Gibson Nighthawk Special (3 Pickup model)

I've owned just shy of 30 different -- and I mean DIFFERENT (Gibson, Fender, Carvin, Peavey, G&L, Heritage, Epiphone, Yamaha, Danelectro...) electric guitars over the past 22 years. I've also played many more by practically living in many NYC area guitar shops on my spare time. Having said this, THE GIBSON NIGHTHAWK 3 pickup model is by far and away the most versatile guitar I've ever played. I won't rehash all the features, I'll just say that the only possible features I could see some players wanting that it doesn't offer would be a tremolo bridge and piezo system. Actually, Gibson did offer this model with a trem but I have the hard tail model.
For those who own this guitar but don't know the pickup settings, simply click on the Gibson website at the top of this page and navigate to FAQ's. It's in there.

I play primarily Blues, Rock and Surf music with the occasional foray into mellower strummed or finger-picked stuff (think Metallica "Nothing Else Matters" or Pink Floyd "Brain Damage"). My amp is a Tech 21 "Trademark 60" (also a versatile beast) and my effects board contains a Crybaby Wah, Danelectro "Dan-echo" delay, and Boss Tremolo and Chorus pedals -- pretty basic stuff.
With this setup, I get tones ranging from Strat and Tele-like clean tones, Les Paul-ish drive, and even Johnny Winter Firebird tone (my favorite). Although, as other reviewers have suggested, the Nighthawk doesn't EXACTLY emulate a Strat, Tele or Paul -- it DOES come damned close! Regardless of how much it does or doesn't sound like other guitars -- IT SOUNDS GOOD. Of the 10 possible pickup settings, I only consider a few to be too weak for practical applications. If you're going for a specific sound that it doesn't seem to offer, try adjusting the height of your pickups. You might be pleasantly surprised at what a little tweeking can do for your tone.

I bought the guitar used -- it's a '95. The top is a beautiful flamed red (I think Gibson calls it Heritage Cherry). There is 1 blemish in the wood grain under the finish. Also, the gold hardware is beginning to wear off and oxidize. I prefer chrome or nickel for that reason. Other than that, the action is good, the neck shape is perfect for my hand, and all the components seem well fitted.

Gibson uses quality components and it seems sturdy enough. I guess time will tell.

I had a question about the pickup settings and the Customer Support rep patiently guided me to the area on the website where the info was. I own 2 other Gibsons and I've also dealt with Gibson CS on other occasions. They are always qualified and responsive.

This guitar sounds, feels and looks so good and is soooooooooooo versatile, that I am selling at least one of my other guitars. I honestly think they'll just be collecting dust from this point on! I HIGHLY recommend the Nighthawk, especially at the reasonable prices they're going for now.

I've bought it used in Paris/France for 840 Euros in June 2001.
It is very pretty but looks kinda small.
It has three pick ups with mahogany body.
The neck provides solid easy access to all the frets.
It has a very easy to play neck (the scale length of a strat)
Tuners are vintage style.
It is very light for a Gibson.
The case is OK. It could be a nice bed for a vampire.

I play rock, blues and some classic jazz songs. I use a
Fender Champ 25 SE and a Digitech GSP21 Pro.
The pickups provide many different sounds (SG, Lespaul, Stratos).
Both are very good, clean, never mushed.
Action, Fit, & Finish: 8
The fit and finish is very good. This
guitar is wonderful. I love it

The fit and finish is very good. This
guitar is wonderful. I love it

The quality is there. No expected problems.

They sent me electric wiring diagram in the 24th hours => excellent.

So here are the pros and cons:
Pros :
fantastic sound,
perfect build
very comfortable
the only good mix between a Strat and a Les Paul

Cons
loose tuning pegs
strap pegs a bit too small

I have been playing for 25 years. I have had Stratos, Music Man, Schecter.
This is my first Gibson, and I prefer it to all the other guitars.

My guitar was stamped October 1st 1993, (according to Gibson in their Tennessee plant). 1993 was the first year of production of the NightHawk but I bought it off the rack in 2001. So it was new, but eight years old, too.

22 fret rosewood fingerboard with some slight checks in the fingerboard and some filing work around a couple of the dot inlays. These were so slight that I didn't notice them in the store eventhough I played the guitar for over two hours in the shop the day I bought it. I did notice it when I changed the strings that night at home. The neck, which is set in, not a bolt-on is very user-friendly - no monstrous heel and no stupid metal plates, just good woodworking craftsmanship. I like the neck joint construction better than any other guitar I could get my hands on and I live close to two Guitar Centers, a Sam Ash and lots of other smaller stores. I played guitars three to four times the price and the neck joint was no better. The $2500 BC Rich handmade guitar was prettier for example, but I would bump the side of my hand on the cut out as I moved up past the frets in the teens. I could easliy deal with that but it was a non-issue with the NightHawk. In my opinion, the neck joint is the most important part of a guitar. You can change/upgrade tuners, pick-ups etc. but if the neck doesn't fit and feel right in the body of the guitar what kind of guitar do you really have? I think the neck is very stable and easy to play in the upper register across the fretboard laterally (low-E to hi-E). The cut out is wider than the LP and oh so many others so that you easily play linearally all the way up to the 22nd fret.

The string-thru body is part of an overall design that creates fantastic tonal quality for an electric solid body guitar. The body is a beautiful mahogany on which sits a nice maple top. It's not quilted , but it does look nice enough for Gibson to decide to use a translucent finish on the guitar, rather than a solid color. They call the color Heritage Cherry and it has a cream colored band around the body, but not the neck. The body style is reminiscent of a Les Paul maybe like a Baby Les Paul. Think of a concert grand piano compared to a baby grand piano. It is lighter than the LP and the back of the body is gradually thinned out a bit up to the neck joint across the entire width of the body. This is a really neat idea.

It has three pickups and a five-way selector switch. The tone knob is a push-pull pot tap so there are actually 10 different tones that I can get from this one guitar. This feature was one that initially caused me to become interested in the NightHawk.I play in situations where I need an array of tonal possibilities quickly and I wanted a guitar that could provide that. I was not interested in trying to duplicate the sound of another guitar like a STRAT or LP but it gives you something reasonably close if you are into doing that. Why not just buy them if you want that?

The neck pick-up is the mini humbucker that they use in Firebirds. I like it better than the single coil alnico 5 pick-up on my strat style guitar. The bridge pick-up is a Gibson Humbucker slanted across the strings at an angle which again produces a unique sound. The pick-up in the center is a high-output single coil Alnico which really sounds nice. It also blends nicely with the other two by using the 5-way selector switch. Again each of those five can sound different by using the pull pot on the tone knob. My favorite sound is to combine the mid and the neck pick-up with the pot pushed in and the tone turned down just a bit. The volume knob doesn't seem to do much on some settings. What I mean on some settings I can't hear a difference fom say a 5 on the volume knob all the way up to ten. The biggest difference in volume seems to be from zero to two or three.

The tuners say Gibson on them they seem to work fine. The hardware is gold which really looks stunning on the Cherry Red guitar. The frets themselves are just

I really like the versatility of the sound. I play all kinds of music and I can get a tone that is suitable for jazz, country, rock even metal (just get the distortion fx you like). My only complaint about the sound is that it can be too bright and tinny for me. This is easily adjusted by turning the tone knob. This is why I bought the guitar.

Remember this guitar hung on the rack in the store for eight years. It was playable even acceptable, but barely. I had to basically set-up the whole guitar. I found the strings stiff as you could easily imagine. The action was too high and it is still a bit high now - much better after I did a truss-rod adjustment of a total of about a half a turn. The bridge is not a Tune-O-Matic or a Floyd Rose, perhaps its a Wilkinson style bridge which needed lowering. The intonation was also out at the store, but just slightly. The pickups were not properly adjusted either, but I haven't corrected that yet. I've only had it for less than a month and will fix this when I change strings in a day or two. The nut seems OK but I'm not certain I'm satisfied with it.

There are very slight oversprays of cherry red on the fretboard side of the nut, which are not noticeable to someone in front of the guitar even at very close proximity.

All of the routing and wood working are outstanding except for the binding joint. It is located just at the pointed tip of the cut-out and although it is smooth and sealed there is this small gap(maybe as wide as your cursor on your computer)in the binding which is filled in with the sealer. Again unnoticeable - to everyone except me when I look straight down. Only guitar freaks even care about this kind of thing. If I were not confident in my ability to adjust these problems out I probably would not have bought this guitar. This was probably why the guitar hung on the rack for eight years.

The guitar itself is solid and I am compltely confident in it. I do take it to gigs with out a back-up so I depend on it. It is built to last. Why would I pay for a guitar that wouldn't last? The strap pegs are sturdy and I can hardly remove the strap so I just leave it on all the time.

I contacted Gibson to verify the serial number and it's history. I got nothing else with the guitar. No case, no paperwork etc. The music store gave me some Gibson strings and some fast fret to recondition the fret board. Their website was very informative and they responded quickly to my e-mail request. It doesn't need repaired and it has a limited lifetime warranty. No problems no complaints.

I've been playing guitar for about 22 years now and own all kinds of stuff. I usually play thru an old tube ampeg bass amp with 2 to 6 12 in celestions or a crate combo amp. I played dozens of different guitars, I mean different guitars not just dozens of the same brand like Fenders or Gibsons or so on. I played Epiphones, Kramers, PRS, Cort, Schecters, Ibanez, Yamaha, etc., etc. I played guitars that cost less than what I paid (from about $350) up to way more ($3500). There were guitars in the stores that played better because they were set up properly. There were guitars that were more beautiful. But when I compared the guitars on the things that really mattered to me (sound, versatility, reliability, brand name recognition) the others really did not compare. I chose Gibson.

Solid body Gibson with Mahaog. body and neck, with Maple top. Finish is Ebony with white binding. String thru body. Great frets

I am just a student player (Little over a year) but tried 15 different makes and models before purchase. This guitar has the potential for more varied sounds than any other I tried. Fantastic ability to sound like hollowbody, Strat, Les Paul.....

My guitar was purchased new and I then restrung it with .010 instead of the standard .009's . I had a serious case of buzzz and the action was a little high. Had the frets leveled and strings lowered and then set the intonation. Now she plays great!

Haven't tried throwing it off a buliding but it seems pretty well built.

Haven't had to deal with the company yet.

I have only been playing a little over a year. I own a Fender classical guitar, a foreign 335 copy (sold when I got this guitar), a Fender practice amp, Peavey Envoy 110 Amp and Zoom 505.

This is a flame top ,three pick up (H-S-H) set up with gold trim.rose wood neck, mahogany body.I am well pleased with the neck, solid easy access to all the frets. This is a very easy to play neck.Tuners are vintage style, they look great but may be a bit sloppy.Neck is very straight not much relief , the intonation is very good.I'm not sure of exact build date but I think it is a 1998 model, I got it new but it was from a dealer that had gone out of business, another dealer bought out their inventory. I paid 875.00 for this guitar.

I play blues, originals and lean to a classic rock sound. I use a fender blues deluxe,Dod milk box compressor,Fab Tone distortion set as low as it will go for a little more crunch when needed. The single coil has a lot of sparkle I use it the most.The Humbucking pick ups are nice I prefer the mini humbucking on the neck between the two humbuckers. The mini humbucker is warmer in tone.ingle coil is of course a little noisy especially around flourecent lights. I expected that.

THe fit and finish is very good. The flame top could be a little more distinct. Tuners could stand an upgrade. The rest of the guitar is wonderfull. I love it

I replaced the strap buttons with locks. I dropped a Les paul many years ago with out them. A lesson learned. I have had this for a few years now and have not had a problem. I feel confident the quality is there.

I have e mailed gibson 2 times and they have answered the next day both times. What more can you ask for.

I have been playing for thirty years. I have had Les pauls guild 300sd's Epiphones etc.I have used Marshall , fender twins, super reverbs, princetons etc.I must say I sure did love my 68 super reverb, LIke a fool I sold it. Oh well The 40 watt blues deluxe has a very good tone .

This is a 1995 nighthawk, built in the U.S. It has 22 frets, 1 tone (you can pull it) and 1 volume. It has the black finish (the most boring one, others are availible but the black one was cheaper), 3 pickups, H sc H configuration, string through body bridge (really, from Gibson?) the scale lenght of a strat, body shape of a flatted out Les Paul and gold hardware. Very pretty but looks kinda small. In short, everything the other guys said. Unfortunatly, the tuning pegs that came with the nighthawk felt loose and lacked some kind of tightning device so I had to replace them. Plus the gold hardware tends to oxidize and turn bonzish after lots of shows and sweat. the strap pegs wre way too small and I had to change those to a strap lock so my guitar would'nt drop. This and the tuners made me give it an 8.

I play ska, punk rock and indie rock, I've been playing for 8 or 9 years and I must say I'm satisfied with the sound of this guitar. One thing will strike you when the tone is set at the max position, It's the brightest sonding gibson I've ever played or heard. Of course you can back it up and make it sond like that traditional Les Paul. In fact, that's the beauty with this guitar, you can make it sound like wathever you want. I mostly play with the bidge humbucker when I use distortion because I found IT's the one that has the most definition in high gain situations. They say you can have 10 sounds with this guitar, using the pullable tone pot. The single coil is surprisingly quiet, no extra hum when switching from humbuckers to single coil. I use an 82 marshall lead 100 head with a 4x10 cabinet. I play it straight, using the amp's distortion. It really sounds good, clean, never mushed and has tons of possible configurations. Again, the word for this is VERSATILITY. I did find the neck pick-up weaker than the others tough.

action was low when i got it and feels confortable. I moved from a strat to this guitar and felt at home right away. A lot more than with a Les Paul, due to the bidge. Very confortable. The low E string has some buzzing problems, the single coil pick-up was a bit too high, as my high strings often got caught in the screw. I had to lower it down. The electronics are all very quiet: the pickup selector and pots never ckracle. But the neck pickup's cover seemed a bit loose and would'nt keep from vibrating when I played an open G note. This was not audible through an amp but was anoying when playing it unplugged at home. And I don't know why but since I got this guitar and I got other owners compaining about this, I break strings at an unbelivable rate , down at the bridge. Guess i'll have to do something about it...

Like I said, It breaks strings easily, especially in live situations. I always have my backup guitar nearby so our roadie can put a new string if I break one. The hardware is solid ,well built and is quiet. It's golden finish will wear out though, be warned!
It stays in tune quite well if taken care of and never had intonation problems. But because of it's tendency to break strings, I would not be caught dead doing a show without a backup. During our last tour this summer, I almost broke a string at each show!

never had to deal with the guys...

So here are the pros and cons:
Pros------
---sounds great,
----and you can dial in an ubelivable amount of tones
----looks good
----well built
----feels comfortable
----like a good mix between a Strat and a Les Paul

Cons
---loose tuning pegs
---neck pickup a bit loose
---has a tendency to break strings
---strap pegs a bit too small

so what I did was replace the tuners for grovers, put a very small piece of poster paste,( you know the blue gum you use to hang posters?) to keep the pickup from vibrating, changed the strap things with a locked system (you gotta do that for punk rock shows, lot's of jumping and banging around)and rounded the brigde a bit to keep the friction on the strings to a minimum. Overall This is a great guitar that i'm glad to own because of it's concept: offering a healthy mix between a Stratocaster and a Les Paul, giving nothing but the best of both worlds

I bought this guitar new. Mail order places may not be the best for guitars, because you obviously can't play them first. Luckily Musicians friend gives you 45 days to return stuff. This thing has a 5 way selector, a slanted humbucker, a single coil, and a mini humbucker. Lots of configurations here.

Well this is where it gets wierd. I agree with a previous poster that the pickups sound quite weak, but sounds great for clean stuff. It has lots of Bass, amazing amounts, and it sounds like no other guitar. The problem I had is that there is no definition when distorted (do to weak pickups I think). I play mostly metal and rock, so didn't like it too well.

Guitar was poorly set up in my opinion. The action was a good centimeter off the last fret. I tried to lower it but I got so much buzz I had to return this thing. It also had alot of glue or something on the finish on the back of the neck, but that came off with a little polishing. The gold pickups had some oxidizing marks as well. Disapointing for a new guitar.

This guitar is kinda small, with nice weight though, its moderatly heavy. Don't know too much about reliability ect. because I returned it after a few days.

Didn't deal with gibson, Musicians friend is prety cool though.

I've been playing for a little more than a year now. This guitar sounds realy wild with a Boss Metal Zone MT-2 pedal, it is difficult to explain, but unlike any distortion I've ever heard. Basiclly it would have been cool if the pickups had more punch and it was set up better. I could have paid someone to set it up proper I supose, but the bottom line is that I don't like the sound much.

1994 Gibson Nighthawk Special-3 pickup model. Red (don't ask me what the exact shade is. It's red to me) Made in the US of A. 22 frets. H/S/H pickup config: bridge humbucker is smaller version of 490t, VERY hot signal. not sure what middle SC pickup is modeled after, sounds like neck position on a telecaster when you use it directly. neck HB is same pickups in Gibson Firebird. Pickups are tappable via tone knob (imagine my surprise when I stumbled onto this!) Mahogany body, string-thru body, very thin neck and body, frets are decently spaced. got it with a fender gig bag of all things.

There is no guitar higher, my friends. I've tried me some guitars, too. Multi-thousand dollar Les Pauls and PRS guitars, Gretsches of all makes, Telecasters, Strats, NOTHING touches this guitar. Why? It's every guitar you can think of wrapped into one. I'm the sole guitarist in the band. I don't do a whole lot of chording. I try to stick to single noting things with distortion and delay on most of the time. (Thats where I start, anyway) Erego, i need very full tone. The hawk does it ALL. I can jump straight into KMFDM tone, no prob. Bounce into The Edge-no prob. Jeff Buckley? You got it. Honest to God, this guitar really will do just about any tone you can think of (with the exception of parker's piezo sound). I would personally like to smack the fool who, in a previous review, disrespected the Hawk saying "it wont do my metal! its too thin!" What the hell amp were you playing through, a pignose? I have personally tuned this sucker down to C and played Entombed stuff with PERFECT clarity. So it ain't the guitars fault. Anyway, yes this will even do Danny Gatton-style jazzabilly. You can switch to the neck pickup and it sounds an awful lot like those Tele's Danny used to play. It can be full, it can be bright, it can be mellow, it can even sound like a hollowbody believe it or not. I'm playing mine into a Mesa Dual Rectifier Maverick out to a Bogner 4x12 cab with vintage 30's. I use an old Ibanez Delay rack unit an ibanez compressor pedal,and a thomas organ co. Crybaby. I have at my disposal also a Rane parametric EQ, a Big muff, a small stone, and a rocktek flanger, but all these get used sparingly. My only gripe whatsoever is that distorted tone gets a little muddy as you move more toward the middle pickup settings. Clean however, those same spots are beautiful.

Action is fantastic. Mine was bought second hand, but I've also played 'em straight from the factory. Nice and low (a disappointment to Stevie Ray fans)action, smooth moving all across the fretboard. I tweaked the pickups a little bit. They were a little too bassy for my amp in most spots <my amp's distortion is unusually warm. love it!> so i lowered em a wee bit. Tuners are pretty precise as well. Strap locks are a good idea, as the pegs are kind of small and will slip with most good straps. Nice gold hardware, too!

Havent used it live yet, so we'll see what kind of beating it takes. Haven't had any problems with it to this point but like I said, it hasn't gone on tour yet.

Haven't had any contact with Gibson.

Been playing a little over 6 years, have owned a LOT of different guitars in my time, be them old or new, good and bad. If it was stolen I would haul ass to my closest computer and see if I could find someone selling one online, due to the fact that Gibson discontinued this line. Only other guitars im looking to buy are ones with very specific sounds, like a Rickenbacker 360 12 string. My favorite feature of course is the versatility and the quality of those sounds. My amp is also super versatile, so i have no problem popping in and out of different sounds. I was comparing this guitar to several different Les Pauls at the time, and this was my fave of the bunch. I'm also considering getting an LP '72 reissue at some point. The only other thing i can think of is that I really would have liked to see a Nighthawk with a slab neck. I have very long fingers and sometimes its a little more comfortable to play something with a lot of vertical space between strings. For that style, i do have a Jazzmaster, though. I'd say if you're going to get one, get it soon before the values start going through the roof due to Gibson discontinuing the line.

same

pickups are weak, too weak. the guitar is an awesome *clean* guitar. it sucks when you wanna jam out and get extremely heavy.

pickups are weak

I have changed my mind about this guitar. I play death metal, and this guitar is not very good for that style. get an ibanez. i am sick of this guitar sounding thin and weak.

Bought used. 1994 US made? 1 volume, 1 push/pull coil tone. Black finish gold accent. String through body sans tremolo. Gibson tuners. 3 pickups; mini humbucker in neck, single in the middle, slant humbucker at bridge (came with Roland GK-201 pickup installed) Body similar to Les Paul Special. Rounded medium-thin neck. Came with Gibson hardshell case.

My band's style is new-school death metal. I play just about anything except rap. It works good. Detuned to C, it doesn't carry the bass with enough definition sometimes though. I use a BassTech 150 watt bass amp with a Zoom 1010 for distortion. Mine needs a setup for intonation; I changed to .10s from the .9s that were on it. I think this guitar is more suited to standard tuning than I would have hoped for, but I can always tweak the sound. The electronics are super-quiet, even the single coil alone. There is no hum, period. If I switch the pickup selector to neck/middle, pull up on the coil tap, the guitar sounds acoustic. The middle pickup gives such a great Strat-sound. I really like the metal tone this gets. It works with your distortion. If you have crappy distortion, now is the time to change it, because this guitar is all about tone. There are also a lot of far-away sounds you can get with the pickup combinations. I like having 10 sounds in one guitar.

The action on mine was great, except I screwed it up when I changed the strings. That was my fault, though. The pickups could have been a little higher than they were, I fixed them. There were no real problems with the guitar that aren't subjective. It played great as soon as I picked it up. The nut isn't cut for .10s and obviously the previous owner never changed string gauge.

I don't know how well it will hold up over time, but I treat all my instruments with care, so it should. The hardware seems a little fragile. Strap buttons are too small. The finish is solid. I don't think I would ever gig any guitar without a backup...your strings are the 'weakest link' so to speak, in your guitar setup. I break them all the time.

I emailed the director of the Gibson Auction numerous times. He emailed me when I won the auction, when he recieved my money order, and he even checked up on me and asked how I liked the guitar. We even emailed each other multiple times in the same day. He seemed interested in taking the time to make sure I was satisfied. I was impressed by this.

I play 5 years now. I would probably buy this guitar again. I love the sound. I also have a Ibanez RX-170 and a Epiphone acoustic guitar. I play my friend's explorer often, and I like them both about the same. I really WAS going for an Ibanez RG-570 at the time...but I don't like messing around with a floating tremolo. One last thing I would like to say...If someone has the capability to remove a Nighthawk neck, and replace it with an Ibanez Wizard 1 (17mm) then give me an Email and tell me how much it would cost. That would be my dream guitar.