior in any way.

Hey, you want HB's??? Get TWO Hawks, and have Humbuckers installed, on one and still have well over 1k in the bank from not buying a higher end Gibson.

Tonight I started looking for another Hawk to do just that with!

Anyway, I have a couple of Fender strats, a Tele, a 70's era Les Paul
and others that drift in and out of the house, but the Hawk spends
more time plugged in than the rest put together.

I bought 2 new BLueshawks in 96' (red and black)for $519.00 each. I played both of them and there were minor tonal differences. The 2 (plus 1 in the back) Blues 90 single coil pick-ups have a great tone through every tube amp I've tried, regardless of manufacture. The through-the-body string path is much prefered over the later model with a tune-o-matic bride. The weight is ideal for long gigs. The red BH had pick-up mounting problems.. the knurled nut pushed into a surface mounted wood plate in the cavity is pretty cheesy, but easily repaired. The chicken-head varitone reaches a wide range of tones. Pulling the tone knob activates the back mounted coil facing the back of the guitar, used for hum cancelling and bypassing the varitone. The wiring on the red BH proved to be imperfect.. quite a dissapointment for an American made Gibson. The pu selector was squirrely. The volume control is not linear as it goes from 0-10 at around 55-60% rotation. The "coffin case" is nice.

My style tends toward all types of blues based music.. delta, Texas, Chicago, Jump, Swing, R&B, funk. This guitar serves well for all. I use a Fender Bassman 20 with an Ibanez Tube Screamer and an Ibanez Delay, a Mesa/Boogie Subway Blues with a Boss Blues Driver or a 68' Fender Super Reverb with all pedals in series. I can achieve most any sound with these arrangements. I prefer the Bassman arrangement! The guitars are noisy but have very sweet tone going from bright to mid-rangey down to deep, fat tones. On the occasion when I play 60's/70's rock, this guitar covers all the sounds.

The factory set-up was okay. The pick-ups were not well mounted on the red BH but the action was good on both guitars. The black BH has none of the problems of the red one. It has been a great guitar.

I use both BHs at gigs, as I tend to break strings. Once the pick-up issue is handled the guitar feels reliable. I've both since '96 and have never had any need for major repair.

I've been playing guitar since '67. I own a '92 American Standard Strat, a De Armond Starfire, a Single cutaway solid Godin with 2 Seymour Duncan P-90s, a cheap Dan Electro hollow body w/ 1 single coil that has amazing tone amplified or not, a Jonny Reb '69 Tele Thin-Line clone (great tone and action), an Ampeg R12 Revrb-o-Rocket, 68' Super Reverb, Mesa/Boggie Subway Blues w/ 1-12 extention cab, Bassman 20. Hollow and semi-hollow with tubes are my preference. I just want a well made 72' Tele Thin-Line and my collection will be complete.

I bought a Blueshawk off eBay after playing one several years ago when I was more into playing blues. I hadn't tried one since then. This one came pretty well set up with all stock hardware, in a nice hardshell case with no noticeable flaws in the trans cherry finish.

There were lots of sound(s) available but none of them suited my style, so it went back on eBay and I lost about $40 on the whole deal. The sounds were too hot and bright for my purposes (I'm playing lead for a progressive folk singer/songwriter).

I noticed an audible hum sometimes when I wasn't playing, unless I rested my hand on the strings; I guess it had a grounding problem with some circuits. Also there was sometimes an audible click when I moved the pickup selector switch.

The set up was okay but not stellar. The finish was good and the guitar is really quite pretty; one of it's stronger points IMHO. It played like a gibson, but the neck felt like it could use some attention, maybe a little smoothing on the frets.

Didn't have it long enough to say, but it seemed pretty solid.

Don't know

If you're a blues player and like the P-90 sound, consider this guitar. I would not recommend it for other styles. I've been playing 32 years, have owned about 20 guitars. Still haven't found the "perfect beast" but the quest continues to be interesting!

This is a follow-up on a previous review. Had it for 2.5 years now, and New Gear Syndrome has worn off.

My setup has changed a lot since my first review. Gone is the rack system, and I've gone to a BadCat Black Cat 30R combo, and a Rt.66 pedal for compression. I've been playing for 8+ years, mostly jazz and rock, and own a few other Gibsons, etc.

First off, while the pickups handle smooth fuzz well, they CANNOT take high-gain. I found this out after the previous review, and even though I got a Gibson Nighthawk to do the lead work, the high-gain rack had to scoot--couldn't get a good lead tone w. the Blueshawk with a high-gain system.

That said, this has an amazing tone, most of all with the Varitone bypassed...middle position is very 3D and jangly when clean or w. light crunch. Can get a great "vintage" jazz tone out of the neck pickup, and the bridge...well...it's got some twang, so it can do anything requiring twang.

It's not a DO EVERYTHING guitar, sonically, but it's THE BEST rhythm guitar I've come across to date, and I have a lot of guitars.

With a medium-gain amp, I get smooth blues w. some bite and smolder. Rock is a cinch, but this guitar seems to be made for rhythms from pop-thru-Eagles in middle position, and thick old-school jazz in neck.

Finish on mine was perfect.

Held up thru 2+ years of abuse and gigging. It's retiring to the studio & home now, as I'm using Fender Tornados w. Fender '72-RI Humbuckers in the neck position for live work.

This is a followup to an earlier review. I finally got around to replacing the stock "Blues 90" pickups with Dimarzios - a Virtual P90 neck, and a DLX90 bridge. I also replaced the original tone cap with a foil-in-oil designer cap (it DOES make a difference!), and removed the treble bypass and notch filter circuits (the Varitone remained). If you want to mess with the electronics, check out the schematics at www.blueshawk.info before proceeding... this ain't no Telecaster!

Other than that, the guitar has the usual stock features - great wood, great neck, crappy tuners.

Before i put in the Dimarzios, the Blueshawk was a really great-sounding guitar. With the Dimarzios, it turned into a *killer* guitar. If you think the stock Blueshawk sounds sweet but a bit nonaggressive, try the Dimarzios! The DLX90 bridge with a good tube amp gives me a flawless 1970s hard rock tone, and amazing blues as well - like a Tele bridge with real cajones. The neck pickup can do chunky rhythm or clean jazz tones. And now it's completely silent, which it never was with the stock electronics (but were pretty quiet).

The Blueshawk with the Dimarzio pickups is now the best-sounding guitar i've ever owned, and one of the better ones i've ever heard.

The Blueshawk sounds as good as any guitar Gibson makes today. But unlike other Gibsons, they're easy to find for under $500 used. The Dimarzio P90 humbuckers just take it to another level. Great neck, great sound, comfy feel... what more could i want out of a guitar?

Made in 1998 I guess. You know all about the dummy coil and the tone switch. Mine is blue. No case. -2 points

I play Jazz/Blues/Classic Rock/Gospel/thrash/Death metal/Pop/Rap/Country/Bluegrass/elevator/new-age/fusion/punk/grunge.
I use Fender and Marshall tube amps, too many to mention. No effects.
Guitar is very quiet. Tone seems somewhat muted. A lot of variety, but the sonic range is incoherently disproportionate to the subtle nuances of the dedicated tonal waveforms which seemingly blend in a fundamental unbalananced harmony creating uncharacteristic chaos therefore rendering the imbalances described therein as undesirable.

Action was high, tuner was bent, pickups fell off, rough plywood edges, 6-way tone control did not work. It took six months to get a new one from Gibson. Switch broke, wires were loose.

It broke the first time I used it. nuf said.

It took six months to get the new switch in. By then, the pickup switch had broken, and the neck came loose.

I've been playing 27 years. I own almost every guitar and amp that came out in the last 30 years. Gibson should be ashamed of themselves for putting their name on this. I wish I had prayed before buying this. I haven't played it in two years. I wish some one would steal it!

1997 model, Heritage cherry, varitone, F hole semi hollow, you know the drill. As far as I know Gibson doesn't have anything but US
made.

I bought it for two reasons, varitone, and P-90's... OK, OK, four reasons... It's also lighter than any other serious guitar
made (good for those days my back hurts) and nobody else has one.

I'm a sucker for different, but not so much so that I'd drive a
VW bug, or PT Cruiser. Seriously, I like the pre-58 Gibson sound
and cannot see plunking down $2000+ for a cheesy looking gold top
Gibson LP re-issue with soapbars. This one is as good in sound, FAR better in appearance and weight.

I was unsure of the bypass feature cause the varitone has the SAME
feature, but playing it showed me the light. Once I get the varitone
smoking with one sound, I can easily go to the bypass then back to
the previous setting without diddling with the varitone again. A REAL
nice feature if you use the varitone, not so if you don't.

Some players don't like the varitone, I do. I play an ES-345, and
an ES-137 custom, and all three varitone switches sound different,
this one may be the best of the bunch in varied sounds, perhaps
it's the pickups that make the sound envelope different.

I play "fusion" jazz/rock, and the P-90's surprisingly sound great.
I have a bunch of amps, but use a BOSS pedal to keep sound relatively
the same on all of them. Without the pedal, it's every bit what
I expect from P90's smooth with a bit less volume than a HB, but compared to mid 50-s P90's not NEARLY as loud, but then again not noisy like the original 50's pickups either. I know the difference.

I have a pair of pre 1958 soapbars on another guitar that I removed from an early pair of Les Paul Customs, and planned on putting them in the Blueshawk some day, and I just may do that, but these sound so good, I'll wait.

Most of my other guitars have Humbuckers, I've been itching for something with the "genuine" Gibson sound, this one fills the need.

Fit and finish are typical Gibson. Looks great minus some flaws from the previous owner(s).

The neck is a bit of a weird item, it feels a bit "Fenderish" Not
exactly my cup'o'tea, but I can play it. The guitar has those
chintzy vintage style horror tuners, but I will change them out if they won't hold tune.

The Gold is typical Gibson cheeze... why they don't go to quadruple
plated chrome, stainless or straight plastic is a mystery.

Honestly, this guitar can do little wrong as far as I'm concerned
I think it's a truly great guitar, someday I think others will
agree.

I don't expect any problems. It's pretty well used... the neck, and frets are still prefect.

I've dealt with Gibson in the past and can't fault them a bit.

I've been playing long enough to have owned and played "Vintage" guitars when they WEREN'T vintage :-)

Why were these guitars so "inexpensive" ??? You gotta have a really
hard head to not see the value on these. Compared to ANYTHING else on
the market with P-90's this is too good a deal to believe.

This is THE guitar I'd switch to after a long day of practice or
live playing. For those of you who like to go against the style
grain, this little guitar really cannot be beat.

2004 (I guess) Ebony Blueshawk. The standard features already listed. Guitar just came with a gig bag and a warranty card/owner's manual. Why Gibson would ship an $800 guitar in a bag is a mystery to me. Gibson thinks guitars under $1000 are "cheap guitars". To me, a $25 guitar is a "cheap guitar". To be fair, I suppose they were trying to keep the cost to the consumer down. It's a decent gigbag, well padded, but triangular in shape, and the guitar slides around. No tools or accessories included. Order the "Little Lucille" case from Musician's Friend. It is real nice. The guitar feels like to me it is a 3/4 guitar with a full-size neck. I love the fit!

You will want this guitar for the unbelievable range of tones it gives. It will be a long time before you tire of experimenting with the different settings. At first, they all seem trebly, but you can get a decent humbucker imitation also. I have tried it out on everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Marc Cohn, and the guitar handles it all with no effort. When you are learning the Vibratone, keep notes on the sounds at different settings. The range of tones seems endless.

Many of these reviews complain about the factory setup. Should we expect the guitar to arrive from Gibson perfectly setup for our individual tastes? I don't think so. I expected it to arrive fully finished, and put together, and strung up. And so it was. It was not setup at all, although the QC inspector signed it off as being setup. All the saddles were adjusted exactly the same, the pickup heights were alarmingly uneven, and it was seriously out of tune. I don't think that's a problem. It was put together properly, nothing was loose or mis-aligned, it looked like it was built by someone who gave a darn. So, I will have it setup and go on down the road. You can't expect Gibson to sit down and tweak every guitar off the line. If I had bought it in a shop, damn right I would have expected it to be setup!

I agree with everyone-get straplocks before you strap it on, or you will drop it. The strap pins are tiny. I expect the gold hardware to start tarnishing immediately. Oh well! I believe it's a sturdy little guitar. Believe me, you don't want to hear me play!

I have never talked to Gibson.

This guitar is so light and comfortable, you will not want to put it down. Standing or sitting, it's a joy to hold. I have been playing since the morning after the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. If you don't know when that was, you don't matter. I've had quite a few Fenders, and sold them all. They are boring. I prefer Rickenbacker for electrics, and Taylor for acoustic, but this BH is a keeper. It is simply put-a TON of fun!

1997 model in black. 22 frets, semi-hollow bodied with pickup selector tone, volume and the FANTASTIC Varitone. Twin Gibson P90s rosewood fretboard, minging Gibson tuners. Came in a well fitting Epiphone case!

If this was a woman it would be the 'The thinking man's total babe' - sorry to be sexist, but petite, good looking - in an individuaistic way - and capable of a huge range of tones and styles. I've had it 3 months and the love affair keeps growing.

You can't quite get the full mellow softness of a humbucker but you can get close. The amazing thing about this guitar is the range of tone that the Varitone brings - including the delightful Strat neck pickup sound. It does the whole range of rock - from heavy thrash through to mellow and, of course, ius ace for blues - it will sing it will howl it - its flexibility is superb.

There's little I dislike. My SG has a push-push switch on the tone pot - this is a pull out - push-push is much easier to use. And those tuners - yeuch - its a Gison gripe - they should stop making them and use 3rd party ones on ALL their guitars.

Its a Gibson. Its well made and by 97 quality control was excellent. It took a bit of tweaking to get the action and pickup height right - because somebody incompetent had been at it prior to me. But Ginson provides easy means of adjustment

Solid as a rock. Talk to any gigging pub musician who has one - they're ultra reliable

Great web site and they were -eventually - helpful when I asked for details of how to check the Varitone they pointed me to an excellent 3rd party web site

This is a guitar I intend to hold on to. I have an SG - and a Les Paul - the SG's gonna go because the Blueshawk does all it can do and more and is much sturdier.

Anything I wish it had? Well it would be nice to open the back plates and find them stuffed full of gold coins or an invite from Santa to name whatever I want - price and quantity no object. However as a guitar it's great. Are they still making them? You see ocassional new ones in the UK and advertised on US web sites?

I bought my 'Blueshawk' new ..my first Gibson ; the shape its a kind of light and small 'Les paul' but with 2 F holes , the color is 'chicago blue' which is really nice , 2 P90 blues PU , varitone , push pull to cut the varitone , vintage style tuners ,rather thin neck (for a Gibson) and very playable (good for bending) came with a de luxe Gibson gig bag

I have this guitar since 10 days so I am still discovering the different tones you can have with the Varitone , it's suits my style which is blues/heavy blues ; I can only compare with another guitar I have which is loaded with a Gibson p94 , for the moment I prefer the p94 given you more versality for hard rock for example. sometimes I play some AC DC songs and my blueshawk is not very good for that ; but you can have a kind of 'strat' sound on varitone position 5 which I like the best for the moment..good for soloing

The guitar was very well set up , no problem

the tuners are a bit 'cheap' , i would prefer others..I don't play live , so no opinion

I like my blueshawk but I wish there were p94 Gibson PU instead of P90 blues (in fact I will put P94 on every guitars LOL so)I forgot to tell you that I am a woman and this guitar suits me very well

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for knobs and switches. But the Blueshawk seems to have just enough to hold its own. The Variton knob is a blast. I hesitate to add electronics to it. It's simple, but very versatile. I wish I had the new model with the bigsby style trem.

Lately I've been playing mostly jazz. The BH shines in this area with heavy flatwound strings installed and the action adjusted slightly higher than normal. Electronics are clear and noise-free. This guitar has led me on a musical journey from punk rock to alternative to funk to broadway-style show tunes to classic jazz. If you tweak it right and use an old solid state combo amp (I prefer a Yamaha) It has one of the most beautiful jazz tones I've ever heard in a guitar.

Factory setup was a disappointment. I had to re-adjust everything, but that's what you expect when you pay less than a grand for an electric guitar, right? Intonation was an absolute mess. Finish is gorgeous and the fit perfect for smaller players. (I'm 5'7" and it fits me like a glove.)

Since I bought the instrument in 1998 the only repair I've had to make was to replace a tuning machine that bent in a freak accident. Finish is solid. Those inevitable Headstock-Cymbal accidents chip away very little finish. Construction is extremely solid. This guitar has survived countless shows and rehearsals, 5 changes of address and an international tour without any signs of internal wear and tear. Body & neck respond well to changes in temperature and humidity.

Gibson sent me a new tuning machine for free, no-questions-asked. It fit perfectly. I don't remember how long the warranty was. Honestly, after playing the guitar a bit I wasn't concerned with whether or not it would last.

I own 5 electric guitars and have played on scores of different models, and the blueshawk is my favorite for its style. I definitelty would prefer an Emperor to play jazz on, but the blueshawk takes the cake in versatility and feel. Size is a plus.

Writing again: had the pickups adjusted (loose connection inside, but I bought it used, so hey).

Okay, like I said, I had it worked on.

Sound: from the neck pickup, I can get those lovely Fender neck tones from the 70's tele that had the humbucker. Just nails it! The best rhythm pickup tone in my book! Thick and fat and mellooooow!!!

The high-e drop off was fixed, and now I can wail on it. Basically, this is like all the best qualities of a strat/tele/335 rolled into one. Depending on the varitone setting, I can get downright strat tones from the bridge, albeit a bit thicker/fuller, but not quite as rich/clear as the stacked Anderson strat pickups. The in-between is nice, and some tone in-between tele and ES335 can be pulled off, very dimensional. The neck pickup shines for rhythm now, what was useless before--talk about the perfect pickup for jazz or even mellow rock solo!!!

The only thing missing is a hard-rock sound, but hey, it's not a hard rock guitar. I will have to buy a strat w. an SD Cool Rails in the bridge to get a Nirvana/Pumpkins' Siamese Dream sound. But as for psychedelic jazz-rock, mellow rock, jazz and blues, this is THE guitar for me.

The bridge pickup (unlike true P90s) actually handles heavy-sustain fuzz (ala early Clapton woman-tone) quite well on the bridge pickup.

My setup consists of a Carvin Quad X-amp preamp (9 12AX7s) and Carvin T100 power amp (2 12AX7s, 4 EL34s), with a wah, little ART tube compressor, and flanger. Like I said, my sound crosses lots of territory: mellow jazz and jazz-rock, Gish-type psychedelia, Delta blues, and early 90s alternative. This guitar will do all but the last of those, VERY WELL.

Still good...no fret problems, just sloppy finish in the F-holes. The initial pickup thing is now fixed, but it was BAD.

Now that the pickup thing is fixed, I hope it will be very reliable. I see no reason for it not to be.

Never called Gibson, just took it to a local repair place (T.G. Music in Goshen, IN). The guy there fixed my problem for free in exchange for a few minutes of playing it afterward.

It was a good guitar for the money, now it's a great guitar for the money. Will do everything I need it to except heavy distortion humbucker stuff (which it doesn't have and wasn't designed for)./

The ultimate jazz/blues guitar!

This is the standard BluesHawk, not the Little Lucille. If you are reading this you already know what features it comes with. Being female I really like the light weight. I was looking for a semi-hollow body, I sure didn't want the weight of a Strat or a Les Paul hanging around my neck. Also, since I have small hands I really like the neck. This is the most playable neck I have ever had on any guitar I have ever owned and that includes my Ovation. (Just so you guys know, that's why women typically like Ovations. Small neck for small hands.)

I play mostly blues and this guitar is perfect for what I play. You can get just about any kind of sound out of it but really, I found a couple of settings I like and that is what I stick with most of the time anyway. If you are wanting to change pots or change pick-ups maybe this guitar isn't what you are looking for in the first place. I play through a Fender Champ 110 because that it the only amp I own. When I get a few more bucks I probably will try it out with some other types of amps.

Pretty much everything else you have read in the other reviews is true. The finish is not the best. The factory set-up was awful. The pick-ups were all but falling off. Read my comments later, if you are willing to put in a little extra after you buy this guitar you will be rewarded with one heck of a nice little guitar that you don't have to spend $2000 for.

I haven't really had my BluesHawk long enough to speak about long-term reliability but in my hands I can't see that I would have a problem. I tend to baby my guitars and treat them gently so I have never had a problem with reliability anyway. I can see how someone who is more vigorous with their guitars might want some beefier knobs but I like the ones it came with.

The guitar came with loose pick-ups, they would not tighten down. I contacted customer service, they immediately wrote back and told me to contact an authorized service center. I telephoned the nearest one and he was able to describe the problem to me over the telephone. The problem is the pick-ups mount to these little round nuts which are just pressed into holes in the guitar body and the mounting nuts pop out. I took both pick-ups off, replaced the mounting nuts that had popped loose (two out of four) and added a little epoxy glue to keep them in place. I have not had any more trouble with the pick-ups. If you don't want to have to repair your brand new guitar you can always take it to a service center but this really is something you can do yourself.

The important thing to realize,if you are going to buy a BluesHawk,is to think of it more as a work in progress than a finished product. You WILL want to change the tuning machines, I put Grover's on mine. You probably will want to put on a set of strap locks. It will need a good set-up, whether you feel comfortable doing this yourself or whether you take it to the best luthier you know. Then there are those dreaded pick-up mounting nuts, see my comments above. Once you get past all this you will have a really great guitar. Oh, and buy the Gibson hard case (the NightHawk case). There is nothing quite like putting her away and covering her with her own little satin blankie.

OK, this USA Blueshawk guitar is the Limited Edition BB King "Little Lucille" version,(DOB 2002) Black, creme binding on the Rosewood neck and body and gold holdware ...real sharp and quite the classy looker,with pearl diamond inlays on the rosewood neck and a gold cover on the headstock etch-signed BBKing also the Gibson logo is a multicolor pearl shell type inlay. Rather costly from MusiciansFriend...$1199, shipped.
It has the Varitone circuit which is terrific for getting into some other cool distinctive sounds, eg. kind of Fender-ish sounds, and with the Little Lucille, the Varitone is mounted on a gold numbered backing plate which allows you to actually replicate the sounds knowing what Varitone setting number the dial is on (on the std blueshawk there is no way of knowing what number of Varitone is in play)
Varitone selector is a cool chicken-head type.
Blues-90 creme colored pickups which are SCREAMERS!!! Unreal.
3way PU blade switch, one volume and one tone w/push-pull selector that engages the Varitone. pickups are virtually noiseless due to the dummy coil that was thoughtfully added to cancel hum.
It has all the same woods as the regular blueshawk, but the tail piece is a TP6 tune-o-matic, very nice and easy to work with for intonation and string height etc...it is NOT a string-thru like the regular blueshawks. came with a very nice BBKing signed custom made plushy-lined hardshell case. instead of the "blueshawk" name along side of the neck on the body which everyone seems to despise, this one says Little Lucille in a nice cursive gold lettered font which does look real nice against the black body. Oh did I mention that this guitar weighs like 7 lbs, what I delight for those all nighters.
This guitar was made to BB Kings own personal specifications.

'lil Lucy suits my styles just fine and then some.
Variety is the key word here.This has a ton of usable sounds with the varitone 1 thru 6 settings X 3 different settings of pickup combinations and thats like 18 different sounds without even using the tone which will take you into different hues and colors of those 18 settings. then you can use it without the varitone for that awesome Gibson Riproaring scream. so thats 21 different settings in all. thats gotta be a record! ya think?!

OK, Heres where things go south. the Gibson people have got to be the most irresponsible,lazy f'ers out there and quality control sucks. the cap to the pickup selector was missing and the pickups were so loose that one of them was ready to fall off...for 1199 I demand a PU selector cap. I called Musicians friend and they were very helpful and made sure I was happy, they offered to exchange it for another LittleLucille, now after much hassle back and forth over the phone for two days I'm getting a replacement. thats overkill...giving me a replacement. All because the Gibson people are stoned when putting these things together!!

The one big thing that is a must for any owner of a Blueshawk is to change to strap-locks because this guitar as cool as it is will fall off of the stock ones and your gonna be pretty pissed off when you have a nice big crack in this beautiful guitar...the lack of thought that went into the placement of the strap pegs is status-quo for the stoners at Gibson, but overall, other than that, this is one killer guitar, seems dependable and durable, no backup required.(although I always bring along a Telecaster)

Great!! When I called them, Gibson got right on the phone and it was a "real person" un-fu@#-in beleivable. they told me this guitar has a lifetime warranty.thats a nice thing.

This BBKing Blueshawk is my newest best guitar.
I love this guitar, really everything I want in a nice package.
I've been playing about 10 years and aside from Lil Lucy, I have a Vintage 74 Tele Thinline , a 90's USA Tele Thinline, a MIJ 50th Anniversary Tele Thinline, a Fender Deluxe Fat Strat, a 64 Silvertone w/amp in case and a Silvertone U2,(silvertones have the dual lipstick pickups which I really enjoy)and an Ovation 12 string.* If Lucy were stolen or lost, I'd definitly get another as soon as I located another $1199.00 ahggggh!!!!
A little steep but for how it sounds, how it feels, and how it looks which is Utterly Cat, it all makes for a nice gitbox.

Black with solid bridge... everything else has been covered. Previos owner installed Gibson locking tuners that work well but are not as easy to use as Sperzels (you need a screwdriver with the Gibsons)

Is there a way to date these things by serial number?

Cool story... Traded my VS265 Marchall Amp for a US Strat in North Dakota and a week later traded the Strat for the Blueshawk in Louisiana. All on HC Classifieds.

I love it. I'm a displaced Austinite. Love the SRV KWS EJ tone. This is different... It's my first Gibson and the tone is mondo cool. I've used it on a couple gigs and have loved the sounds I'm getting. It took me a year to find out I could pull the tone knob to disble the Varitone. I like position 3 with both pickups... sounds like position 2 on a Strat. I get a great mimic of BB. Very quiet on all settings.

I may change to Rio Grandes, or I may not... I'm pretty happy with it the way it is.

Yikes... I thought Gibson was "creme dela creme". I guess this is their version of an entry level model. The paint has orange peel to it that really look bad on the headstock. There is some checking going on around the F holes. It's not ugly (I actually like the Blueshawk logo along the neck) and from 5 feet away the flaws are not noticable at all. Controls and all seem fine and nothing takes away from it's playability.

I had to replace the upper strap button with a locking kind. It was poorly placed and my strap slipped off alot.

Gigged great. The case is cool with it's little purple blanky. Lot's 'o protection.

Never needed it, never will... web site was cool with varitone info and MP3's.

20+ years playing. 10 guitars currently.

I checked on this guitar alot before getting one. No regrets. I like it mainly because it is different. It gets attention and sound great.

No complaint here.

Sound is why I bought this guitar. I pondered over this thing for probably 5 years before finally buying it. For awhile the over-all appearance was not appealling. Like others have said, I do not want to have what everybody else has. This guitar is not mainstream.

The "vintage" (aka ... junk) tuners were crap. I replaced them with Grover sealed machines and have no more problems with staying in tune. The store performed a very good initial setup.

Once I replaced the tuners it is great for the live playing I do. I do not play hard so I expect that it should hold up well.

I requested info on the Varitone and warranty registration from Gibson and they responded quickly.

I play in a contemporary Gospel/Christian band at our church every three weeks. At home I run it through my Fender Acoustasonic Jr on the 2nd channel. Effects are Digitech RP200. At church it is run through direct box into the house system. Depending upon who is running sound determines how it sounds through my monitor. Generally I like the sound and do not have to use effects very much. I prefer the Varitone on position 4 using any pick-up. I like the punchy tone the Blues 90's give.

As covered below.

I'm submitting this review about 2 years plus after sending in my first..I like to think of it as a more detailed write up after having played this gutiar through and through.
I've been playing mostly blues on this guitar and I've got to say that it's grown on me over 2 yrs...I play it at home through a Fender Pro Junior and so far during jamming and a few gigs I've played through a Fender Hotrod Deville and a Line 6 Flextone among some of the more memorable amps. It sounds great through these amps...not exactly 335 tone but it's bright and punchy yet warm enough to give you that BB King feel(apparently he's a big fan of the Blueshawk too) on the neck pickup. Tone control comes in handy for alternating between rhythm and lead playing...on the bridge it's got a really raw sounding growl that sounds like it came straight out of a Muddy Waters record. Put both pickups together and you get one helluva biting sound for blistering lead. I don't use the varitone very much except for two of the positions...one gives me a passable strat-ish tone for funk rhythm and the other when I want to get the "acoustic guitar fitted with electric pickup" sound that reminds me of Elmore James. I give it a 10 as it fits in perfectly with what I play.

Quality-wise it's below par. Inlays had very obvious wood filling to make up for defects, finish could be scratched permanently with your fingernails but most importantly, playability is unaffected. Perhaps not what you'd expect from an admittedly lower end Gibson model but the tone and feel more than make up for it. The electronics are fine too...decent soldering, no obvious defects. Also another thing I really like about it is that it's really light. I can play for about 1 hr or so without feeling any strain on my shoulders even with a normal guitar strap. The neck plays better than a Mexican Strat that I have and those bigger frets really help with the bending.
However there is one major design flaw I have to point out. The string angle at the saddle is rather sharp and as a result I always break strings at the saddle. Of course given that I play with extensive vibrato and bending using 11's and that my sweat is rather corrosive but still I think the design team at Gibson could have done better. It's not uncommon for me to break 2 strings in one jam session now but I guess you could say the silver lining in the dark cloud is that it forces me to adapt my playing when I'm short of a string. 7 for this one.

I've jammed in a pub and gigged with this one and it's one tough baby. Gold hardware tarnishes but that doesn't affect me. Pick scratches, dents, dings abound all over the guitar but it can't really be helped given the fragile finish. Strap buttons don't look like they'll be giving way anytime soon but I would still use a backup for future gigs due to my tendency to break strings on this guitar. In all it's great for playing but don't expect to keep it in pristine condition unless you're gonna hang it up in a glass case.

Never dealt with them. No comment.

I have 2 modded Mexican Strats but the Blueshawk is the one that gets the most mileage. If someone stole it I'd be real upset because I don't think the one and only Gibson dealer in this country is gonna bother bringing in another one when mine was already sitting in the shop for so long. I chose this one because I didn't want to pay an over-inflated price for an ES335 and I couldn't find any Epiphone Dots.

Features of others:
I REALLY liked the choice of woods. Poplar has really been given its dues as a tonewood. It has a very resonant, warm quality to it without being dark, with a snappy very high upper midrange, while being light in weight.

As far as features go, it's very good. Useful. No elaborate flame or quilt top, etc, but good. Better tuners would have made it even better.

Hmmmmmm...

The tone reminds me of my '96 MIM strat in all the best ways. Bright but backed with a warm resonance. That's partly because of the sound chambers, which add dimensionality and complex overtones, but not to the degree of a 355. The bridge pickup is great, but the neck pickup is mud--I think because of a bad connection inside.

Varitone is nice. The scale legth does go a long way toward copping a strat tone. The pickups (or at least the bridge) are great for P90s, noiseless and thick with punch and clarity.

Getting big signal dropoff on the high e-string. Balanced on the others.

Can only rate the bridge pickup right now, and will give it a 9, considering the price. Will post again when I find out the story with the neck pu.

Action was great. Finish was a bit rough on the insides of the f-holes, great elsewhere. Fit is excellent.

For the price I paid, a great axe. Closest thing out there to a Gibson strat in my book. I play jazz rock and blues rock, on the philosophy that a person should buy a decent guitar and put all their money into the greatest amp they can find. The Blues-90s are the next best thing to the mystery-shrouded Reverend P-90s. Small body, light weight, good tone with a semi-hollow thing going on. Nice warmth and resonance with good brightness and clarity, and good heat.

finally, i own a gibson. i'm very proud of this sucker. you know the specs from the other reviews, there's nothing more i can say. however, i play in a psychedelic/progessive/blues band. it's tasty, i promise (look for 'senator bigsby and the screws' on mp3.com if you're interested). the other guitarist in my band is a madman with divine skill and chops like a knife, so i suppose you could call me the rhythm player since i'm not the one who just came out of the crossroads. he's got a gibson es-347 which he plays through a peavey delta blues (yes, very beauteous, cream-pants worthy even) featuring some very high output pickups. the blues-90's can't even compete, even with my fender ultimate chorus on 10. but, uncranked, this guitar is capable of the real deal. yes, that's right, low down filth of the blues persuasion. the neck never goes out of tune. i didn't have to tune it for a month, and although i'm not sure if that's a good thing, it was cool (i play for my high school's advanced jazz band). i love the semi-hollow body look and the varitone is handy dandy as all get-out. the only complaints i have are the fact that it looks like a kids guitar because of its small scale and its half-assed pickups. also, when i get my john frusciante rubberband hand on for the funk tunes, i tear the guitar up. i don't have enough control to be playing without a pick guard. hopefully i can do something about that when i get the pickups changed. what were thinking gibson?

if you play the blues or jazz and want something lean or even meatless, this is what it's all about. you can break it down telecaster twang style or zip it up with the punch of any other semi-hollow body, but i wouldn't recommend trying to replace a full les paul sound with this puppy. the varitone is dreamy. i'm surprised they didn't call it versi-tone. just remember that soapbar pickups in any guitar are all about that thin stinging clarity. don't even bother if you're in one of this dime a dozen punk bands.

the frets are what throw alot of people off. i kind of like them myself. they're good for my vicious vibrato i overuse and the few songs my band has where i brake out the slide and sing it david gilmore-echoes style. the bottom line is, the fuckers are high. they're jumbo. and alot of people don't like them. but they're unique and give it a little somethin' somethin' you can't even try to get with another guitar, even another gibson. i read someplace that this was designed by blues boy king. that would explain pretty much everything. the intonation is immaculate on mine, but i can imagine how easy it would be for the gibson-folk to muck it up beyond repair. i'm not going to change the frets or the bridge like some other people. yes, sir, i like them indeed.

this is why the inlay says gibson instead of epiphone. i'll probably have this guitar for the rest of my life and then sell it to pay for my kid's college tuition (these hooda-ma-ha's are limited edition, mind you). once i find a pickup whose sound busts my buttons, i'll be in blues heaven. i'll admit i've never gigged with this before, but i would. and will. you'll see.

like i said, i've been playing through my fender ultimate chorus for about 4 years. i play in a band that sounds like radiohead, primus, zappa with a tangy blues twist from led zep. alot of extended jams with too many effects. the drummer and i are the only two who don't have an insane amount of talent and chops, but the bassist and the other guitarist make up for that. i'm not sure i'd buy another one of these if it were stolen. after comparing my other guitarist's es-347 to every guitar i've ever played with, i'd have to say i'm going es, if not full hollow body, for the rest of my life. his makes mine look like a toy.

This axe has a poplar back and maple top, and semi-hollow sound chambers inside....Fixed bridge with string-thru-body construction...Great setup, if you ask me...mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard and diamond inlays. And the gold hardware adds that elegant touch to an already-sweet looking piece. Master volume and tone, Varitone control and a push-pull pot (to activate or de-activiate varitone) and dummy coils to cancel that annoying single-coil 60-cycle hum. Great Blues-90's pickups...not quite a P-90, the blues-90's are a little hotter than their P counterparts. Great neck, too...I love a fat neck but the V-shaped neck makes up for it cuz it's so damn comfortable!! Mine came with a Gibson hardshell case (bought it from a private dealer) and I paid $599 for mine. Best damn investment I EVER made.

I play blues. And that's basically exactly what this guitar was made for...the blues. But it can be used in such a variety of different styles. Myself, I have 3 strats and an SG that I could use, so I don't use this guitar much for anything other than blues. The amps I'm using are a Peavy Bandit 112, with a 12" extension cab, and I also use a 2-12" Peavey Classic 50. Either one, it sounds amazing. My effects are pretty extensive, sometimes...depending on what I'm doing, I usually use a Danelectro Daddy-O overdrive pedal with either a Boss comp/sustainer or an Ibanez Tube Screamer with a Crybaby wah pedal. I also use a Korg AX1500G guitar effects processor with it and it sounds awesome with either setup. I usually use the varitone on the first setting (the one all the way to the left) with any pickup combination, but there's a few others that I use depending on what sound I'm lookin' for. I can get a real fat, woody clean tone with this thing, good for those old school blues numbers, or I can get a screaming distorted tone that just WAILS with sustain. the longer neck scale makes bending a breeze and the rosewood fingerboard gives me plenty of grip so I can cop off some wicked vibrato. Great sound...

The setup from the factory was pretty much perfect...a couple of things though. The tuning machines "ping" when I'm tuning, and that gets real annoying cuz I'm turning the peg and the string isn't moving then it pings and it's all outa tune....but it's all good. I can get over that. Also when I first bought it, somehow one of the connections inside the guitar screwed up the pickup selector switch, so I had to take it back to get it resoldered, but now it works beautifully. (I've had the guitar since '98). but everything else was pretty much perfect!! Action is GREAT....nice and medium, great for heavy pickers like myself...I beat the SHIT out of my guitars and she just keeps comin' back ready to go!!

I've been using this guitar for almost 4 years and it's never let me down...never broke a string at a gig with it, and hell yeah I'd use it without a back-up. Like I said above, I beat the hell out of my guitars, and I play 'em rough. They gotta be able to take the heat or get off the stage. And this one burns with the best of them. Finish doesn't seem too bad, although I have put many belt-buckle dents and scrapes in it...also my picks tear up the finish on the bottom part where the cutaway is (I use heavy picks). the strap buttons are my only concern. i don't feel like they're probably balanced...I used a regular strap and the damn thing kept coming off cuz I play with the guitar usually on my hip a little, and that wouldn't work, so I got some straplocks...oh, did I mention? I dropped the damn thing on a concrete basement floor neck-first, in playing position...didn't even knock the thing outa tune!! just dented the corner of the headstock...but hey, it adds character, right??

Mine was under warranty and I bought it through a private dealer, so I didn't have too many problems. Just the soldering thing was all it's needed....

I've been playing guitar about 10+ years, and I'm only 21....I can surely appreciate a great guitar when I see one. When I played that guitar 3 years ago, I knew I had to have it. And now I do. I own 3 other strats (70's reissue with Texas Specials, Mexican Stndard with Amer. Stnd pickups, and a shitty Squier that I'm gonna hot-rod, a Gibson SG-I, a Takamine acoustic-electric cutaway, and an Alvarez small-body acoustic that I bought in a "trade center"). If it were ever lost or stolen, I'd probably cry like a baby and then get belligerent. I'd HAVE to get another one...My favorite feature is the guitar itself. It's one big toy to me, and I love it. and there's not a thing about it that I hate. :D Great guitar for all the blues guitarists (and rock, jazz, funk...that stuff too).

1998, made in USA
Has two soap bar Gibson B-90's
Neck wood is mahogany
Body wood is maple on top, and poplar on back
Its black with a huge golden maestro, looks great.
Looks like a Les Paul, but better IMO
The neck seems more like a fender neck than a Gibson neck
Came with a gig bag.... fucking rip off
But it has a varitone, which is kinda cool, although i keep it off most the time

I play a lot of brit pop i guess you could say, not american pop like blink 182, Sum 41, or New Found Glory, but Brit pop like Oasis, Oasis is the best band ever. I only use an amp in my setup, which is a Marshall JCM2000 DSL stack. Its not that noisy, i think the dummy coils prolly help a lot. It has a nice sound, i use it for lead (when i really wanna cut through the mix, cuz i usually use my SG but when i want to REALLY cut through and have the lead be heard really well, i use this cuz single coils are good at doin just that). I use it for clean too and bluesy stuff, not so much rock. That's for my SG to handle. I cant really think of any dislikes about it, only that I prefer humbuckers, but i didnt get this guitar cuz i wanted humbuckers, i got it because i wanted a guitar that didnt have humbuckers, so i wouldnt really call that a dislike.

Great, the finish was perfect, action was great and its very comfortable. 'nuff said

Hasnt let me down but I dont think i've put it thru too much

never dealt with 'em

The only other electric guitar i have is an SG and that thing is the best, BUT when i got the blueshawk, i wasnt looking to replace my SG, that'd be impossible, but i wanted to add some variety to my arsenal, although a very small arsenal, it gets the job done, well, oh so very well. If it were stolen i'd be fucked cuz they normally cost $989 but i got mine for $600, so i'd prolly get a different clearance sale Gibson some day, but i dont want to have to do that, this guitar is just plain awesome, but if i did happen to find another one for $600, i'd buy it. I love the varitone, some different settings call for cool intros. I compared it to some strats, i was looking for a single coil sound, and i like this much better than the strats i compared it to (lone star, american std, mex std, powerhouse, super strat, and a couple others). I say if you like blues are just plain old hard rock, get this, it is a great guitar, it's very very versitile, more so than a strat if you ask me. Although, its not the best guitar, but its a great guitar, none the less.

This part has been covered by provious reviews, so I won't take up your valuable time here.

I play classic rock, blues, sothern rock ,and some country. this guitar easilly fits those styles (blondie, Journey, AC/DC, guns & roses, Melencamp, Allmans, Foreginer, Joan Jett, Fleetwood Mac, etc....). I play through a Mesa Maverick 1x12 or 2x12 depending 0n the size of the venue. I've been playing guitar since 5th grade and I'm 48 years young! I've owned over 120 guitars throughout my musicial career and this is certainly one of the best (especially for the $$). I pride myself in NOT sounding like anyone else. I own equipment that is not typically run-of-the -mill. My other guitar is a Levinson Blade. This guitar is light. Very easy on the back. the tones are very complex and useable. I've read some other reviews concerning the pickups in this guitar complaining they don't sound like P-90's - well DUH!!! they're not P90's. gibson makes no claim to that point. they are blues 90's and they sound great. they're a bit warmer than the P90's, but certainly have as much "spank". the 6 position Varitone switch is great. gibson has even gon so far as to put the treble-roll-off capicator "thing" on the volume control so you don't loose the highs when you turn down the volume. NICE!!

I bought it uses and it wasn't set-up real well. typical factory stuff - screws not tight, tuner nuts not tight etc... the finish is ok, as well as the frets. The fingerboard has dried up some, so some of the frets on the bottom are a little rough, but with a little bit of lemon oil, that will rejuvinate the rosewood just fine. the neck is straight. The bridge is no worse than a Strat's - it's NOT pot metal, but it is plate steel. No problem there. Saddles the same as a Strat's. As far as knobs getting loose - not on this one, but, if you have a problem - just put some clear nail polish on the shaft and tighten the screw (if there is one), and bingo - problem solved. I don't understand some of the people who write these reviews. Complain - complain - complain! Nothing's perfect! This guitar is no worse than a really good Fender Strat or Tele. No - it's not a $2000.00 Les Paul or PRS - but - it sounds much better that them (IMHO).

I treat all my instruments tenderly. If you don't take care of your tools, you won't be able to get your job done! No extreme hot, cold, or moisture. get a hard case. Clean and polish it regularly. Perform preventitive maintenance. Use a guitar stand. If you don't do these things, NO guitar will last.

Emailed them yesterday - they emailed me back today - what more could you ask for?

Overall - a nice guitar. It's not a piece of furniture. Nothin' fancy. Great tone. Light. Versitile. Stays in tune. I'd get another if I needed to. don't like the "Blueshawk" decal. the name should be on the truss rod cover. Inside wiring fine. dummy coil does it's job - to keep the noise down. Much better than any of the same-priced Epiphones. a real Gibson. good job guys.

Great electronics - P90 pickups with a hum-cancelling coil and a varitone (passive tone control) circuit. Small, lightweight semi-hollow body with a tummy cut - almost as comfy as a Strat. Nice neck, shaped like a Gibson but with a 25 1/2" Fenderish scale. From a sheer comfort point of view, it's probably the best guitar Gibson makes. Mine is the non-trem version with through-body strings - much better than a Tune-O-Matic! Mine came with a cheapo Gibson-labeled gig bag. A hard case is one of my future investments.

This is a really excellent sounding guitar for the money. The P90 pickups are round and fat-sounding, but not wooly like so many humbuckers. The varitone circuit gets pretty decent simulations of Strat cluck or hollowbody fatness (try the #2 position on the neck pickup). Hum cancelling works pretty well, and the true single coils sound MUCH better than the P100s Gibson puts on some guitars these days.

Besides the electronics, the semi-hollow body helps a lot. The tone is surprisingly rich and full, like a good Gibson. Lots of subtle detail... not as much as a really high-end guitar, of course, but more than anything else in this price range!

And ultimately, it produces a wider variety of basic *useful* sounds from its wood and electronics than any other guitar in its range. The only thing i can think of that compares for tonal flexibility is a PRS, which is significantly more expensive. Or a really great Strat or other such classic, and truly great instruments cost a LOT more.

As a footnote, i've played a Blueshawk with Dimarzio DLX humbuckers that utterly screamed. This one will be getting the same pickups soon. Apparently, a pickup change makes a good thing even better.

I'm currently playing it through a Trace-Elliot Velocette (the modern Gibson Goldtone amps are basically the same thing), which is fantastic. It LOVES moderate-gain tube amps. Other electronics include a Prescription Electronics Germ (mostly used as a clean buffer, and is never turned off because it improves the tone of EVERYTHING), a Crybaby, a ProCo Rat II (the one piece of gear i have kept), and a vintage MXR Flanger.

The setup SUCKED. I bought mine two years old used (original receipt in the gig bag). I'll bet it had the original strings. Action and intonation were completely screwed up. Two of the strings were installed wrong (i.e. knotted). At least the fret finish is okay, and the paint doesn't have any nasty runs like some of these do.

In addition, the component quality stinks. The tuners are cheap Schaller knockoffs of vintage Klusons. Gibson and Fender keep putting these blecherous pieces of shite on, supposedly because they're "vintage", but really because they're cheap. This guitar is getting Grovers asap. I can barely keep it in tune. Oh, and the bridge is cheap pot metal, and the fancy gold plating is already corroding. The pots weren't seated well, and don't feel good even when tightened down. The knobs were ugly imitation-strat... replace them with regular Gibson speed knobs, or something else. The shaft on the varitone is round and unsplined, which means that sooner or later the knob's set screw starts to gouge the shaft. Mine was already gouged... adjusting the knob's height fixed it, for now. I'll probably replace the whole varitone circuit with an aftermarket job, along with the cheap pots.

And if anyone from Gibson reads this... PLEASE ditch the "Blues Hawk" logo on the body! EVERYONE thinks it's ugly! (I think the guitar would look better if they closed the F-holes too, but that's just my opinion)

The varitone knob situation will probably start to fail in the hands of guys playing it at the store before you buy it. The Schaller/Kluson tuners lose their housings and fall apart after a few years. Other metal parts corrode. I even had a cracked tone knob, probably due to improper installation at the factory.

Repair or replace all the cheap awful parts that Gibson used to cut costs, and it will probably last forever.

Haven't dealt with them. If it needs work beyond what i can or will do myself, i'll ignore Gibson completely and take it to any one of several excellent local luthiers.

Despite my misgivings about hardware and construction quality, this is a fantastic guitar! It's comfortable to play and has a zillion great tones. I actually plan to invest heavily in this guitar - new pickups, new tuners, better varitone, and a hard case. I think the basic wood tone and design definitely justify working to make it as good an instrument as possible.

If something were to happen to it... it would depend on my budget at the time. If money was tight, i'd get another one. If i could afford something better, i would do that instead, but i'd expect to pay well over $1000 to beat this sub-$500 used honey.

No idea of the year of manufacture, but I would guess recent (96-00). Mine is the LTD with the Maestro vibrato and Blue finish. I saw it in a Mars Music store, where it had been beaten and neglected nearly to death. The scale length is 25 1/2 which really appealed to me since I'm a Fender type guy. The Vibrato is a Bigsby type affair which then leads to a tune-o-matic bridge that does not pivot like some Jazzmasters etc. The rest of the features are as described in previous reviews. It came with a Gibson gig bag with Les Paul documentation inside. I wasn't looking to but a guitar when I bought this, but for features I give it a 9.

This is what blew me away. It was sitting on the wall amidst $1500 Strats and $2500 Les Pauls, and seemed so sad. It had been neglected for a long time, with scratches, tarnished hardware, and a couple of chips here and there. I have played Fenders for years and always loved the bright tone they are famous for. I don't know what made me reach for the Blueshawk, but I did, and plugged it into a Vibro King they had sitting there, also a victim of music mall abuse. The sound blew me away. Very full and clean, with sparkling highs and solid lows. Much bassier than a Fender and cleaner than a Paul. I went through the various settings of the Varitone and pickup selection and was amazed by the variety of sounds I could get. I especially liked the way the Volume and Tone knobs tapered off. A fender tends to lose a lot of volume once you back off the knob a little. The Blueshawk didn't really start to drastically taper off until almost 3, which in my opinion, gives you greater control over your tone. Its so easy to overshoot with a Tele or Strat, but this one is a dream. I play Blues, Motown, Rock, some Country and Jazz, and this one can do it all, with a sound uniquely its own. I played it through my rig when I got home (Mesa Maverick), and it promptly put my other guitars to shame. Effects wise, I run a TC chorus, Rat, Tubescreamer, Boss DD-5 and a Bad Horsie, which it drives really well.

Horrible! But I can't blame Gibson for this since it had been used and abused at the store for months before I got it. The nut was actually set up as close to the way I like it (low), with the slots not overly deep. It had .009's on it, which I promptly changed to .011's, and as a result needed truss rod tweaking. Fret work is good, and the controls all seem first rate. The TOM is my only real gripe. Its cheesy pot metal like found on many Epi's and Korean models, though it says "made in Germany" on the back. I'll replace it with a Gotoh from Allparts as soon as I get a chance. One of the studs for the TOM is a very loose fit in the body.

Like I said, bought it trashed, so the finish is pretty well toasto, but that doesn't matter to me. I plan on taking a backup to the first few gigs, as string changing with the Maestro is a drag. Construction seems good and I think it will last.

Never dealt with them, but from experience, in this day and age, you better be happy with it when you buy it.

Been playing for a while and have been a staunch Fender nut. I did not plan on buying this guitar, but its sound is superb. I find it to be a rather ugly guitar, with the body looking like it had its growth stunted. Buying it almost felt like an obligation - very strange - as I have never felt that way about another guitar. I must have seen it a thousand times in Musicians Friend, and in that Mars store, but never even gave it a thought. I don't know what made me buy it, but I already know that I will never regret it. Go ahead and spend your bucks on a Strat (I did- a deluxe at that, then added Van Zandt's), or a Les Paul or PRS. You are buying a name and not necessarily good tone. Before you do that, go try the ugly duckling Blueshawk out, and think about price/performance. Besides, chances are you'll be the only one at Jam night with one, and its made in the USA for the same price as some of the higher end Mexican marvels.

This is a '98 model, but I only got it last Summer, I live in Ireland. Plenty of variety of features. The Blues 90's a great; humbucker sounds with more clarity, but tend to lose volume a bit when you select on pickup or the other. The varitone is cool, but suffers from the volume sap too. It'd be nicer if they'd put seperate volume/tone pots on this, made it like a BB King Lucille. But I'm only being niggly here. Fast neck, just how I like it, nice action. Shit machine heads. I replaced them with gold Grovers after I dropped the guitar and one of the machine heads bent. Best thing that ever happened...
Overall: great features, very satisfied with them. Don't like that volume drop though...

I play anything and everything, and this guitar gives me any sound I want. I love the 335 sound, and I get it from this guitar. I run it through the following: Danelectro Fish & Chips EQ, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, Vox Wah, Ibanez Phasor, Boss Turbo Overdrive, into Vox Cambridge 30. I have owned rakes of gear, I've played with other peoples rigs, but I don't think I'd ever sell this guitar. Any sound I want I get. Its rich, full, and has plenty of attack when I want it. Great job Gibson.

There were a couple of miniscule bumps on the sides when I got it, other than that...I though it was quiet good. Action was smooth, the nuck isn't silky, but I don't mind that, I use finger-ease before gigs, so there's no problems there. A small scratch guard might be nice, but also might ruin the look of the guitar...oh, and for the love of Mike; get rid of the 'Blueshawk' logo on the body.

I've gigged with this guitar, and have gotten nothing but positive interest from people about it's live sound. It's solid as a rock, and beats the pants off having a Les Paul dragging you through the floor half-way throught the set...
Again, crappy tuners. Get Grovers, the go on a treat, and are a huge improvement.I'm going to put strap locking nuts on it aswell...

Haven't had any problems...

Great guitar, great sound. Would buy it again in a second. Very very happy with it now that I've changed the machine heads. Cracker.

Got mine used but minty, no Maestro, ebony with creme pickups, gold hardware and that silly logo. The case is nice and I think the ebony/gold combo works from a fashion perspective. Same specs. as all the other reviews, semi-hollow with the varitone, two P-100s(P-90s superwound?) pick-ups. Just about the right amount of stuff, the tone knob pull-up bypass for the varitone is a nice feature, as is the varitone. It has a nice weight and balance, very easy to play standing up or sitting down, can play for hours. Maybe some find the body small, I think the whole deal balances out very well.

I disagree somewhat with the others in the respect I don't think the semi-acoustic body adds as much as you'd think. The hollowed chambers are small. Unplugged, it sounds slightly better than a solid body, plugged I'm not sure your hearing more than the Ps and varitone.
But, I like the variety of sounds, it's a good reference guitar. If you have several different electrics I think you'll put this is the middle of the collection and use it the most. It pushes pedals very well and sounds good on all my amps, (Fender, Vox, Peavey). Strung with 9s you can bend, hammer, false harmonic and pull-off all day long with a ideal neck for multi-styles and accurate sound pick-up. Neck is not-to-thin, not-to-fat.

Once adjusted the actions is great, though not as low as a Strat without enduring some fret buzz.

Here's the core of my review: The Action, Fit and Finish from our friends at Gibson is just about the absolute worst I've seen in a guitar made by a better manufacturer. Absolute crap. Everything was misadjusted; neck, bridge, pick-ups, strings. Knobs were falling apart, loose, pick-ups were rattling around - and I said this one was minty - it's not the fault of the original owner. I can find lots of little defects in the finsh - defects that would have caused the guitar to be a second if manufactured by Gibson pre-90s. Extremely discouraging - get ready to spend a week reworking this guitar until you can start enjoying it. And oh yeah, the frets are nicely crowned, but undressed and the ends they tear at your hands when you run up and down the neck - charming. I guess when Gibson gets another 50 years of experience they'll figure this problem out.

Time will tell - I'm hoping the foundation of this guitar is solid but I expect to have problems with the cheap electronics - pots, and the hardware is nothing to rave about. As it sits now, I will not hesitate to gig with it - probably without a backup.

N/A - Based on how they assemble this guitar these are the last people I want advise from.

Overall, don't let the non-quality issues turn you off completely. I own wonderful E.B.s, Fenders, Ricks and have had a half a dozen nice Gibsons over my lifetime. IMHO, at the end of the day it's the playability and sound that matter most, you can get past initial quality problems. For example, the quality of my Rick is simply the best I've seen in a production guitar - but I play it least often.

I'm glad I have this and if lost I'd get another. It fits very well as an all purpose axe that you can get pretty aggressive on - or back off into some pretty mellow sounds. Best of all, I find it very comfortable to play and the neck/action is perfect middle of the road. (But, watch out for those nasty fret ends.) With my quality grips aside, I fully recommend it.

I was looking for a "unique" guitar, something solid and toneful. The world is full of Strats, Teles, and Les Pauls and I didn't want to join the masses. The Blues Hawk fit the bill: a real Gibson, versatile B-90 pick-ups, the way-fun varitone, light, confortable and simple. It's fun to play and not cheezy. The price was right on too, cheaper than a "real" Strat, Tele or Les Paul...but above the kids toys.

Nice, the right balance of Tele-twang, Strat-speed, and Les Paul-depth and bass. I liked it right-out-of-the-box, no effects needed to get a pretty universal sound for popular music. The varitone feature is great, fast switching to useable tone settings....but the varitone knob needs to be replaced with something more stylish. Gibson gets a 10 here.

Respectable for the price, certainly not a $2K PRS, but nice looking, ready-to-play action and intonation. The thin plastic pick-up covers are a bit cheezy.

No problems yet, I wish it had a pickguard !

The dealer was great and did a quick set-up and tune, can't speak for Gibson support.

What a great all-purpose axe; I wanted a Les Paul...but too expensive and clunky, I wanted a Strat but oh-so-common, I wanted a Dan Armstrong but too rare.....so this is it.

can a guitar have too much of a good thing? this one does i don`t think they should have ever made this model with the massive mastro. it takes up so much space and isuncomfortable. the mastro weights more then the guitar itself. i don`t think it should have the extra tone knob it is useless you really do not need all that. the body is too small to fit everything gibson wants to put on here. before they throw anything more on here they should adjust the size of the body. and no hardshell case.

an exceltent sounding guitar. tones of tone(maybe too much)i got lost in the knobs. i play through a roland jazz chorus 120 excelent for blues and jazz if you don`t wanna shell out the xtra $$ for an es. personally i like it better then an es-335 i think this little guy has more charecter.

action was good. i did get it with some flaws in on the inside so that knocked a 100 of so i was happy. everything fine in this department

im not sure only had it a fefw days we`ll see it should last its a gibson. but who knows. atthe moment i would gig with a back-up only cause my confidence has not been assured by this guitar yet

good semi-hollow with lots of charecter just wish that it was a little bigger so everythign would fit better. the mastro really is too big for this guitar you can`t really reach the knobs while playing for quick adjustments. i`ve been playin like 4-5 years and i have a fender hot rod deville 410 and a roland jc-120 used to have a digitech rp-7 but that got sold for this. guitars include a 50`s gibson l-4 1927 gibson f-5 mandolin fender 1972 tele reissue and the blueshawk

1997, cherry red , standard features

i bought it used on ebay from a pawnshop in fLORIDA

eventually i bought the gibson hard-case for it, from musicians friend
this case FITS LIKE A GLOVE!!! dont buy a les paul case, find a nighthawk case and get a PERFECT fit.......

i cant give a great review of this, cause ive never played it through an amp!!!

acoustically, this guitar is unmatched ( as electrics go )

its not acoustic loud, but for an electric, its full and loud, but most importantly has 'THE REAL DEAL' tone

i got it used, the action was fine, fit and finish are fine too...
no complaints with the quality on this one

ive opened it up and looked at all the wiring, and the soldering is neat, and the parts looks to be of good quality, i would say this one guitar will do ya for anything, and probably last forever... ive had several gibsons, 2 from '59, numerous 70's , 80s, 90s.... they all seem solid as can be. Im depending on this to do me as my "one and only", im taking this with me to Moscow next year ( gotta travel lite)

they mailed me a wiring diagram in response to my inquiry, fast response to my email!

I love this one, ive been playing gibsons, fenders, rics, gretsches, you name it since mid seventies. I found out with a little research that these "BLUES 90" pickups are actually a completely different design than a P-90, more magnet, less wire, no pole screws, much more trebbley!! So dont buy this if you are looking for P-90 tone like an old junior. Buy it cause its a great guitar in its own right!!

incidently, the reason for the pull-switch isnt really to "by-pass' the varitone ( its by-passed in position one! ) the pull-switch is designed so you can pull it up, taking the varitone out of the circuit, but PRE-SET the varitone dial to say, position 5, and then SLAM IT DOWN for your solo, without having to click thorough all the stops....

personally, im gonna remove that function, and instead use the push-pull to switch between tone control, and black ice "passive overdrive"

Everyone has said it all before so I won't waste time on reviewing. Key features if this axe is the light weight, very resonant body which is almost acoustic in nature when not plugged in and the lightning fast neck. I think the neck is very reminisant of the 60's style SG.

Excellent sound, especially for blues...duh...I currently play thorough a Fender Blues Junior which compliments this guitar nicely. The varitone is cool to play with but really sounds best with the neck pickup on and the varitone in position one. Also, this guitar is gret to play unplugged because of the semi-hollow body.

I bought the guitar used. Guitar was an absolue mess...never cleaned, neck out of alignment and action realy messed up. After a few hours on the bench, a ton of cleaner and few adjustments, I had a brand new guitar with a fast action, big frets and a great sound. It also stays in tune really well. The only thing which I cant stan i the variton knob whcih always feels like it's one turn away from snapping off.

Built like a tank.

I traded in a Jap telecaster for this guitar and got exactly what I wanted, a light weight guitar that has a great neck, fat sound and is comfortable to play sitting down. The tele was opposite of all three. Overall, this guitar is a great buy, even new, since they do not seem to sell well. If purchased used, especially trashed, it can be a downright steal with a bit of work.

it has the varitone but it's not TOO much.

with some solid humbukers opposed to the whatever is in it now it should sound less flimsy

could definatley be improved

banged it up a bunch and has kept

it took a while to actually speak about the problem but as soon as we did it was resolved

for the money

Diddo on the other reviews. The varitone appealed to me in the store, and was one of the considerations in buying it. One reason I'm submitting this review is that I just discovered (after owning it 3 months) that the Tone knob pulls out to disable the varitone switch. In my opinion, the guitar sounds best with the varitone turned off, the pickup switch in the middle, and the tone and volume cranked. After that, it seems the varitone only takes away from the guitar's sound, and I haven't used it since!

I play all kinds of stuff, from bluegrass and country to jazz to rock. It handles all of them well. It's not real loud (i.e., hot pickups), but I don't do metal, so it suits me fine. It is capable of a very warm and full tone, evenly spread accross bass and treble. Very nice. It's also very capable of doing a super bassy sound, which is great those who like to solo in the lower realms. The strings on the lower frets have the perfect mix of thump and twang.

I haven't been hugely impressed in this department. The varitone knob was falling off in the store and I had to have them tighten it. As other reviewers have noted, the finish scratches easily (although relatively superficially), but this doesn't bother me too much. The plastic tuner knobs seem cheap to me; I'll probably replace these with good ones at some point. Finally, the pickups are very loose. I don't know if they're like this for a reason, but tightening the screws doesn't seem to help much. They bob up and down if you hit them with your hand while playing. Again, not something that impedes playing or sound (that I've noticed), but annoying nonetheless. As for playability, the guitar is excellent. It is very small and very light, which was important to me, and the action is perfect, with just the right amount of buzz (I like to go after that Jerry Garcia brand of fret buzz on the lower notes). It's also quite pretty (although the vanilla covered pickups don't help any). All said and done, this wasn't an expensive guitar to say the least, so I don't expect it to be one. It's a great deal.

Mostly issues with what I wrote above. I worry about the loose pickups, although they haven't caused any problem yet. If you need to keep a scratchless guitar, don't buy this one. Otherwise, seems sturdy and well built.

Never dealt with them, but you can't argue with the Gibson lifetime warrantee.

I'm very happy with this guitar, and think I'll own it for a long time. I play mostly acoustic, so I didn't want to invest loads of money into an electric, so this is perfect. It's an excellent bargain, sounds great, and plays great.

The six way varitone gives a wide range of sounds. The only problem was there was not a hardshell case included so on top of the $685 price tag, the case was $110.

Great variety of sounds with or without the varitone.

Contrary to other feedback on this page, my guitar was set up very well. Came clean with almost no flaws, a few minor scratches from people playing it in the store.

I've only had the guitar 2 months, but it appears it will hold up fine.....it is a gibson

never dealt with them

I've been playing for 4 years and I have always wanted a gibson. I finally bought this one after saying I would then going and buying some other brand such as Fender & Martin. I compared this guitar to my Fender American Standard Strat and my Martin auditorium model. It has a great sound and amazing feel.

OK, you guys know what it is. I really can't add anything that hasn't
already been said. Based on some of the prices I have seen listed here, it looks as if I got the best deal of all at $469.00. I bought it brand new in 1998 at the Guitar Center in Towson Maryland. It was special ordered for someone who never picked it up. It was priced at $499.00 but when I pointed out some very light scratches on the back, they knocked the price down even lower. The scratches are hardly noticable and are not all the way through the finish. These only come in black and red, and I got a black one. I noticed that the "Gibson" logo on the headstock is a decal and not an inlay. What the heck, it still looks good.

This guitar is very universal, and can produce a wide varity of sounds
ranging from an ES335 to a Strat. It suits any style of music I choose to play. Rockabilly is my first love, and Blues are my second. It can handle either one with no sweat.

This guitar was ready to play when I walked out of the store with it. No adjustments of any kind were needed. It has nice low action and plays like butter in your hands. Aside from the very light scratches on the back, this guitar is perfect.

This guitar seems very solid and should be able to withstand any kind of playing. Nothing against this guitar, but I wouldn't play any gig without a backup, anymore than I would drive across country without a spare tire. It's not often that I break a string, but it happens. I don't want to have to restring in the middle of a gig. I would just grab another guitar and keep on rockin'

Never had the occasion to deal with them. Don't know.

I have been playing a long time and own quite a collection of guitars and amps. I bought this one because I like the way it plays and sounds. The price was an offer I couldn't refuse. I've never had a problem with losing guitars. I usually remember where I put them, but if it were stolen, I would probably hunt down the thief and cut all the fingers off his left hand, and tell him not to do that again.

The features on this guitar were fairly nice. The vibratone and bridge pickup create a warm 335 sound, but you can also get many other great tones. The gig bag it comes with was ok, although it has a tendency to slip out of tune while in there. The gibson life time warranty is a feature that makes me feel safe while I sleep.

The sound is beautifly clear, but you can also get some of the richest tones I have heard from a guitar in this price range. The same day I played a Gibson 335 ES and a 175 Es and this little hum-dinger sounded remarkably close. It also swings the other direction playing amazing clear strat-like tones, great for playing acoustic stuff.

My only real complaints are in this area as many others have been. My bridge was smooth and checked out ok, but my pickups were screwd on very loose and needed to be tighted immeadately. Also the finish scratches very easliy and needs a pick guard which gibson does not offer. Alough they directed me to a custom pickguard maker it can run upwards of 50$.

Aside from minor flaws in the finish and poorly tinghtened pickups it's a sturdy guitar from what I can tell. I recently took it to music camp with me and it held up fine. Gold hardware on this puppy adds to it's sleek beauty.It does seem to slip out of tune more fequently than other guitars I've used but I think it's cause of all the bending it beckonds you to do.

The life time warrenty and help was exceptional,but nothing I wouldn't expect from a top notch company like Gibson.

For the price this guitar is a damn good deal. I looked and many other guitars in much higher price ranges and found this to be the most versitile and have excellent sound quality. It reminds me of so many different great guitars that I have heard. The uniquness of this guitar is also a great thing. So many times we have relied on things we have use for ages and this is something new that is great.

Standard Blueshawk features.

I have had lots of guitars, including a 63 SG that I sold and bought this (much lighter). This is my favorite. Most other guitars have a particular sound that you are stuck with, making it good for one type of music or chords but not leads. This is the most versitile guitar I've played. I mostly play blues and rock, but it is great for country ballads as well.

I have no complaints with mine. Plays well, nice finish, smoothly finished frets. Overall good craftsmanship.

It seems solid, well built, and ought to last

I asked for some info on the variatone, and they quickly responded. They seem responsive.

I am tired of backaches from playing Les Pauls and SG's. This guitar weighs 5.5 lbs, plays great, sounds great and is a real Gibson. The price/value ratio is phenomenal, in my opinion. This weighs less than Fenders, which I also tried; but this guitar has a set neck, not a bolt on, which I think gives it more resonance, and is of course more costly to manufacture.

This Blueshawk was made in 1998, Chicago Blue finish (which I was really attracted to), gold hardware and all the usual features, tap and selector.

What can I say about the sound that hasn't already been said, these are marvelous sounding guitars. The ability to control the sound has been maximized quite nicely.

The factory set up was not bad, the action was too high for me, but the intonation was on. Here's the rub! The finish is horrid, micro scratches in the finish abound. Inside the f-holes were splatured with rubbing compound, left there from the factory. I removed the access plate from the neck pick up and the inside was filled with compound. There was some form of red tint on the binding strip? The clear coat was obviously put on too thick, as there were raised mounds around the edges of the f-holes. I got a deal on the guitar because of this, but the more I thought about it, I decided to give Gibson a call. They advised that I sent it to them for inspection, which I decided to do. Three weeks later, the guitar came back virtually untouched. A complete waste of time! Well, I guess did get the elusive Gibson box out of it!

These guitars are small in stature, but built very well. As for reliability, time will tell.

Unbelievably poor! Apparently Gibson has let there finishing standards slip. With a suggested retail price of $1200+, it's no wonder dealers are embarrassed to ask more than $500! I would have thought that Gibson would have taken the opportunity to refinish my guitar, not just look at it and send it back.

I haven't been playing long, a few months. I love the sound and the playability of the guitar is great. I knew when I bought this guitar that the finish was not perfect, after all I only paid $515 for the thing new. I have looked at alot of these guitars since buying mine and have seen many with finishes worse than mine. In spite of the finish, I am still giving this guitar a good rating because of the sound quality. My advise, buy it for the sound, not the finish!

Features have been covered but there's one thing I must mention. This is NOT a hollowbody! I got tricked into thinking it was...just a word of caution for those of you out there who are as naive as I was. The f holes are merely decorative.

Been trying to play blues for about 2 yrs now...this one fits very nicely. It has some warm hollowbody-LIKE tones and can even do clucky strat or tele sounds, but I'd stick to a strat or tele if I wanted that kinda tone. This guitar does best in that mild overdrive favoured by BB King...even though I play through a peavey rage 158 it still sounds pretty good. I'll consider getting another amp but that'll be a lot later. It's also pretty versatile...I played Chet Atkins and whatever smatterings of jazz I know on it and it sounds great too. I don't use the varitone much in overdrive but it can help give you a range of clean tones. Kudos to Gibson for this one. There is hum sometimes but I'd attribute it more to my surroundings and amp.

Worksmanship was passable but had a few flaws...a lot of wood filler in the inlays and fret slots and buffing scratches on the finish. Not something I'd expect for Gibson. I know they can do a lot better. Then again for a low-end model, guess I can hardly complain...it was like the cheapest Gibson in the whole shop.

I don't play live much (at all actually). Hardware's pretty ok but my sweats got a lotta weird stuff in it, don't think the gold colour will last very long. Don't play with straps much. Since this is a solid body I'd expect that it can take a beating but it looks too pretty to be bashed up. At least strats and teles can still look great bashed up. I think could use this guitar without backup if I didn't need much in the way of strat tones. That's if I ever get a gig in my life.

all in all this guitar will keep me satisfied for a long time...I actually got to choose between an ES335 or this but seriously speaking I think the 335 is WAY overpriced. I would have loved to get it but I guess I can't accept the idea that I'm paying more for reputation and prestige than playability and tone. Well I settled for this baby and I'm not regretting it anytime soon.

The varitone is nice, although there isn't much difference between nearby settings, i.e. 1 isn't much different from 2, or 5 from 6, but you can get a great variety of tones from it! The P-90 pickups do a good job. The thing LOOKS fantastic, which is a little important- you don't want to spend $$ on something that looks like crap.

I play blues, and this is a great guitar for it- you can get thick warm sounds for rhythm, and some real wail for those Chicago solos! No noise at all on mine.

Well set up- one of the pickups was loose, but this was easily fixed with a few turns of the screwdriver.

This is a rock. Only had it for 6 months or so, but it is solid.

This is a great guitar! Nice size, good neck, and the varitone allows you to really get a good variety of sounds from it. If it were stolen or lost, I would weep bitterly and then get another one. I kind of wish that I had sprung for the model with the maestro tremolo, though.

The varitone is a nice touch, plus the P-90's are always dependable. I never really liked the neck on this thing until recently when I replaced the frets. I had low, flat Gibson frets installed to give it an early `70's Les Paul Custom feel. Granted it was an expensive modification, but worth every penny. It plays beautifully now...

The sound is strong and powerful, but it almost wasn't necessary to make it semi hollow body. Yes, the "f" holes look cool, but they would be better served if it were solid body. I suppose, however, that the semi-hollow body design does give it a little more bottom end warmth.

Factory set up is terrible. I spent $300 on the neck and made it beautiful, so there's a lot to work with, but plan on spending money to make it into a professional instrument. If Gibson cranked the list price up by $150 and did better neck work this guitar would sell a lot better.

Solid.

Never needed any.

I've played for 13 years. I own American made Fender's, Les Pauls, an Ibanez and a PRS, and this holds its own. My favorite feature is the pickups and now the neck. I wish it was made with better, harder wood.

Made in USA in 1998. Colour is red. Varitone switch. Volume/Tone control. P-90 pickups with hum-cancelling dummy-coil.

If you see it in a store you think 'What the heck is this'. Looks kind of strange with this f-wholes. Small and innocent, but watch-out. This guitar is one bad motherfucker. You can play everything with it. Blues, Country, Metal, Jazz, you name it. This guitar has a fast attack, good sustain, a crisp and transparent sound and is so light that you can play all night long without the slightest problem.

The action, fit and finish was perfect. Big fat one-piece mahagony neck with good playability. Gibson, take off that 'Blues Hawk' logo on the body.

No problems at all. Hardware seems to be of good qualitiy.

No need.

This guitar offers tremendous bang for the buck. If you see one check it out. If it were stolen I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

See the other reviews. This one's the typical non-tremelo model. Semi-transparent Chicago Blue. 2 Blues 90 pick ups, truss rod wrench and gig bag. Gibson should allow a credit for the bag for those people wanting a hard case instead. Another minor gripe is that they should provide more documentation for the varitone selector, but at least that was availible online at www.gibson.com.

Very nice variety of sounds for classic rock and blues(of course). With the gain turned down and the neck pick up only, it even gets some warm, jazzy, almost acoustic tones. Plenty of sustain. I just play at home through a small Marshall with a little reverb and chorus. I was struck by the dynamic range of the guitar compared to others I have tried. It actually has a nice sound unplugged!

Action was perfect(for me) right out of the box. This guitar just begs you to bend notes. No fret buzz. Silent pickups at any selector setting. If you look at the Blueshawk, check the finishing of the frets carefully. Some I looked at were quite sharp as you run your hand along the neck, but mine is nice and smooth. Hey Gibson, if your reading this, please drug test the person adjusting the pick ups because mine were quite loose. Another reviewer had the same problem. Eventually I'll have this fixed but it doesn't affect the sound. Near perfect finish. Mine was ordered for me so it didn't get abused on display.

I've only had this 2 weeks.

Gibson responded to my email question about the loose pickups within 24 hours. I haven't had a chance to get them adjusted yet. Life time warranty for original purchaser.

I haven't been playing a year yet, so this is my second guitar after moving up from a Squier Strat. I'm no expert, but I tried a lot of different guitars before getting this. I am very impressed with how much more musically complex the sound is. The other appealing feature is how light and comfortable it is to play. It just felt right when I picked one up.(Very subjective of course) Its no museum piece, but overall nicely made. The key word here is value. Seemed like a good deal for the sound and features and quality.

This is a new one, only been in the store for two weeks at Wichitaband.com I won't go into features others have already mentioned, but mine has the Maestro tailpiece tremolo. None of the others have mentioned that so far, so I'll say that it's a very nice addition to the guitar. Others may not like gold..I think it goes great on the transparent Chicago Blue guitar.

I play mostly blues in varying styles and the BH can go from a jazzy rucg blues to a tinny or bright sound in a flick of a switch. I like the Variotone, but I leave it on 2 most of the time. The versatility is great. With variotone off completely it's a great sound too, very rich, without too much base.

Factory setup stunk. The bridge pickup was almost out of the guitar, touching the strings when it arrived. ( I ordered from an online dealer). Neck pickup was fine. Everything else was setu fine, including strings. They're lower than any Gibson I've seen and I like them great right there. When viewed by tilting in good light, the back of the guitar had a ton of small finish microscratches and the top had spots all over it that looked like a tech had setup the guitar with glue on his fingers. I used 4 different Mequiers polish compounds and I still missed a few. But, the finish is deep and thick..or appears so. Very beatuiful andn lustrous. Once I got it rubbed out it looks great. The case appears slightly too small for the maestro tail piece. The trem bar has to be swung back clockwise but it appears a tad too long to fit right in the very tight case I got with it.

No way to tell, it appears sturdy all the way. Finish, as I said, appears thick and the binding should help with protecting the top. The back however is not bound, though the shape probably would prohibit one from being put on.

I've been playing since 68, so that's let me see...uhm...a long time. I have 7 other guitars, including one other gibson, two strats, one strat custom built, a custom built lucille and a chinese acoustic..(yea..go figure..I bought it in Prague.)

'97 Blueshawk, 22 frets, diamond shaped inlays, 1 Vol, 1 Tone, 3-way Tele style switch, vari-tone, 2 "Blues 90" pickups, low profile bridge with string through body design, gold hardware. Really cheap looking "Blueshawk" script decal above fretboard on body - something I would expect from Epiphone, but on a Gibson? Fender scale (25 1/2") neck and a Fender size nut (1 5/8" - Gibson usually uses 1 11/16") and a thick "boat" shaped neck remsembling a cross between an old 50's Fender neck, and a Gibson '59 LP profile. This guitar has more features than normal for Gibson, and it capable of many sounds. I'm not sure how practical some of them are, but they are there if you want to play around with it.

I play alot of blues and blues rock which is why I wanted to try this guitar in the first place. The guitar sounds like a solidbody with tone chambers, not a semi-hollow - it's just too small. Thats not necessarily bad, just dont expect it to sound like a 335. The "Blues 90" setup seems to me to be just a marketing gimmick with the "3rd dummy coil" taking up space in the body - why not just put P-100's in it to begin with to cancel hum and make the tone chambers larger? The Vari-tone can produce a wide range of sounds, but I really only use just a couple of them. Personally I'm not very impressed with it's sound - it's kinda "blah" sounding - not bad, but nothing that really stands out, either. The body being made from Poplar has a lot to do with it, I think. I've played several newer Les Paul Specials (P-100's w/mahogany bodies) that really blow the blueshawk away.

Setup was pretty good for a lower end Gibson, I did'nt have to adjust the truss rod at all - just minor bridge saddle adjustments. Overall fit and finish were very satisfactory - no complaints here. Of course, the gold hardware sucks and looks cheesy, why they continue to use it is beyond me. Action is pretty good too. I also like the diamond shaped inlays - different, yet subtle. No problems with the cherry finish or body bindings, but the stupid "blueshawk" decal still gripes me, though. Another thing I dont like is that the body is just too small - it's tiny, looks like a toy. I'm 5'11" 150 lbs and it looks too small on me in the mirror. I can't imagine a 6'2" 220 lb guy playing one. Strap one on and look at yourself in a mirror - you'll see what I mean.

Sturdy and dependable guitar, although I don't really ever use it because even with all of the sonic possibilities from the vari-tone, I still can't get a good sound from it. I know some of the reviews below talk about the sound being in the person not the instrument, But then how come my SG and my Explorer and my Flying V can produce sounds that are absoultely stunning and the Blueshawk just sounds mediocre at best?

Never dealt with them (never had a reason to)

I've been playing 15+ years, and own too many guitars to list. In my opinion, this is a guitar with an identity crisis - it's not sure if it's a Gibson or a Fender or hollow or a solidbody. It's Gibson-like features inlcude a set neck, P-90s, angled headstock, and mahagony neck. Fender-like features include Fender scale and nut size, Tele-style string through body low profile bridge, and poplar body. I'm usually a big fan of Gibsons (read my Explorer and Flying V reviews) but the Blueshawk is really just out in left field somewhere. If it were lost or stolen, I wouldn't really lose any sleep over it.
As I stated earlier, If you want a Gibson single coil sound, A Les Paul Special sounds better, is in the same price range as the blueshawk, and has a heck of a lot better re-sale value.

This guitar seems pretty versatile. Just the one volume and one tone control but the 6-way varitone switch adds a lot of variety. Poplar, maple, mahogany, yeah, yeah, yeah. A couple of "f" holes, strings go through the body...what else? Kluson tuners and apparently a Gibson original...two Blues 90 pickups with a third dummy for hum cancelling.

I play blues mostly and, as you might guess, this guitar is well suited to the style. I play straight into a small Fender amp and it sounds great to me. The overa\ll tone/sound/feel is something like an ES335...or is it more like an LP Special...or sometimes a strat-like sound? (I said it was versatile.) I understand that virtually everyone submitting opinions gets into these long, detailed and very subjective evaluations of sound and though I can appreciate that on the one hand, I think it's important to remember that the music isn't "in" the instrument as much as it is "in" the musician. I'm reminded of a Mississippi Delta farm boy playing a single broom wire nailed to the side of the house with a rock tied to the bottom for tension and a broken bottleneck for a slide. No doubt he played with great soul. No, I didn't play two million guitars and compare and evaluate them all before buying. I new and trusted the Gibson name and figured they wouldn't name it the Blueshawk if it wern't designrd to produce some good blues tones. When I played it I wasn't disappointed. I gave it a 9 because nobody's perfect.

After playing it for a few weeks, I promptly voided the (lifetime) warranty by having it set up (including a light fret dress) by a good guy I know. I also had him stiffen up the pickups which seemed to be floating on air. The finish looked good but I'm not sure the paint was completely cured. It came straight from the factory to to me through the dealer in about a week's time. So it got a little smudged. I was thinking about denting it to get that out of the way too. Everything seems to work great except for the mounting of the bridge pickup which is such that when I mute with my right palm, the damn thing raises up and touches the high E string. This will never do. Minus one, Gibby.

The guitar has a rather light and, well I don't want to say fragile feel, but I'm not sure how much abuse it would take. If for no other reason than the above mentioned pick up problem, I would want a backup. It's nice to have that high E string respond when you reach for it, Know whut I mean, Vern?

Have not dealt with the company

I've been playing for a couple of decades and I also own an Ibanez acoustic electric nylon, an old acoustic Kay f-hole, and a six string acoustic Takamine. As you may have gathered, I view perfectionism as more of a psychological problem than a fine quality of the arteest. I think it's a good guitar for the money but I don't want to rely too much on the equipment to make music...that's my job. There's a million guitars out there in this price range and I don't think any of them is going to make me or break me as a musician. I like the looks of this guitar, I like the sounds "I" make through it but if it were lost or stolen I'd probably try something else next. Not that I don't like it...I do, but again, it's not the guitar, the amp, the pedals, etc. that make the music, it's me.

I bought the US-made Blueshawk when it first came out, I believe, in 1996. Along with the 3-way blade switch for the "Blues 90's", it has a 6-way Variatone switch with a pull-pot by-pass on the tone knob. Having this many tonal options is definately what interested me in the Blueshawk; you can go from a deep jazz/blues tone, to a thin punk or metal tone. The body comes in black or red (I bought black)and has two f-holes to accent the semi-hollow appearance. I would have bought blue if it was available. It has sort of a pinched shrunken Les Paul shape. One thing that really struck me about this guitar is how incredibly LIGHT it is.

I've been playing almost nothing but rock with this guitar. At first I was playing it through a Carvin X-100A, which sounded lush and great. That is, until I bought a MESA/Boogie Dual Recifier Solo head, which makes any amp sound weak. However, with both amps, the Blueshawk sounds great. Probably the most versatile guitar I've played, even more than the strats I've had in the past. The two Blues 90s have single-coil bite with humbucker noise reduction and warmth. In the studio when I needed a different guitar tone for an add'l guitar sound, all I needed to do was to flip a switch and play. The only drawback was when I first bought it. There was a bit of a ground-pop when I touched the guitar. I went back to the place I purchased it from, and they fixed it.

I have no complaints about the way it came from the factory. I put a heavier gauge of strings on it, and now the action needs to be lowered. All of the components have been quality parts; no complaints.

I've dropped, scratched, banged, and bled all over this guitar. Looking up close, I noticed thousands of scratches all over the finish, so I think I've diminished any sort of resale value. It doesn't matter, I'd never get rid of it. The only thing that I can think of that would be considered negative is pretty much my fault. I play pretty aggresively, and the body isn't cut-away. The binding can rub your arm raw if you sweat and play hard. I can remember a practice where my arm that once hurt felt rather squishy (yuck!). My bandmates watched in horror as I soldiered on through the song with blood covering my arm. The only time I need a back-up, is when I haven't changed the strings in a while, and I break them. My friends tell me I shouldn't play so rough, but hey, screw that! I like having blisters and scabs on my fingers from last night's gig!!

I know it has a lifetime warranty, but I don't know what good it's for. I need to have a fret replaced, and it's not covered because it's wear and tear.

Over all, this guitar is my perfect axe. I've been playing for about 6 years now, and I've had countless guitars. This is the only one I've really wanted to keep forever. Yes, if it were stolen, I'd buy another. I wish it had a cut-away, that's about it. The price is right, and the playability is excellent.

This guitar is a 1997 model though it seemed to sit in the showroom for years. I saw it in the shop and played it. I returned many times to play it. When it was broken in I finally bought at a nice discount. It seems no one else would give it a home. At first view, different is the adjective that comes to mind. Cute in an ugly sort of way might also describe the Blueshawk but I didn't buy it for its looks. I bought it because it has a ton of unique features for the price. It has a compact f-holed semi-hollow body of poplar with a maple top. The neck is mahogony with a rosewood fingerboard, pretty interesting combinations. It is finished in a nice cherry red with cream colored P90 pickups and body binding. The "Blueshawk" logo screened on the body near the top of the neck is kind of cheesy but I've learned to live with it. There is a "dummy" pickup between the two single coil P90s that does a good job of cancelling hum. The Blueshawk has 1 volume control and 1 tone control with a 3 way switch and then there's the added "vari-switch". This switch has 6 tone modeling presets. Somewhere in there you can get almost Strat-like tones, almost. It's pretty neat if your too lazy to switch to the Strat (or only own one guitar). The Blueshawk has a through the body, individual string adjustment bridge just like a modern Fender Telecaster. The string spacing is extra wide especially between the 1st/6th strings and the edge of the finger board to facilitate string bending mania. Gibson skimped on the fret wire with a medium gage that does not take full advantage of this guitar's string bending capabilities. Oh well, that can be changed later. The Blueshawk comes with those Kluson-style tuners that many players hate but the idea behind this guitar is a throwback to the 50's. I think it's best appreciated as such.

P90's make me think of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. This guitar was made for road house blues. You can get sort of fat Tele sounds and sort of Strat sounds out of it but to my ear the Blueshawk shines when played in mild overdrive with the vari-switch off. Think Rollin' Stone and Boogie Chillin'. If you want that sound and can't afford a 52' Les Paul or want something more versitile than a Les Paul Special then the Blueshawk is a good compromise. I play this guitar through a Fender De Ville amp and am pleased with the results. Oh, by the way, this guitar can get some suprisingly good Rage and Korn sounds with a tune down and a little "coaxing". My son loves it!

I reset the string height as I always do with new guitars. The pickups were set spot on. The fit and finish are very good. It's funny, for some reason this guitar reminds me of a cheap old Harmony but much better executed.

This guitar does not seem as bomb proof as an old Tele or a Les Paul but with proper handling I expect years of good service.

I've been playing for 35 years. I also own a vintage 52 Tele, a Mike Lull Custom Tele, a Lone Star Strat, a Les Paul Studio and a Les Paul Classic. I Like the Blueshawk and recommend it as a vintage blues guitar substitute. My only question is why, after all these years, can't Gibson design a guitar that is comfortable to play sitting down (like Fender Teles and Strats)? I guess Gibson thought the Blueshawk's imbalance would enhance the "vintage" feel of the guitar.

Read the other reviews for the details. Suffice it to say that the variator switch and the P-90's give you a bunch of options for tones.

Sounds really great for the blues tones. (and its called a Blueshawk?? I wonder why) The pick-ups are a bit noisy. I've never had anything with P-90's before so I don't know if it's inherent in the pick-up or what. It's really easy to play and do bends.

Set up pretty well. Kinda buzzy though...a little truss rod adjustment fixed that problem. Intonation was spot on.

I've only had it about a month. Don't anticipate any problems...I'm not too hard on my instruments.

I sent an email inquiring about my Les Paul and got a reply pretty quickly with lots of information. I can't imagine needing to talk to them for anything else.

Overall a really nice guitar. It plays really well, sounds good especially for blues and cleaner stuff. I'm thinking about putting some different pick-ups in it. I'm worried about the size of the new pick-ups though. I think Dimarzio makes some, if anybody knows if they're the same size email me please. I don't want to route anything or do anything radical.

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.