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tjon901 « Epiphone reissue of a rare Gibson »
Published on 06/08/11 at 14:54Gibson tried to bring a new look and feel to their guitar line up with the Nighthawk in the early 90s. The Nighthawks came with a very different pickup and electronics system that offered Gibson players more tones than they have had before. They took the classic Les Paul. They widened the body but the body is still smaller overall and opened up the cutaway. They extended the neck scale to 25.5 inches. The neck is mahogany with 22 frets. They also designed 3 new pickups for the guitar. They put a high output slanted humbucker in the bridge. They put a Gibson mini humbucker in the neck and a specially designed high output single coil in the middle. With coil tapping, as many as 10 different combinations were available. There is a large Fender style bridge with string through stringing. This Epiphone is a reissue of that Nighthawk. It has a 5 way blade pickup selector and the tone control is a push pull that can split the bridge pickup.
UTILIZATION
This guitar plays slightly better than a normal Les Paul. The longer scale neck means there is more room on the fretboard all the way up the neck. The cutaway is larger so it is easier to reach the upper frets on the guitar. The bridge on this guitar is not the regular tune-o-matic that you get on most Gibsons. Since it is not a tune-o-matic it will not fall off when you dont have the strings on the guitar because it is not held on by the string tension.
SOUNDS
With the longer scale over all the guitar sounds more crisp than a Les Paul. The extra length gives more string tension giving the notes more snap. The mini humbucker is very smooth in the neck. You get a more Fendery tone overall. At some positions it gives out a very Telecasterish sound. This may be because of the slanted bridge pickup putting out more treble frequencies and the extra tension. The single coil is great to mix in with the other pickups because it will add extra clarity and ring ontop of the thick humbucker sound. One disadvantage to the slanted humbucker is that you cant really replace it with an aftermarket unit. If these guitars become more popular more after market parts will come out.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar did not really catch on back then but it could catch on now. It is a very versatile guitar. Epiphone are selling these guitars really cheap now. They are around 400 dollars new. So this guitar is a great value for something this versatile and unique. People willing to play guitars other than Les Pauls and Strats will find that there are a lot of good different guitars out there.
UTILIZATION
This guitar plays slightly better than a normal Les Paul. The longer scale neck means there is more room on the fretboard all the way up the neck. The cutaway is larger so it is easier to reach the upper frets on the guitar. The bridge on this guitar is not the regular tune-o-matic that you get on most Gibsons. Since it is not a tune-o-matic it will not fall off when you dont have the strings on the guitar because it is not held on by the string tension.
SOUNDS
With the longer scale over all the guitar sounds more crisp than a Les Paul. The extra length gives more string tension giving the notes more snap. The mini humbucker is very smooth in the neck. You get a more Fendery tone overall. At some positions it gives out a very Telecasterish sound. This may be because of the slanted bridge pickup putting out more treble frequencies and the extra tension. The single coil is great to mix in with the other pickups because it will add extra clarity and ring ontop of the thick humbucker sound. One disadvantage to the slanted humbucker is that you cant really replace it with an aftermarket unit. If these guitars become more popular more after market parts will come out.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar did not really catch on back then but it could catch on now. It is a very versatile guitar. Epiphone are selling these guitars really cheap now. They are around 400 dollars new. So this guitar is a great value for something this versatile and unique. People willing to play guitars other than Les Pauls and Strats will find that there are a lot of good different guitars out there.