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The BluesHawk is a fixed neck guitar - the neck being made from a single piece of mahogany. The neck joins the body at the 16th fret with an accurate but slightly inelegant looking joint. The truss-rod allows easy adjustment of the neck. Adjustment is made at the nut end of the fingerboard. The neck and headstock are continuous, and not jointed where the headstock angles back from the line of the neck. The neck is 42mm wide at the nut - 55mm wide where the neck joins the body - 21mm deep at the nut - 25mm at the 12th fret. ActionI have the 1st string action set to 1.3mm at the 12th fret (this is about the lowest it will go) - the 6th string action is set to around 3.5mm with a '46' - it would go lower but I like the feel. | ![]() |
![]() | fingerboardThe fingerboard is made from rosewood which when new is in standard "Gibson dry" condition. Dressing with lemon oil a few times improves things no end. The fingerboard's radius curvature is 12 inches (approx 30.5 cm) which is around "standard" for modern Gibsons. |
nutThe nut is neatly cut from a hard white plastic and is 1.7 inches/42mm wide. On my Blueshawk the string slots were a little high and a some work with a fine file improved action and intonation around the lower frets no end. String spacing is quite tight - a lot of space has been "allocated" to the outer strings, allowing big bends and wide vibrato without falling off the edge of the neck. | ![]() |
![]() | headstockThe headstock is continuous with the neck and is formed by adding two small wings of wood to either side of the main neck material. The headstock is angled back 11 degrees (fingerboard to headstock front face). Gibson necks are known to be weak at the point where the stock angles back - take care with your 'Hawk - however, repairs are invariably successful. |
tuners / machine-headsThese look like crappy Gibson/Kluson tuners with snot-green "tulip" buttons. If you have experience of vintage Kluson tuners this probably will not inspire your confidence, however, the surprise is that the ones on my guitar (and others) work exceptionally well - smoothly, with no perceptible backlash. They contribute significantly to a guitar that displays excellent tuning stability. This, however is not everyone's experience and there are good reasons to doubt the tuners robustness and longevity. Like other Gibson guitars, BluesHawks have the serial number impressed into the back of the headstock. | if you want to change those machine heads for better engineered tuners that look very similar ... go here ![]() |
| check what BluesHawk serial numbers mean - here... |
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