Gibson Nighthawk Special (3 Pickup model)

this is where the nighthawk shines, tele strat and les paul all in one. the purests will say it doesn't do this or that! wrong it does it all, GREAT.the 3 pickup version is different from two. the five position switch is reversed on the humbucker on both guitars.plus its not to heavy.

i can play anthing with this guitar, but it shines on blues , rock and country. hotter then my strat and vert toneful

perfect,

no problems

never called

i love my nighthawks, i cant go back to my strat, the nighthawk rules the stage.

Plain maple top with mahogany back and neck. Heritage red finish with nitrocellulose lacquer. Set in neck meets body at 16 fret. 22 frets total. Rosewood fretboard. Vintage style tuners. 3 pickups, neck pickup: mini-humbucker, middle: NSX single coild, Bridge: Slanted Humbucker. ONe master volume, one master tone with a push pull pot to switch to single coil switching. Tele-like string-thru-body bridge (fixed). Top solid binding. Passive electronics. Les Paul-esque look.

Rainbow of sounds. During humbucking position with the tone knob pused down, the bridge pickup is extremely hot and strong. Hotter than normal humbuckers, but it lacks the crispiness and attack of a normal humbucker. The neck pickup has a pleasantly strong, but mellower tone of a Firebird. When set in single-coils mode with the tone know pulled up, the bridge pickup activates one slanted coild which mimics a Strat (but nowhere near as twangy or hot as a real strat coil) and middle NSX single-coil lacks both power and mellow sounds. But the bridge pickup and the neck pickup makes up for that. This guitar can mimic almost any guitar you can think of, except for Ibanez metally-sounds. Key word is mimics, it can replicate the sound of the real thing (Les Paul, Strat, tele, etc.) The slanted humbucker is a geniuos idea. Brigther sound due to very thing, extremely small body.

Guitar set-up was great, lasted okay for a pretty long time. Everything was fine when I first bought it. It's still in tip-top shape after 10 years. Shows that the money you put in with Gibson is worth it.

Guitar withstand 10 years and numerous gigs. Hardware is still in tip-top shape. No rusting, etc. Finish is holding up, but not without a few dings and scratches. I hate the strap buttons though, It's angled in a way that it will fall off pretty easy. Had it happen before, but too lazy to replace strap buttons with good ones. I would not use it on a gig without backup, I need a trusty ol' Strat with me all the time. Tuning keys aren't that great, if you play heavy or often, you need to tune it regularly.

Never dealt with Gibson, hopefully never have to.

Lovely guitar. Really one of Gibson's better. So many sounds, so many combos, and a lightweight guitar. I despise the strap-buttons and the tiny, tiny body. If it had been somewhat the size of an SG, I'd be happy. It'll still be light that way. Fingerboard isn't really great though. I can still see file marks, etc. But it plays okay. I run it through and ME-50 Guitar processor and a Marshall amp most of the time, and it sounds great. I do own a couple other Strats that seem extremely heavy compared to this one. But you can never replace a good ol' strat. If I had it stolen or lost, I'd either kill the burglar, or help with my mourning by buying a Fender VG.

It's Gibson Nighthawk, the small body with the pointy cutaway, Fender-like through body bridge, three pickups, five way switch and push-pull potmeter.
Mine is heritage cherry with a beautiful flamed maple top. I bought it for 600 Euro on a stand on the Vintage guitar gathering in September 2006 in Veenendaal The Netherlands, the price included a case.
The guitar has a lot of scratches and dings, the switch tip was not original, the nut needed replacing and the last owner replaced the original Pot knobs with Gibson Speed knobs which actually are a better choice because it's easier to pull the push-pull pot with those speed knobs than with the stock ones.

It's my first Gibson.

Having played a Strat for the longest time, the feel of the nighthawk was instantly familiar, the volume pot was where I was used to having it, the bridge felt familiar, the overall feeling of the guitar is more Fender than Gibson.

I use two Epiphone Les Pauls re-fitted with Seymour Duncan 59 pickups as my main guitars and I judge every other guitar on their sound. When played through distortion, the Nighthawk's Bridge humbucker sounds wooly in comparison to the bridge humbuckers of my two Lesters. I constantly reach for the tone pot trying to add a little more highs in the sound only to dind that it's already maxxed out. But when I tap the thing it becomes TOO bright and it instantly kills the grunt. This is frustrating.
The Fender-style settings on this guitar are really convincing although they sound wooly, missing sparkle.

In all the sound of this guitar is a little lackluster.

As I said before, the guitar had dings and bruises all over, the nut needed replacing and the tip of the switch and the volume and tone knobs had been replaced at one time, so it's not in it's original state.

I haven't brought this one to a gig yet and with it's sound issues it's rather doubtful that I ever will. I keep reaching for my two Epiphone Lesters which give me the sound that I'm used to.

So with that in mind I'll probably trade my Nighthawk in for a proper Gibson Les Paul someday.

I bought this guitar at a fair so no stuff about warranty whatsoever.

This guitar falls under the "If-I-want-a-Fender-I'll-buy-a-Fender" rule. Gibson has had plenty of models with which they tried to appeal to Fender players. (The Marauder, the S1, the Victory, the U2, the M3.) But the sound is close but no cigar, the nighthawk just doesn't have that something that would make it a winner in the sound department.

The same for the Gibson sounds, the sound is uninspiring and wooly

At least is plays really well.

I believe it has a flamed top finish with a Heritage Cherry for the color finish. The Body style is modeled after the Les Paul, with a more pointy cutaway. I'm not too sure what the bridge is. The Tuners are the Deluxe Special Gibson tuners. The neck is, i believe rosewood with dot inlays and about 20 something frets. I got a crappy gig bag with it. The pickups are an open coil, mini humbucker, and slanted humbucker. The 2 dials are speed dials for the master tone, and master volume. And it has a 5 way switch for the pickups.

Though it is true that this guitar has a colorful rainbow of sounds, the pick-ups aren't strong enough to reproduce the sound that we know and love from the Les paul, or SG, etc. It's good if you play jazz, or pop where the styles don't really need a strong heavy guitar. But when you try to rock out, this guitar just isn't the one. On all the settings of the guitar, I find that the sound that it makes is a bright sound. Just a nice crisp bright sound, that's not good if you're style is rock. I am currently using this guitar with a Fender JAM amp. The amp could be the reason why this guitar isn't the guitar I hoped for, or maybe it's because of the guitar itself. I like it for the versatility, but I dislike it because of the pick-ups.

I'm feeling generous today, so I gave it an eight. I really think that the guitar is way too small. It kinda looks ridiculous when I'm wearing it. It's also a bit dull. I got my model in a Heritage Cherry finish, but it still seems to bore me, even though it's modeled after the the Les Paul models. I bought it brand new for about $800 around 10 years ago. It's still works fine, and it's an okay looking guitar overall. I just wish it had more cool looking features. Maybe a pickguard like the LP's, or trapezoid pearl inlays instead of boring ol' dots. But since this IS a GIBSON guitar, it least you can rate this guitar is 7. But I gave it an eight, because I felt generous, like I said.

Since it is a Gibson guitar (and not one of the generic copy-cat brands) it has withstanded 10 years of playing at home and occasionally outside home. It doesn't seem to have any flaws in the woodwork, or anything else. The strap buttons are fine, I never have a problem with it. Always stays intact and strong.

Overall, I'd probably give it a seven. If your not fussy and picky like me, then you will enjoy this guitar to the fullest of your heart. But I like the SG's better in sound and looks (I just haven't had the money yet to own one). I just wish it had better pickups, and maybe a larger body.

I've owned my Nighthawk since I bought it new from Guitar Center in 1995. It was made in '95 and comes in a gold sparkle finish. The GC salesman told me that the gold was a limited edition run made exclusively for sale at GC. The guit looks beautiful in a simple way. The top of the body is done in a nice sparkle gold finish. It has one-ply, thick creme binding on the body. The rest of the guitar shows the plain mahogany. Mahogany body with maple cap.
Mine is the three pick up version Special. I was tempted by the more opulent Standard and Custom Nighthawk models. I think that the other models have a different neck shape/profile than my Special, but I could be wrong about this. I've heard it described as a 'round taper'?
The neck is sort of small and clubby, though comfortable enough. This model has no binding on the neck. Rosewood with mother of pearl dot inlays, 22 frets. Gold hardware. Made in USA. Thru body stringing. one volume, one tone, five way p.u. selector, plus coil tapping means a lot of tonal options. Mini bucker in the neck p.u., single coil in the middle. And, then there's the slanted bridge humbucker. I don't think I've seen a slanted humbucker like this one on any other non Nighthawk guitars. There's no classic Gibbo stop tailpiece. Instead,there's an all in one unit that's an interesting wedge shape, and is a little like a hardtail strat's bridge assembly.
So, we've got some non-traditional Gibson features here. I also think that this guitar has a Fender-like 25.5" scale length rather than the traditional Gibson 24.75", but I'm not entirely sure about that.

Now here is where all of sound options on tap here has let me down. I just haven't been able to get my core sound out of this guitar. With three different pick ups, a 5 way selector, and coil tapping, there is a lot at hand here in terms of different sound options. It can take a while to get a handle on everything on tap here. Especially for me, as I am usually a plug in and play type.

I think I like, not love, this guitar for anything but really heavy stuff. I've never warmed up as much as I thought I would to the neck mini humbucker. Sometimes I wished it had the mini bucker in the bridge setting. Actually, I think I saw some later Nighthawk models with two mini humbuckers as standard pick ups.
The single coil sounds are satisfying, but not stellar to me (at the time I first bought the guitar, I was best described as a comitted humbucker user and I am just now starting to appreciate single coils). I like the in-between sounds of position 2 and 4, especially combined with the coil tapping feature.
Ultimately, my core tone is usually from a humbucker in the bridge. I've never really warmed up completely to the slanted humbucker in the Nighthawk. It is good sounding and reasonably 'strat-ish' in single coil mode. However, in full humbucking mode....well, it's just sort of hollow-sounding to me. It doesn't roar like I want it to through a cooking, overdriven and/or distorted amp. And it gets sort of 'mushy' and indistinct with copious amounts of gain. I thought the slant shape of the bridge pick up might beef up and fatten up the bass response. But I don't find the sound of this pick up "fat" at all. Well, maybe a little fat, but also very loose-sounding and lacking focus. It's very ROUND and chewy to my ears, though sort of indistinct.

Well, it has taken me years to realize that there is a place for a guitar like this in my collection, a jack of all trades and such. But when I bought it, I hoped to be able to get a Gibson in the Les Paul ballpark. I just have never found it to sound or play like a Les Paul, except for jazzier or quieter moments.

A salesman at another store remarked to me that getting a Nighthawk seemed risky to him, because of the slanted bridge humbucker. He pointed out a concern for the pick-up's voicing, and noted that finding replacements of other pick up makers would probably be near impossible.
So, if I could change one thing about this guitar, I'd switch out the slanted p.u. and put in a traditional humbucker more to my taste.
Of course, I would never do this, as the slanted p.u is a central part to the whole mojo to this guitar.
So, there is a lot of variety of tone here on tap. But unlike many of the posters here, I would never comfortably play my style of metal or punk with this guitar. I've been very tempted to sell it in the past. But since my playing has branched out stylistically (more jazz and ambience), I think I'll give it another go round before I let her go.
There are times in the past when I liked playing this guitar more that I would have given it an 8. But until relatively recently, I would have given it a 6 or even a 5.

No complaints here. I do have finish problems near the bottom of the guitar where the paint is starting to crack. I've coddled the guitar, it's always been in my bedroom, and my other guitars are no worse for wear. Then again, it's more than 10 years old now.
But it remains a quality piece of kit. I've got a minor imperfection in the mahogany of the back of the neck that looks like a knot in the wood from certain angles. On the plus side, there is a beautiful, sparkly flame to the mahogany of the back of the neck and body when looked at straight on!It glows and shimmers in the light!!!
The only other problem was how the high E string sometimes gets stuck up on the middle single coil pick up when it's being played.

Solid.

I've had good expereince with Gibson. The one time I emailed them with a question about the features of my Les Paul, they replied within 24 hours. I wasn't sure that they would take the time, or have the time, to reply at all.

So, the overall rating I give it is a seven. It is really a quality instrument. However, the whole design philosophy of the pick ups doesn't totally work for me. I'd mainly like a more traditional sounding bridge humbucker. I remember that at one point, Gibson put out some Nighthawks with re-designed, much hotter bridge pick ups that ended up being standard on the Epiphone Nighthawk equivalent.

Obviously, some of you are able to really harness the slanted humbucker. Not me, at least not so far. Dont' get me wrong; it's a good guitar, solid workmanship, with intruiguing possibilites. But I think in retrospect that I would have been happier to spend the same money on another Gibson guitar. I've got an SG that does almost everything I need. Again, I'm more of a plug and play type player. I can get by with room to spare with the sounds out of most dual humbucker guitars. So, I don't think that I'm the type of player that the Nighthawk was aimed at.
But 'heavy' players be warned. Some people have said they can do metal with this model. I think many metal-ers would be better served with another model. Just be sure to play-test it yourself though a good sounding high gain system to see if you warm up to its voicings when used in the high gain realm.
I have been thinking about getting a new SG lately and selling the Nighthawk to help ease the pain of purchase. But I keep it for its potential as a fantastic studio tool.

I purchased this guitar from a friend and gave it to my wife as a gift. It's a 1994 3 pick up with a coil tapping push/pull tone control. It's relatively light compared to it's big brothers in the Gibson line and has a slightly smaller single cut body. This guitar can emulate the sounds and tones of the Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster, Gibson Firebird, Gibson Les Paul, you name it. Nice set in slim taper rosewood neck, gold hardware, sunburst finish, and beautiful inlays on the finger board.

Sounds great through 50 watt, 6L6/12ax7 tube amp with celestion V30 speakers.

Gibson makes high quality instruments. This instrument is very well crafted with no noticable flaws in craftmanship.

It's a Gibson. It's built to last.

A very cool guitar. Lots of different sounds at your finger tips. Beautiful and sexy.

I won't bother repeating all the features, but versatility is the key to this guitar! I think of it as my Swiss Army Guitar!

It's got the H/S/H and 10-way coil tap switching.

Here I beg to differ a tad bit. Both my ex girlfriend and my now wife complain that this guitar has "no soul". There is something lacking that's hard for me to pinpoint. But it lacks the glassy round tones of my Japanese made Strat (with Texas Special p/u's), doesn't quite get the soulful deep twang of a decent Tele and misses the fullness and longer sustain of my Les Paul Studio. But after owning this guitar for several years, I suddenly dicovered that I truly like the "SuperStrat" setting on this guitar! That is pot tap switch pushed in, and forth position forward which gives you the full tone with a pleasant out of phase Strat sound, i.e. full humbucker at the bridge with the center single coil p/u kicking in. I had a mental aversion to the SuperStrat heavy metal guitar setting, so I had avoided it. Up til now, I had enjoyed the Tele setting the most, single bridge and single at the neck. But the SuperStrat setting has more body with some soulful twang. The thinness issue doesn't seem readily apparent in this setting. I'm trying to get my wife to cast a new vote. Too late to question the ex-girlfriend, however. Other comments mention it is a bit bright and that this indeed can simply be remedied by backing off the tone. I love the versatility of this guitars pickup settings, but I believe its tone misses more than it hits its mark, So I'm giving it a 7. Mind you, this is a 7 amongst middle to higher end guitars, not bargain guitars. I consider myself more of a guitar hobbyist than a true musician, so you may take my comments with a grain of salt, but I also own 19 guitars and know what sounds good to my ears.

I lowered the action a bit and messed with the intonation since it was tad bit high (neutral) for me from the factory. I believe the fit and finish is quite excellent, but I do not think that I am able to get the action quite as low without buzz or dead spots as I can achieve with a Les Paul style tune-amatic bridge. This bridge has adjustable strat style saddles. It's not as easy to try to play AC/DC's Thunderstruck with this action. It's more Strat-like.

Seems like a tough rig. I've had no visible loss of the gold plating! My Japanese made Fender Tele 90's custom had beautiful gold plated hardware that was wearing off within days of play. Not so with this guitar!

Haven't needed any support for my Gibsons

Even though I don't necessarily think this is the best sounding guitar I own, I drag it out more often than any other single guitar I own. It's a very comfortable guitar to play, small bodied, light-weight, ergonomically carved, nice feeling neck. I also like that it is four guitars in one, i.e. a Tele, a Strat, a Humbucking Gibson, and a SuperStrat. I own three Teles (one Japanese Fender 90's custom, one Peavey Reactor and a Fender 52 Reissue) a Japanese Fender Strat, Gibson Les Paul Studio 83 Custom Shop edition, Gibson ES-335 dot, ESP Eclipse, Japanese Fender Jazzmaster, Les Paul Junior Special, Ibanex Joe Satriani, Parker Fly Classic, Paul Reed Smith CE-22 Bolt (my best tone machine), Steinberger Spirit, and a Yamaha SG700S. Amps: Roland Jazz Chorus 120, Fender Twin Reverb, Fender Super 112, Fender Pro Junior and a Marshall Valvestate 80. American Music had some ridiculous list price on it (well over $1,000) so I thought I was getting a good deal at $800, but then I later found you could buy them any day of the week for around $600 mail order. Mine is a Special but it has a Fireburst finish (I think this finish was usually on the Standard). I fell in love with its looks and features one day when I was depressed and wandering in a music store, so emotional response over ruled the "research it and think about it" mode.

It's my buddy and I have no plans to let it go. Get one for the comfort and versatility. But if you want a Lester or a Strat, buy a Lester or a Strat.

See below.

See below.

In good shape for a 9 year old guitar but can't rate this category fairly because of it's age.

This review is a follow-up to one that I left in June 2001. At that time I owned a red Nighthawk Special 3 Pickup model and loved it. I reiterate -- this is the most versatile guitar I've ever owned.

Several months after I left the initial review, a player I respect very much convinced me that, even though the Nighthawk could closely emulate the tones of a Strat, a Firebird or a Les Paul, I was still better off getting the real deals. I sold the Nighthawk and bought a Hamer-USA Daytona (the BEST Strat-style axe ever) and a Hamer-USA Eclipse (mini-humbuckers like a Firebird but easier to carry). They both played and sounded great so I would go to rehearsals and gigs with both. Sometimes I would even bring along my Epiphone Riviera (ES-335) for full humbucker tones.

Guess what -- I hated lugging all those guitars around and I hated having to switch guitars every time I wanted different tones! The tonal difference wasn't worth the hassle. The Nighthawk was nearly as "clucky" as my favorite Strat P/U settings on the Daytona. It gave me better "Johnny Winter" Firebird tone from it's mini-humbucker than the Eclipse. And the bridge humbucker on the Nighthawk was hotter than the Duncan '59 I had in the Riviera for screamin' leads and great feedback.

What did I do? I sold the Daytona, the Eclipse and the Riviera and bought another Nighthawk Special! This time I got a black 1993 model -- the gold hardware and white binding look MUCH cooler on black than red (Heritage Cherry). I got a great deal because it had a headstock repair, some pretty decent scratches on the back, a crappy gig bag, and non-original tuning keys, truss rod cover, and tip on P/U selector. Actually the gold Yamaha tuning keys look and work better than the Klusons that Gibson used as original equipment for this model. I put black speed knobs, a black P/U selector tip and a black truss rod cover on it and it now looks AWESOME.

I think I'll hang onto this one. It's light and comfortable, the neck feels great in my hand, it looks great and, most importantly, it sounds fantastic. Once again - I highly recommend the Nighthawk Special 3 Pickup model for anyone who's looking for tonal variety and a quality axe.

Made in USA Gibson. Haven't checked the serial number to see date of manuf. You've seen the other reviews, so I'll not say too much about the features. H/S/H, with the mini-humbucker in the neck and the slant humbucker in the bridge. Most important thing is the combination of the push-pull tone pot and the 5-way switch. Good Lord, you can get almost any usable p'up configuration you could desire. Excellent wood, maple top, mahogany back, mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard, set neck. String through body. Came with a gig bag, but bought it used in a region with a crummy guitar market. We tend to get hosed here because there's only a couple of really good guitar shops within a 3 hour radius. I mean, the shops treat us well, but they're trying to make a living in a slim market, so they can't deal and haggle like in bigger cities. I really like the Hawk style/sized body. I'm a bit of a gadget freak, (aside from trem bridges) and the only thing stopping this from getting a 10 is I would love to hear what a Vari-tone would do to this baby.

The Nighthawk has a huge variety of sounds. I LOVE the out-of-phase strat sounds, sounds like the conventional strat SHOULD have sounded. I tend to play country, classic rock, southern rock, a little jazz and blues, elevator music, some punk, whatever I'm in the mood for. The only thing that I would really have trouble doing with this guitar would be metal/modern rap-rock sorta stuff, and that ain't my forte. Using the coil-tapped settings, yes, it's not as powerful as it might be with other pickups, but it's coil tapped for Pete's sake... get over it. I find it to have a nice balance between warm and bright tonality. I find it sustains much nicer than I would have imagined from it's smaller (than an LP) size. I'm especially fond of the definition/sparkle out of the neck mini-humbucker. This is one of the first guitars I've found that every p'up config sounds really good clean, and hence I've been playing a lot more clean stuff since I got it. I'm currently running it through an early 90's Fender M-80 Chorus. It sounds great clean through this amp, except for the bridge hb being a little muddy, but I think that this is more the amp than the guitar. Very few ways to make this amp sound good on the distortion channel (Fender solid state... not what it was built for), but this sounds as good as any of the previous contestants. (I'm saving up for a Mesa Nomad 45, but I'm a school teacher, so that may take a year or two. *grin*) It gets a 9 because it does have limitations, but for me personally, it's 10 all the way to tone heaven.

I bought it used, so I'm uncertain of factory set up. It was set up fairly well at the local shop where I bought it. I adjusted the truss rod and raised the action a hair (having strong country roots, I REALLY dislike fret buzz of ANY sort, and I have fat fingers, so my bending style requires a slightly higher action than most people I know... and I LIKE it that way.) Everyone complaining about the pickup adjustment and intonation... I just don't understand. That's why the man put those cute little screws/bolts everywhere... outside of truss rod adjustment (which I approach VERY carefully), I've never bought a quality guitar that I couldn't adjust myself, at home, with simple tools, in the space of about an hour. So some idiot set it up wrong... I'll set it up right, and quickly. The actual fit and finish, the stuff that cannot be easily corrected with a screwdriver, was excellent on this guitar. It's used, and it shows wear, but is still a beautiful guitar. The gold hardware worries me because my sweat could rust titanium. Other than that, no probs. The playability is magnificent. It feels like it was shaped to fit my own grubbly little fat hands at the factory.

I'm certain that this guitar will handle live playing (only used it on two gigs thus far), but it is a set neck with an angled head stock... take care of it. Don't let anyone drunker than yourself screw around with it... it's not a tank... it's wood glued together. Hardware seems pretty solid, no problems yet, but again, no gruelling tour schedule has taken its toll on it yet. Finish is beautiful, but probably will show more serious wear given time. Strap buttons are solid but SMALL. Using a cam/locking style strap at present. As for gigging without backup, I'm BIG into preparedness. I feel sorta funny driving down the interstate without a spare CAR in my pocket, so I don't think that would ever be an option. Not through any fault of the guitar, but of my own compulsions. I would feel safer throwing a Tele around, but for a much nicer finished (and more capable) guitar, I consider it tough enough.

Only a single email to the company, and it was answered within hours. I thought that was pretty good. Don't anticipate any need to deal with them on a regular basis.

I've been playing off and on since '87. Have only gigged sporadically because of some nasty stage fright. I have owned several Fenders, three other Gibsons, Yamahas, and a Hamer. Until recently, I've been pretty much a devoted Fender man, amps and guitars, but that's changing. If this were stolen, I'd hunt the b*st*rd down and kill him on simple principle (stealing a man's guitar is like knocking up his sister... it's not tolerated), but then I'd go looking high and low to try and find another. If I couldn't find another, I'd buy a Blueshawk. That's what I was originally looking for when I found this, but this guitar could cover so much ground and played so comfortably that I spent money I didn't really have at the time. I love the sounds possible and the versatility of the ax, I just wish it had come with a hardshell case. Gets a nine because it can't do everything perfectly, just most things perfectly and the rest really well.

10 This guitar is great. It features three pickups. A mini humbucker in the neck , single coil in the middle, slant humbucker in the bridge. One volume, one tone with pull feature. It has a 5 way pickup selector. Dot inlays. Heritage cherry finish. Gold hardware. Not sure about the bridge possibly a wilkinson.

This guitar is a dream come true. I've owned several guitars and none have the versatility of the nighthawk special. I use a Boss GT6 effects unit and play through a Peavey supreme half stack. I play top 40 rock in the vein of Staind, Fuel, Creed, Nickleback, Incubus, etc.. This guitar does it all and well. It can go from a sparkling clean Tele to Prs type crunch in nothing flat.

I bought this guitar used. It was already set up. So far i haven't found anything to be out of place, flawed, or out of adjustment.

This guitar will be my main axe only to be backed up by a fender hotrodded Peavey Predator.It seems to be very reliable and noteworthy. I will use it in the summer on tour.

n/a

I've been playing guitar for almost 30 years. Everything from country to blues to rock. This guitar can and does do it all. I've owned Gibsons, Fenders, Peaveys, Ibanez, Arias, G&L's, And even a custom made Warrior. This one says everything those others could and more. Very versatile.

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.

See the other reviews for the features, I'm discussing the Nighthawk Special 3 pick up model. Plenty of options and versatile beyong belief.

I agree with most of the current reviews; this guitar has the nicest most versatile sound that can go from sharp and punchy to deep and warm. I was playing this guitar with a horrible Crate td50c amp and it sounded great considering the amp I was putting the sound through. I'm upgrading to a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and can't wait to see how it sounds. I think this guitar easily compares to top grade strats and les pauls all in one.

Well this guitar doesn't look absolutely stunning but its looks grow on you. I love this guitar because no one has ever seen a gibson like it and it is quite hard to find them for sale. The action is perfect with the exception of a little ringing as some of the other reviews noted. One problem I had was getting the high e string caught on the middle pick up, but I screwed the screw in farther and it seems to have corrected the problem =).

Well the first week i got this guitar my strap gave out and it fell to the ground about 4 feet....I was so scared but this guitar, thank god is built like a tank eventhough it is so light. I will be gigging with this guitar without a backup, maybe i'll get a Rickenbacker as a back up once I save enough money, but this guitar works great for all I need at this point. I do have a problem with the tuning though, it seems to loose tune too easily when I'm rehearsing with it... I'd like to get locking tuners to solve this problem when I get a chance...

The warranty is forever, until I die. I'm sure Gibson would be helpful if there was any problems, whenever I talked to them they were very helpful.

I've been playing for 4 years and I searched and searched until I found this guitar. For a while I was getting frustrated with the guitar because i was playing through a horrible crate amp, but soon the Nighthawk and I made up and now I'll never sell this guitar. If this guitar were lost or stolen I'd be devastated partially because it would be very difficult for me to find this guitar again, and at such a good price. I recommend this guitar to anyone looking for a diverse sounding guitar that isn't a mainstream "rock star wannabe" guitar like a les paul or strat. You can get so many sounds out of this guitar it suprises me everytime I play it...and the thing is all these sounds sound great. This guitar comes highly recommended....

My Nighthawk is a '94 which I bought in '95 as a flawed instrument at E.U. Wurlitzer in Framingham, MA for $500. It was made in the US. It has 22 frets. The controls consist of 1 volume, 1 tone w/ a push/pull, and a 5 -way selector. The push/pull on the tone pot doubles the number of pickup combination available, bringing it up to 10 pickup combos. There are three pickups. A mini-humbucker in the neck, a single coil Gibson NSX pickup in the middle, and a slanted humbucker in the bridge position. All of the pickups are passive. I am not sure what the body and nech are made of, but the fret board is Rosewood and I think that the front is Maple. It has a transparent finish in Heritage Cherry(looks in credible) with Gold hardware. The Mini-humbucker in the neck position is the only one that has a pickup cover on it(which is gold plated). The tuners are Gibson Deluxe. It has Gibsons normal 3+3 headstock. The body style is a thin, flat top guitar with a single cut away, binding on the body, and looks similar to a Les Paul. It has a low profile fixed bridge, and strings thru the body. The strap buttons are a little on the small side but they work. The scale length of the neck is 25.5 inches. And the guitar came with a black padded Gibson gig bag. Great guitar, extremely versitile, but every once in a while it leaves you wanting just a little more something. It is very light wieght as well which lets you play it all night long. The neck is a narrow taper round neck.

This guitar sound incredible. And no matter what your style is this will make you happy. I play mostly blues and classic rock, but I like to mess around with everything. If you play country, blues, any form of rock, metal, jazz, what ever, this guitar can cut it. Between the 10 pick up combos and the tone knob I have not found any thing I can't play on this thing. This is definately a jack of all trades guitar. The only way you could get something better sounding is if you had Don Grosh build you a guitar for every different thing you play, only draw backs I could forsee might be the fixed bridge if you were wanting wanting to do Steve Vai style dive bombs or if you were looking for the extra depth of a seven string guitar, but those are specific cases. I have played it through a whole lot of amps and PA's and the only time it hasn't sounded great is when it has been played through something that could never sound good, like a really bad practice amp, and even then it makes it sound much better than it should. If you want a full rich sound you can get it on this ax. And if you don't want it you can just adjust the tone knob and you are all set. I will often use this in place of an acoustic at live gigs, when I would normally break out my accoustic, but this guitar can cut it. I just haven't found anything that this guitar can't hack. This guitar really can kick @$$ and take names.

The action is great. And the set up perfect. The pickups were adjusted fine. The Only flaw the guitar had when I bought it was in the finish. If you look at the guitar from the side looking across the front of the guitar looking straight down the neck there are two black spots on the binding and finish a couple of inches either side of the strap button. Like it had been set on a guitar stand that permanitely left marks on it. In the three years that I have owned it I have really given this guitar a work out, this thing has taken a real beating, and as a result it has a bunch of belt buckle scratches on the back, and quite a few dents and dings. But unfortunately the finish is starting to crack in a few spots, nothing has chipped off though. This is probable due in large part to the extreme weather conditions this guitar has had to endure. Rapid temperture changes, storage for weeks at a time in both extreme heat and extreme cold, and wide variety of humidities. The front of this guitar is covered in dings, especially the area right above the pickup where I beat on it with drum stick for about an hour because I was getting a real cool effect from it, but don't try this at home folks, I am a highly trained professional. But this area which is extremely beaten from more than a foot away looks flawless. And yes my eye sight it 20/20, and when I use words like extreme I really mean extreme, like when I said extreme cold, I am talking about sub zero tempertures for the better part of a winter, and Extreme heat, being locked in a hot humid car for 3 weeks when the air temp. was over 100 degrees. during the days. The temp inside the car probably got over 140 degrees, for 15 hours a day. This is my main guitar, so it has seen a lot of action in the last three years, and the gold plating on the mini humbucker is rubbing off, and the one of the screws on the middle pickup stripped so that it was hitting the High E string, So I tightened down the other screw and it is fine now.

This gutar has taken a severe beating and has walked away still looking and sounding great. It alway stays in tune and I have only had to intonate it once. It is my main guitar and I almost never play my other guitars which include an Ibanez Custom and a wonderful Washburn Accoustic. Other guitars have included, vintage 50's guitars and a really sweet Kramer that was the purfect Metal Guitar. The only thing I would buy in it's place would be a Gibson DC Pro or a Don Grosh Custom Guitar, and then I would still have to keep this guitar as a heavily used backup guitar.

Never tried contacting Gibson but I have heard that they are very good.

I have been playing guitar for 9 years and am a music major. I might be a fraid to buy another becuase I would be to afraid that nothing else, even another one just like it could compare. This is a really great guitar, It has always gotten the job done for me with very, very few complaints, and those few times were when only a top of the line custom or a better amp could solve the problem. You owe it to yourself to give it a try. I recommend the 3 pick up version over the 2 pick up version.

Made in 1995, This guitar is the new Gibson American Series made in USA. 22 frets. Mahogany back and 1/4 maple top with white binding. Maple neck with rosewood fret board. 1 volume, 1 tone, 5 way selector with a coil tap via the push-pull pot in the tone. Mines the three pu H,S,H. Slanted humbucker in bridge, Single coil in middle and mini humbucker in the neck. Pickups are M-series models. My nighthawk is a black finish. The body style is very unique for a Gibson. It's a single cutaway. Body is very thin for gibson,no archtop, with a cutaway in the back for easy playing while you sit down. Neck is set. Bridge is low profile string-thru body. Tuners are gibson deluxe models. Neck is narrow taper round. Hardware is gold.

I play mostly hard rock with a side of Blues and Jazz. This guitar handles all these styles incredibly well. For hard rock switch to the mini humbucker and crank the distortion and you got fat tone. For blues and jazz, pull out the tone pot (coil tap) and you get great single coil sound. I have a crate stack with boss blues driver,fuzz, metal zone, super phaser, Korg hyperdistortion (a must hear pedal), dod flanger. the single coils are very quiet, surprisingly, The bridge humbucker is the only one that gives me some noise when I play with distortion but can easily be cleared up with a noise gate. The mini humbucker sounds exactly like the Gibson 490. The bridge pickup is really hot, this pickup was meant for leads, and screaming solo's. The single coil helps give the nighthawk a strat sound. This guitar is supposed to be the most versatile guitar Gibson makes. To me it was one of the most versatile guitars ever made. This guitar fills any style you want to play.

I bought mine used, and I play LTHB, 10-52. the action was set for tens, I still have not gotten the guitar set-up yet because it doesn't need it. The action is perfect. The pickups have not been adjusted since the factory and I would not change them. There is a flaw in the maple top on mine, thats probably why I got it so cheap. This flaw is small but still is noticable. Frets are still great

This guitar was built to last. Hardware is gold so it will last. The black finish has not started fading yet and probably won't for another 20 years. I changed strap buttons to Schaller strap locks because the buttons were very small. I use it all the time with out a backup, because like I said earlier its the most versatile guitar and very dependable

Have not dealt with the company, but they have a great web site

I've been playing for 3 years. I also own a fender Bullet Deluxe. I would definitely buy it again if it got stolen but I would hope I could get another great deal like before. One thing I like about this guitar is the weight, It's so light, I hated playing a Les Paul studio just because I could not play it for an hour standing up with out my shoulder hurting because of the weight, But the nighthawk is very lightweight and is very easy to play. The only thing I wish would be for gibson to put the control settings/pickup settings back on their web site. Because this guitar has such a large pickup variety, I'd like to know what pickups why was playing