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Review taken from guitarmag - give them a visit
Gibson BluesHawk - Calling the Soul Patrol
by Baker Rorick
It wasn't really until the coming Stevie Ray Vaughan that Strats became de rigeur for "da blues." The electric founding fathers in the '50s preferred big, fat, fancy Gibson archtops. The Kings-B.B. and Albert-are identified with Lucille (an ES-355) and the Flying V, respectively, and the great white interpreters of the '60s like Mike Bloomfield and Eric Clapton played Les Pauls.
Gibson harkens back to that tradition with the very affordable BluesHawk. Stripped down and ready to rock, the BluesHawk is the newest addition to the Hawk Series, and like its Nighthawk predecessors, continues a hybrid exploration of classic Gibson features, further combined with some distinctly Fender-ish aspects. The Nighthawk's mix-and-match approach and rather awkward body shape have never attracted me in the past, but the BluesHawk has changed my way of thinking. Let's put this new Gibson on the bench for further observation.
First off, the BluesHawk is compact and lightweight. The single-cutaway body is a two-piece poplar slab with a rear waist-cut for comfort. Over that lies a bound, maple top with carved F-holes which cover chambers hollowed out of the lower bouts (this is to mimic the semi-hollow sound of Gibson's thinline arch-topped ES series). The one-piece mahogany neck has a rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium frets, and the frets have a rather low, flat profile. The neck is set and glued to the body at the 16th fret, and the heel-less construction and deep cutaway allow virtually unimpeded access to the highest frets. The 25 &1/2" scale is a standard Fender length, and the wider fret-spacing makes bending a breeze in the upper reaches. Width at the plastic nut is 1 & 5/8" , and the neck has a comfortably thin "V" shape. Tuning machines are enclosed, Kluson Deluxe-style with white plastic, keystone-shaped keys, and the low-profile bridge is similar to a Telecaster's, i.e., with individual saddles and the strings running through the body. All the hardware is gold plated, while diamond-shaped fretboard inlays and a double-diamond peghead inlay call to mind Albert King's pinky ring.
What really sets the BluesHawk apart from the Nighthawks, besides those F-holes, are the electronics. The BluesHawk features a pair of Gibson's new, single-coil "Blues 90" pickups up top, with cream plastic covers. In a separate rear compartment is a third, dummy coil, to reduce hum without sacrificing the edge and bite of the classic P-90. Single volume and tone controls and a three-way pickup selector are augmented by a six-position Varitone (as on B. B. King's Lucille) with a chicken-head control knob, which can be bypassed by pulling up on the tone knob.
Naturally, when I plugged in I played the blues, replete with bending, and expressive finger and hand vibrato. The first thing I noticed while shaking the strings was their spacing, which is rather narrow, with a lot of extra room at the fingerboard edges so the strings won't slip off. The action was low and fast, the intonation was perfect, and there was no fret buzz, nor any choke when bending to the max. I did notice some fret rattle on the open A and G strings, which I traced to the first fret, which was not dressed as flat as the others. The Blues 90s are admirable pickups: loud 'n' proud, and confident in their deep, warm bass, punchy midrange, and stinging treble, not to mention being well balanced and having nary a trace of hum. The Varitone seems to offer the most noticeable variety of tones with both pickups on, giving an out-of-phase, mid-position Fender squawk that I really liked, and cutting most of the lows in the farthest down position for a choked jangle (very cool for scratchy rhythm). Without numbered place markers, though, dialing up a desired sound can be hit or miss, and I soon bypassed the honk switch and let the BluesHawk speak for itself. The overall feel reminds me of an SG, but the overall sound is much brighter and hollower, due to the maple top and the sound chambers, very close indeed to an ES-335.
On the downside, I had some tuning problems due to excessive play in the machines, and the neck felt a tad malleable around the nut, causing me to worry about the headstock breaking, should it take a fall or a hard hit in the heat of a drunken, blues-bar brawl. But like that one high fret, it could just be the one I was sent for testing, and I now look forward to trying more of these out when I come across them in stores. I also look forward to discovering their street price, as the suggested retail price is only $929! They're made in the USA with a limited, lifetime warranty to the original purchaser. That's impressive!
Although it has some familiar Fender features and some available Strat-like sounds, the BluesHawk ain't trying to be no Texas Special. It's more like a Les Paul Special: a consummate blues and rock guitar at a reasonable price, with heritage and quality worthy of the Gibson name. To my mind, a quintessential blues-wailing guitar.
