Gibson Nighthawk Custom

1994 gibson custom
made in usa
22 1/2 frets
laminated top
pickups:rhythm special M-Series mini HB::;middle NSX single coil::;treble special m-series slanted HB
Maple, Mahogany woods
fireburst finish
les paul body
non-locking gibson deluxe tuners
Fender hardtail style bridge
thin ebony frets w/ crown inlay

great sound. good for all types of music

it's all fine but the d string tuning peg is loose

the guitar withstand live playing
he hardware seems like it will last
the finish good enough to last
I can depend on it

i've been playing for 3 years
i love everything about it except for the tuning pegs

it gets out of tune easily

Gibson Nighthawk Standard
USA Made
Flame top
3 Pick up
Through Body Stringing

This guitar rocks. Tuning stability is great, and the neck profile is simply put - the fastest gibson neck i've ever played.
The bridge position is thick and creamy. More fluid than a Les Paul.
Blues/Rock.

The Nighthawks consistancy is great - this has now become my first choice when playing live. It's GIbsons best kept secret

Three pickup model in cherry, no trem, but I got a Digitech GNX anyhow so I just use the whammy on that when I need to. Don't know year of manufacture, of this one I never got curios enough to look it up. Pretty standard Nighthawk.
The other reviews on this page have pretty well got it. Only I don't think anyone mentions that the third pickup,(the middle one)is screwed straight into the body. Which is good for controling feedback, but I don't think that this was the real reason for doing that. More to do with keeping things looking neat. The other pickups ane standard 'ring' mounted.

I play classic rock & mu-metal mostly, and it's pretty good all round. Three different pickups, five way switch and 'coil-tap'mean that I can find a decent sound for pretty much all I want to play. I have used it thu the GNX2 multi FX, POD II, and 50W Marshall MV combo I bought new back 20-odd years ago, and can get AC-DC 'Angus' tone pretty good, and M. Schenker passably with the right settings. I don't find it so good for more delicate 'sweet' tones you can coax out of a good Les Paul but if you really have to have that sound, you really gotta get one of those. Frankly, given the wide range of sounds you can get out of this little beastie, it seem a bit churlish to criticise it in this department.

I find that for me, it sounds best with a '10 guage' string set. Lighter strings sound a bit well...thin.

With this particular one I can get a good feedback-driven sustain, and seems to be free of the uncontrollable squeal type feedback you get with some guitars. This may not be the case with every Nighthawk, I was offered a two-pickup model when I bought it and that one wasn't quite as good in that department.

As for hum & noise....Well OK on single-coil & with 'phased' pickup selections you expect a bit of hum on high-gain amp settings, but even then quieter than a lot. The particular one I got did have a tendency to crackly hum, but this was down to a poor earth on the bridge pickup that I soon fixed. I also modded it with copper tape inside the controll recess which quietens it even more. But it wasn't particularily noisy in the first place. I do this with all my guitars. It's not difficult, but then I am an professional electronics engineer so I would say that. If you really don't know how to do this propely then don't do it, you can end up making any hum worse or shorting out some of the existing wiring, and there is a lot more of it in this guitar than most.)

Well I got this second hand, so it was set-up the way the guy who owned it preferred. For this reason I can't comment on the way it was originally shipped. In any case, even new the setup can depend a lot on the guy in the music shop. In any case I always fiddle with the exact setup on a new guitar to get what I want. As long as it is set-up good enough to judge the instrument when I buy it, I'm happy.


The The instrument has obviously been played quite a bit, and the gold finish is getting a bit thin in places, but otherwise it's fine.
The action is pretty good, I have seen better, but I don't like tiny actions anyway. I can still get 2mm at the 12th anyhow which is more than enough. (The other Nighthawk I was offered had slightly 'better' action, but the feedback was less controllabe. Had only two pickups anyway.)

I haven't broke it yet. I keep it in the fitted hard-case that was thrown into the deal when I got it, so it doesn't get bashed about very much. I would say that as far as rough-handling is concerned, wtith the thinnish neck profile treat it like an SG and you should be OK. (That is to say, keep it in a hard case when you are not playing it, cos if you drop it, the neck might come off!) If you want to hump it around in a gig bag, expect damage. Mind you, hump anything around in a gig bag you should expect damage. (In my opinion all 'gig' bags are mis-named, and should not be used for gigging at all. They should be re-named 'dammned inconvenient zip-up dust covers'.)

As far as finish and cosmetics go, it still looks good to me. I see no visible cracks in the laquer, and despite the gold plating getting a bit thin on the bridge saddles, (which isn't surprising) it isn't flaking off. (Like it did on one Les Paul I used to have!)

Stability of neck etc. Well this item is one of the few that got to the UK, and it does rain a bit here, and if the sun does come out it can get very sticky. I imagine this is quite different from where the wood was originally shaped. Notwithsanding, the instrument seems not to have moved at all over the three years I have had it, and I don't expect it to either. (Maybe the habit of keeping my instruments in closed cases most of the time helps.)

I have been doing the guitar thing for (on and off) 30 years now, (and I think i'm just starting to get the hang of it.) and have bought and sold and used pretty-well everything that was at one time or another. (I used to buy quite a lot with the specific intention of selling-on, usually at a profit, as a way of up-grading my gear. I got quite a collection at one point.) Right now, electric-wise I have a (heavily modded) 73 Telcaster, I got in a cardboard box for #70 back in 78', an Ibanez RGxxx (I forget the number!), a mexican Strat, (it was ****** cheap!), a home-made 'plank' guitar..... in the shape of an axe (Kind of a pun really, it just about plays!).
This guitar compares quite favourably with any of the other guitars I have used, including most of the classic Gibsons.

The reason I got this guitar was really to replace my old LP what got nicked, several years back along with a load of other gear. (That really pissed me off! I had that old guitar nearly 20 years, it was like losing an old friend. I would really like to get my hands on the b***** that pinched it.) Anyway at the time I couldn't afford to replace it and, basically gave up playing for a while. So if I compare the Nighthawk to the LP a lot, I can only say that my excuse has to be that is the guitar I knew best.

As I said before, it isn't quite capable of the subtlety achievable with a good LP, but it is very, very versatile, and can get more sounds out of it than any other conventional electric guitar I have tried. (The only one I got more sounds from out of was a Line 6 Variax I tried out last year, but I don't think that counts.) I find it very playable, and it is so very light. Sometimes I can't believe it is really made mainly from mahogany.

Overall, I think that for a practical no-nonsense piece of kit it is very good indeed. The range of sounds available, mean that for most of the time I really need only one guitar. My only moan is that well...sometimes I really want to nail that LP sound, and I can't quite get it. But hey, like I said, if I want that, then I guess I'd better go out and get one. (The Variax I tried couldn't seem to quite nail it either. LP's are also ******* heavy, and with my back I don't think I could play one all night anymore. Not without having to sit down for a bit.) I can't really fault an instrument for not being what it isn't. However, the sound is still not as fruity, full, warm, woody, whatever, as I would really, really like, so I can't give it as good an overall rating as I would like to otherwise.

If it got nicked, I would probably try to buy another one, but they aren't the most common animal over here. I only ever saw two for sale in the UK, and I got one of those.
Bargain? I only paid 500 UK quids for it. Which is I suppose, average-to-good, at about $650-$700, but gosh, I dunno what they would have gone for new over here anyway. Possibly it was bargain of the year! All I can say is that I really don't think I have any grounds for complaint, I have paid more for guitars not-as-good, (and sold them for even more!) and less for guitars which are supposed-to-be-better.
(Many fenders are absolute kack, trust me.)

I think it is a very good guitar in it's own right, and if it was discontinued, maybe it's because no rock god shred guitar hero ever used it on stage, so everybody wen't out and bought Ibanez'and stuff instead. But there is now't wrong with the Nighthawk, it's just a little different, and I like that.

This review is for my Gibson Custom Nighthawk with Floyd Rose tremolo system. The current Gibson serialization method used since 1994 marks this as made in 1997. It has a flat, highly figured maple top, mahogany neck and body, and, an ebony fretboard with all top surfaces being triple and single bound. Its finish is a nitro cellulose natural clear.<P> Pick up configuration is the same as the standard model; neck mini humbucker, bridge 500T voiced and styled slanted humbucker and the additional middle single coil that can be used in combination with the other p/u's or alone. The 5 way switch, master volume and the pull/push coil tap tone controls are located in the lower bout of the guitar and this is accessed through the back and covered with a plastic cover in typical, Gibson fashion. The jack is mounted through the lower bout as well and is configured like a LP.<P> Retro styled Kluson tuners with ferrels being of the machined and flat washer type are used and these are more secure than the small domed pressed type that are fitted into the peg face of a headstock. The Schaller Floyd Rose is a very well made type 2, gold plated and has the proper contoured R2 type locking nut that conforms the strings to the angled sweep of the headtstock. The 22 frets are of the medium taller type that Gibson usually outfits to most of the their solid bodies and are what can be described as trapezoid shape in their profile.<P> The fretboard abalone crown inlays are the same as the fixed bridge custom. Body to neck weight distribution is very comfortable and the 25.5 neck scale is very fast and smooth from top to bottom. The round neck is more substantial in feel to a slim line profile and it has the gradual narrow taper to the nut and headstock typical on most Les Pauls with their shorter, 24.75 scale. The guitar also has the OHSC with the plush pink lining and cover (very Freudian!)

The sounds of this guitar not only offer me several key choices but a parameter of good control to voice things a certain way which is unusually excellent. The 5 way switch in combination with coil tap tone control definitely have to be mastered if one is to know his way around the guitar. Only one position out of the 10 (pushed middle coil, position 3) isn't fully attenuated in output; in fact, it is bearly audible. This can be used in dramatic fashion in high gain/ volume, natural distortion or clean settings when one employs a rapid switching from position 3 to either 4 & 5 or 1 or 2.<P> In pulled coil tap mode 1 to 5 is as follows: full neck mini humbucker, full neck mini and full bridge, full single coil, split bridge with single coil, and split bridge alone. Down/pushed mode, 1 through 5 is as follows, split mini, split mini with split bridge, unattenuated single coil, and postions 4 & 5 sound pretty much the same which is full bridge.<P> Where this guitar truly excells is in its tone, depth and sustain. Acoustically this is one of the loudest guitars I've heard and this is where Gibson truly parts company with Fender. This Custom has the added benefit of having more cavities in the center due to the Floyd Rose. Its acoustic ring is genuine and rich and that is very weird for a solid body. The high quality Schaller unit is a very stable string platform as well as being a very precisely engineered tremolo. I have outfitted my guitar with 4 springs to compliment the .50 gauge D'Addario flats that I like. The tone on any setting is very lively and depending on how you fluctuate from dark to bright in your tone, this guitar is intuitevly designed to help you get there. Whether it be jazzier full and mellow single or full coil neck p/u settings, any combination of neck and bridge. or the single coil by itself (which is very excellent and clean by its self), to bright clean and louder sounds. Crunch and sustain in high gain is awesome!!! Controls are very quiet too. An excellent testing platform for all of these features as well as the strings that I prefer was the amp and cabinet that I use which I also posted a review for; the Crate TV 6210 (2 Celestion vintage 10s) with Celestion vintage 30 extension cab. I have set up this amp to perform very effiecently and I use monster cable jazz 500 series cables as well as 1000 series speaker extension cable. This insures powerful input transmissions with virtaully no distortion to the signals being affected thus making it excellent for music making at any volume.

This is the category I have to place special emphasis on. Set up could have been (and should have been) excellent. As is the setup could be described as poor to adequate at best. The collector who originally had this guitar kept the original Gibson set up as is and it was an excellent starting point for me because it was diamterically opposed to what it should have been. The most important thing to diagnose was the misplacement of the R2 nut as it was far too high in relation to what the gradual incline of strings from the first fret should be. After a lot of tweaking and fine tuning of the nut, tremolo and neck tension truss rod setting, I found the perfect balance of string vibration, height and tuning at the the 12th fret. (phwew!) <P> Being that this guitar was a closet queen meant that it would take a concentrated effort to get it into real everyday playing shape. Guitars get funny when they are not played and this one highlighted that point dramatically. What I liked about getting to individually study each aspect of the guitar's features is that I marveled at how well it was constructed. Athough it is not as cleanly and seamlessly made as the Yamaha AEX1500 I have, it definitely speaks highly of the Gibson pedigree. Attenetion to the fretboard, as it is an issue in other reviews I've seen, is the only thing I would consider as less than excellent. I also know that fixed neck guitars in general are more difficult to do fine detailing on once the neck and frets are in place, especially if there is extensive binding involved. Although the cavity for the floyd could have been a tad more tighter it is still very well done and cleanly routed; pick ups were also very well placed.
A Gibson through and through.

This is a very durably made instrument and it has remained soild and very stable with its current setup tht I gave it. You definitely need a high quality case to protect it and a durable stand to place it on. The most common damage to any Gibson is to its headstock, so taking particular care and precautions is the smart way to go. Any locking strap system is a must even though this guitar is so evenly balanced

I've dealt with Gibson a few times by phone and they were courteous and helpful each time. The attention that is given to their current standards is better than it has ever been; I'm very proud to own this instrument not only for its rarity but also for the company that stands behind it.

Very few guitars can match this guitar on an aspect to aspect basis, let alone on an overall basis. It's nice to own a guitar that is destined to be an original series classic, especially one that is such a fine playing instrument and with the rarer tremolo option that is unusual for Gibson. I had to sell my beautiful glacier blue Landmark Nighthawk to keep this guitar and I wouldn't have done it for any other Nighthawk. That being said, I wish I still had it because of its more simple elegance which suits the Nighthawk Custom beautifully as a second main solid body ax. Between this custom and Yamaha AEX1500 hollowbody, I couldn't ask for anything more from 2 great guitars.

I don't know the year of mine. It's an absolutly unbelievable guitar. My string gauges are from 0.13 to 0.59 with a plain 0.26 third string. It handles this load beautifully.
It is two pick up model. The finish is really nice. The top is so flamed that it really stands out even in a dimly lit club.
Neck is mahogany and the fret board is ebony

The sound of the guitar is unsurpassed. It gets so many tonal possibilities.

I've had the action completely reworked to my specifications. As I stated above, I use a heavier gauging of strings so it requires the action to be tricked out some. The truss rod and neck construction is the best I?ve ever seen. Better than my Gibson L-5 and my L-5S, Really!! That?s no story.

I play all my guitars very hard. That's why I play Gibsons. They're tough.

Gibson has been nothing but great to me. I've been doing business with them for some time now and I really feel they do they're best to make everything good.

As you can tell, I love this box.

Just an update to my previous posting made a few years back, and with reference to the previous posting, mine also developed a slight warp in the neck... sort of a reverse relief. The only solution was to strip the frets, re-plane the fretboard and re-fret. A pretty expensive repair... but I put on slightly fatter frets while I was at it... an improvement.
The guitar is now better than ever, but you've got to watch out for trouble with those long thin mahogany necks!!!

22 fret solid top (flat) with 5 way selector, coil tap, 3 pickup model with ebony fretboard and crown inlay. String through body. Very thin body makes this extremley comfortable to play. Beautiful AAAAA bookmatched flametop. I get lots of nice comments on how beautiful the top is.

I play mostly blues and blues rock and this guitar can do it all. With the coil tap, 5 way switch and 3 pups it is very versatile and has tons of tone variation. I play through a Fender twin or Ampeg Jet and the guitar delivers through either one.

When I got the guitar the neck was perfect and no adjustments were needed. Ready to rock.

I owned this about a year and developed a buzz at the E string. I assumed a neck adjustement was needed so I took it to my local tech. Bad news came back. The neck had developed a slight warp and would require a fret dress to get the buzz out and retain the low action.
I bought it used so I didn't even try to contact Gibson. Out about 200 bucks by the time I got it back. The guitar tech told me it was odd since most warping occurs when guitars are fairly new and this was several years old. He blamed it on climate change since I bought this from a guy on the west coast and I live in the midwest. Gotta drop the rating but I still love the guitar.

Never dealt with them.

I been playing for 25+ years and own PRS Custom 24, Blueshawk, G&L Legacy, Fender strat, Tacoma acoustic. I love this guitar and it gets played more than any of the others due to it's incredible versatility great tone and it's light weight.
I only wish it hadn't had the neck problem but I guess #*#! happens. I was really surprised that Gibson discontinued this model and also that it never reached the popularity I think it deserves. It is a great axe.

Not sure of the year, but probably 96 or so, US Made, 22 fret, solid flame maple top on a mahogany body, slat top, contour back. 2 pickup model, mini-bucker and slanted humbucker, 5-way pickup selecter, with coil taps for the humbucker in position 1 and 4, center position 3 is both single coil pickups. Body's like a sort of small Les Paul, in between a SG and a Les Paul in feel. Mahogany bound neck, ebony fretboard with fancy sunburst style fret markers, medium frets, sort of high profile. Through-body stringing like a telecaster. Kluson tuners. Came with triangular shaped Gibson gigbag. The bound neck and fancy inly is an especially nice feature. Looks gorgeous!

I play a roots style of American Music that comes out of a singer-songwriter, trad. folk music vein. This guitar is exactly what I've been looking for. I play into a 96 Fender Hotrod Deluxe (replaced the stock speaker with a Celestion Vintage 30, sometimes use Yellowjackets tube converters if needing a quieter output) through a 95Q Crybaby, a Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, Boss BD-1 Blues Driver, SD-1 Super Overdrive, Guyatone Micro Chorus, Danelectro Tuna Melt Tremelo, PB&J Delay. This is a quiet (not noisy) guitar with a lot of power, that sort of treads the line between a Les Paul and a Telecaster. It can make a lot of sounds, all of them good. So far I just love this guitar. But I am partial to this style of guitar. I have a Blueshawk, and I used to have the 3 pickup Epiphone Nighthawk. The Epi was a little cheesy in the finish and balance, and the way they wire up the pickup selecter is weird, with one of the positions of the 5-way switch with the coil tap being "OFF", which always was disconcerting while playing live. But it was so light, that when I got rid of it, I upgraded to the Blueshawk, but the Blues 90 pickups didn't do it for me, they weren't very loud and sounded sort of thin, and since the guitar I switch off with when playing live is a fat sounding humbucker Epi Sheraton II, and the settings on the amp needed to be changed when switching between guitars. The Gibson Nighthawk is very versatile, with the single coil sound of the Blueshawk (less noisy though), but with more body to the sound (probably due to the mahogany body, versus the poplar of the Blueshawk). And the humbucker sound when not tapped probably means I won't have to switch off guitars so much. The neck is really great, though I wish the frets were a bit fatter and lower profile.

It's used so I don't know what the factory setup was, but it was set up perfectly when I bought it. It had 9s on it, too light for me, but I put 10s on it right away and didn't need to alter the setup any. The pickups were nicely set up too. The top is great, matched nicely, with a nice clear finish that shows the flaming really well. The Blueshawk I have is transparent red flamed maple, with a finish that shows scratches easily, but the finish looks a little more durable on the Nighthawk, and the business of the grain hides scratches as well. There were a couple minor dents in the finish coat, but really hard to find them.

I think it'll be great live. I replaced the strap buttons with strap locks. The hardware was a little tarnished when I bought it, but a little polish brought it up to excellent. I wish there was a pickup cover on the bridge pickup, but it's slanted (maybe to simulate a Telecaster position) and I don't think I'll be able to find one. That may be a slight problem in fact, if I want to replace the bridge pickup, I don't know where I could get one. The finish seems thick, maybe would dent some, but will protect the wood. I'd depend on this more than the Blueshawk. I'd gig without a backup with the Nighthawk, if I had too.

Never dealt with Gibson

I've been playing 30 years, Most of that on a Guild G-37 Acoustic that I bought off the shelf in 1977. I've outlined most of my equipment above, though I do also have a 60s Gibson longneck 5-string banjo, and a couple other mongrel banjos. I also have a 60s Harmony 6-string console steel, and a Guyatone Double 8 console steel, which I A-B switch off with the guitars when playing live. As for electric guitars, between the Sheraton II and the Blueshawk, I've owned a 69 Tele, The Guild version of a 70s Les Paul, a strat copy, and epiphone Del Rey, and this Nighthawk is like a mongrel version of the best features of all of them. I'd sure wish I had it back if I lost it. It was cheap enough used, and they don't make them anymore, and it is especially pretty, so it might be hard finding another one. It's light enough so it doesn't kill my back, and flexible enough tone-wise to cover all the various bases I try to cover as a sideman. I just got it, but I played it a lot in this short time, and can't find too much wrong with it.

'96, 22-fret, 2 HB pickups (3PU available), A sigle cutaway mahogany body with AAA flamed top and mahogany neck. The top is flat, not contoured like most LP's. Ebony fingerboard, 25.5" scale. Binding on body, neck and headstock. It has thru-body string anchoring and each string can be individually adjusted for height and intonation. (Floyd-Rose is available as an option). The neck is fairly thick and wide. The two HB pickups can be tapped to single coil. There is a 5-way switch... Neck-HB - Neck-SC, Neck-SC+Bridge-SC, Bridge-HB, Bridge-SC. The cutaway and heel design make for easy access to the upper frets... much better than the single cutaway Les Pauls, and almost as good as the SG. The guitar is also light and comfortable. The things that are missing on mine (3rd PU and Tremolo) are available as options if you feel you need them. I really can't think of anything useful that's missing!

I was surprised by the tonal range of this guitar compared to my "conventional" LP. The two single coil pickups together or the bridge single coil give a great "bright" sound... the bridge single coil is similar to a Tele sound, and the two-single coils together are reminicient of a Strat. The Bridge humbucker sounds very much like a LP with a hot pickup. The neck pickup is somewhat more subdued and smoother in humbucking mode. In single-coil its a little brighter and thinner... probably the least useful position.

I bought it used... in near mint condition. Whoever owned it before wasn't a musician... it was almost unplayable. The action was high due to truss rod that was completely slack and a nut that was much too high. Also, the nut is slightly mis-positioned, the high E is a little too close to the edge of the frets. The proper solution would be to change the nut, but I just cut it down and adjusted everything and the action is now very good... I just have to be careful not to pull that high E towards the edge of the fret. There are also tool marks on the ebony fingerboard. The guitar looks fantastic... gold plating, amazing flame and the 3-color sunburst looks great. 2 points deducted for the mis-placed, mis-cut nut. Easily fixed. After about 3 hours of "fussing" the guitar is superb!

I find the lack of a pickguard surprising. I tend to rest my little finger on the body as I play, so I suspect the finish will wear through in time. The mahogany neck is probably fragile.

I haven't had to deal with them.

I've been playing for about 6-7 years over the last 30 (played as a teenager, gave it up due to a hand injury, took it up for the 2nd time recently). I must say that this is the most versatile Gibson I have owned. It's comfortable to play, sounds great, looks great. My only reservation was the quality control... and that involved nothing that couldn't be fixed. If I lost it I would buy another, but I might consider the 3rd pickup...