Guitar Review: Gibson Nighthawk

Believe it or not, here's another blog post written while flying across the Atlantic. This is sort of a follow-up to an entry from a year ago, where I said I don't have any Gibson guitars, yet think of myself as a "Gibson guy".

So, I finally did get myself a Gibson guitar. And yet the Nighthawk is very much like a Fender in a lot of respects. Nevertheless, perhaps this one guitar sums up why I was previously so torn.

I had seen this specific guitar at the home of an acquaintance, and it haunted me for months, though I hadn't even played or heard it. Early this year I had seen advertising for the new Epiphone Nighthawk, which further stirred my interest.

The first thing that caught my eye about these guitars was the diagonally placed humbucker pickup, and the total of three different types of pickups in the guitar. The second was the body shape... to my eye having pretty lines like a Les Paul, but somehow not quite right.

Anyway, a couple of months back I finally got my hands on one of the new Epiphone Nighthawk guitars at Long & McQuade music in Vancouver, and I just about bought it on the spot. I also handled one of the new 2011 Gibson Nighthawks as well, though it didn't have the 3-pickup configuration. The initial impression of these guitars was that they're significantly lighter than a Les Paul but otherwise feel rather similar. I really liked the feel of the neck, with a smooth low action and comfortable medium-profile neck cross-section.

In the end I was given the opportunity to buy the genuine mid-90s Gibson model for a good price, and I jumped on it after trying the guitar for a few days. The 2011 Gibson model was very nice, but more money than I was willing to spend, and the model I tried didn't have the pickup configuration I wanted. The 2011 Epiphone model was very nice, and a great price. Made in Indonesia, I didn't see any quality issues on the model I tried out, and would have been happy to purchase that guitar. But we have an Epiphone (Dot Studio) and I really wanted to own one Gibson.

The original Nighthawks were made by Gibson from 1993-1996, and were not considered a commercial success. I'll point out here that the same fate befell the now-iconic Les Paul and Flying V guitars at the beginning of the 1960s, only to be resurrected when Gibson realized how popular the used guitars had become. So also the Nighthawk, which was reborn (apparently significantly redesigned) as a Gibson model in 2009 and as an Epiphone this year.

Although the esthetic of this guitar is very Gibson, the guitar has a number of characteristics more commonly found on Fender guitars:

- the neck scale is 25 1/4" rather than the shorter scale common on Gibsons, which gives the strings more tension and a different feel

- the single-coil pickup, and coil-splitting tone pot (pull up on the tone knob to split the humbuckers into single-coil mode) offer up lots of chimy tones heard typically from Fender guitars (Stratocaster tones to my ears)

The 3-pickup model offers 9 different pickup combinations using the 5-position selector and the coil-splitting pot. The pickups are a mini-humbucker in the neck position, single coil in the middle, and a humbucker in the bridge position. I've been playing the guitar through a Fender Blues Jr III amp, and am amazed at the range of tones I get out of the guitar. The single coil and split coil modes give great glassy and chimy tones that I've never heard from this amp with my humbucker guitars. I really like the tone of the neck mini-humbucker as well, as it seems somehow different (in a nice way) as well.

Overall, the tone spectrum is so varied that I can see how this would become the go-to guitar for any occasion. And it's light enough to remain comfortable. So maybe now I can really claim I'm a Gibson guy.

I think I'm a Gibson Guy... am I really a Fender guy?

It seems that in the world of guitar players, at least in the electric guitar circles, the majority of people either fall into the Fender camp, or the Gibson camp.  Somehow the single coil, ringing tones of the Fender guitars, and maybe their unique curves are a major attraction for a lot of players.  And for the majority of those who don't feel that way, the lines and grinding tones of the Gibson electrics appeal greatly.  I have read a number of comments that agree with my own feeling that somehow one camp or the other feels natural to most players, and that few are really comfortable with a foot in both pools.

It seems that perhaps I don't really know what I am.  I think of myself one way, very clearly sitting in the Gibson camp.  And yet, as a scientific person, I'm compelled to examine the evidence, which is really not compellingly supporting the Gibson position.

First off, I think of myself as an electric guitar guy.  I have a few different electric guitars around the house.  I also have some acoustics, but then who doesn't?  It's just a part of being a guitar player, isn't it?

Those darned acoustics

In terms of acoustics, I don't really long for either Fender or Gibson guitars.  Neither seems particularly interesting to me, and I'd rather yearn for a Martin, perhaps.  Though overall I'm pretty happy with my little fleet of mid-priced and cheaper acoustics, like the Luna Fauna Dolphin and particularly my Ovation CC 047 mentioned in earlier posts.  While I'm on the subject, though, I have to comment that I'm pretty disappointed that both Fender and Gibson seem to lean more on their history and show pretty minimal evolution towards the future of the guitar.  That behaviour seems likely to be risky in the long run.  Luna is a great example of taking a new direction [in this case graphic Art] and mixing it with the historical art of lutherie.

And the reality of my existence is that in fact I play acoustic guitar the vast majority of the time when I practice.  They're handy, sound nice without having to plug them in somewhere, and they're relatively nonintrusive to the rest of the family.  Since I tend to play in the living room or in my bedroom while my wife is reading, this seems like a reasonable approach.  But still, I think of myself as an electric guitar player.

My huge Gibson collection

OK, so I think of myself on the electric side as a Gibson style guy.  True, I think the Les Paul guitars are a great shape, so truly pleasing to the eye.  Even similarly styled guitars from other manufacturers catch my eye.  And yes, I'm a humbucker guy.  The Les Paul neck scale seems right for me, though I'm really not that picky about neck cross-section, and enjoy playing pretty much any neck [I'm no shredder].

I don't own a Les Paul.  Not even an Epiphone one, though I did rent a left-handed Epi Les Paul junior for my daughter for a few months, until she decided she didn't want to be a guitar player [still working on her].  And yeah, if it'd been right handed, I'd have just bought it so I could have one.

I do own a classic Les Paul copy, though.  It's a '70s El Degas black beauty (at left).  Well, not quite so beautiful as it probably was before I ever owned it, but still, it's just about like a Les Paul, and therefore I'm a Gibson guy.

We do have one Gibson guitar in the house.  It's my wife's, and is an Epiphone DOT Studio.  This semi-hollow body electric wasn't really the guitar beauty of my dreams, as I'm really a solid-body guy at heart.  But this budget-minded version of the famous Gibson ES-335 is glorious to play, and very flexible in tone.  I've used it on a number of private recordings doing things I wouldn't have expected from such a creature, and it is very nice to play.

I do have another El Degas, which is a SG Bass copy in bad shape.  Guess that's one more for the Gibson camp, but I don't really think about it since the thing is in such bad shape it just rests comfortably in an old cardboard guitar case in the basement.

I don't have any other gibson gear.

I'm not really a Fender guy, but...

So now it comes down to my reality check.  I'm a Gibson guy, right?  Sure, many of us can't really justify the big bucks for a genuine Gibson Les Paul, but that doesn't make us fall into the opposite camp.  But when I look around my home, I start to wonder who's side I'm really on.

My first electric guitar was a (pretty poor) Telecaster copy.  I have to tell you that I truly celebrated when I managed to buy the El Degas Les Paul from a fellow bandmate in high school.  I finally was free of that dreadful twangy cream-coloured Telemonstrosity.  In those days I played a nice 50W Marshall half-stack amplifier, and there wasn't a thing more I needed in the world of music.

But since becoming an adult,  I seem to accidentally be accumulating Fender stuff, and I'm finding it distressing.  After all, I'm a Gibson guy.

It started innocuously enough, when I tried to sell a keyboard on consignment via a local music shop.  They somehow screwed up the deal, and ended up giving me a Fender M-80 guitar amplifier instead of my money, as the keyboard had disappeared.  Didn't bother me much, since my beloved Marshall had long since developed legs and left the scene, and I didn't have an amp at all.

Then a few years ago when I bought the Ovation guitar, I also picked up a used Mexican Fender Jazz Bass.  Of course Fender basses are awesome, and therefore this didn't contravene my I'm a Gibson guy thing.  Too bad the shape of it is kind of curly headed etc. but it's a pretty nice bass to play, and it's got humbucking pickups, so it's already halfway out of the Fender school in my mind.

Well then of course I didn't have a bass amplifier, so I ended up getting myself a Fender Rumble 100 amp to go with the Jazz Bass.  Hmm, there seems to be a bit of a trend going there.

The piece de resistance came early in 2009 when I finally decided I need to step up and buy myself a quality electric guitar.  These mid-priced guitars have been pretty good, but I figured I deserve one really nice guitar.  I've had a thing for the Gibson Flying V since playing one in high school, but that clearly wasn't really the sort of thing I wanted.  I wanted something flexible that I could use for a wide variety of styles, since there's no way I'd be buying another guitar this nice.  From the beginning, I really figured I would end up with a Les Paul.  The Fender Strats and Teles are really not my thing.   I barely even picked up a Strat in the guitar store.  But I figured I'd take my time and look at the various options before settling on one or another of the Les Paul models.  I liked a couple of the Paul Reid Smith guitars, but most of them didn't feel right in my hands.

In the end, the timing was just right that there was a new guitar on the block, painstakingly designed by an idol of mine in conjunction with (of all outfits) the Fender Custom Shop.  It was a guitar that just sounded "right" for my tastes from the first I read about it.  Relatively light [I was concerned about how heavy most of the Les Pauls seemed to be], nice scale length, comfortable neck, great balance, a great quality set of humbuckers and all the other "Les Paul" kind of things that I really wanted.  But it was definitely not a Les Paul in looks, and most concerning for me was a Fender built guitar.  And I just had to have it.

So in the end, the stallion in my guitar stable is built by Fender.  And regardless of another name on the headstock, it's just definitely not, quite, a Gibson.  And perhaps that's the only thing that's not right about that sweet guitar, because it sure plays nice.

Guess I'll go play my acoustic some more.

Cheers

Dave