Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar
Subject: Blueshaw Review: 1 Week!
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 21:47:20 -0400
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Preliminary Review: Gibson Blueshawk
I have had the Blueshawk home for about a week now (549.00 plus tax). I
have played it about 30 hours so far (yes it is true, much to the detriment
of my productivity at work!). I will use the 10 (perfect) to 1 (worst)
system. I had planned to review this in a couple of weeks, but think little
will change in that time so I am putting it out now. I am not affiliated
with Gibson, or any of the other products discussed in this review. I have
played on and off for about 25 years now. Until the past year and a half
mainly acoustic styled playing. I do not play professionally at this time,
I did work as a musician about 20 years ago (never famous – a just local in
my hometown area). I play mainly at home these days. I have been learning
“the blues,” which I would guess will take me a lifetime. In my case I am
interested in the BB King styled blues and blues tone. I own a LP clone
with Gibson Classics for pickups in addition to this guitar. I played this
guitar through a Fender Blues jr., Crate GX30M, a couple of other fender
amps, and a couple of bass guitar amps (just playing round) and a 10 w
Samick. I have used .09’s, .10’s and .11’s on the guitar. It is a 25.5
inch (Fender) scale length instrument.
Overview:
The instrument was designed as a new instrument having a new and distinct
sound in the Gibson line. It is a semi-hollow body guitar with the shape of
a Nighthawk. It was designed to have a single coil pickup with a fender
(strat-tele) tone. It has a bound body, with Mother-of-Pearle inlay (Double
diamond). As such its tone has a rather ES135-ish feel as well as the
fender-line tone. When the guitar is compared to others, I would say it
should not be compared to solid body units, rather other semi-hollow units.
The guitar has a mahogany set neck, flat solid maple top with solid poplar
sides and back. It has a rosewood finger board. It comes standard with a
hardtail adjustable bridge, and no tremolo. A tune-o-matic bridge and a
Gibson designed tremolo system can be ordered on it. It comes in Ebony, Red
and Blue. I have the Ebony version. It comes with a varitone system and a
dummy coil for hum canceling. It uses Blues 90 pickups that (as noted in
other posts) were designed to have a bright tone with fast attack (similar
to a fender single coil). While the pickups have a passing look similar to
P90’s they are not and will not sound like the P90.
Fit, Finish and Feel: 9
My unit arrived with no major difficulties. The binding was in great shape,
and there were not major flaws in the finish. In a good light some slight
orange peel was able to be noticeable. But, it was very slight orange peel.
The inlay was done well and the fingerboard was The frets were tight, medium
and higher than those in my Samick, but about where the Standard strats are
in height. The fretwork was smooth, but there were slight flat spots on
some of the frets. There were also noticeable machining marks on the tops
of several frets. The knob on the varitone was slightly loose and would
slip some when turned. The jacks, switches and jacks were all VERY tight.
The nut was cut well, and the neck was nearly flat (the way I like it).
Intonation with the .09’s from the factory was right one. The tuners had no
trouble at all, and while I initially thought they would be trouble, they
have been great. Go figure.
Others have indicated it is a “fragile” instrument. Hum, I would say no
more so than any semi-hollow body. AS it has a small light body, it is a
little neck heavy. But, it is an unbelievable comfortable unit to play
(standing and sitting). The dials could sure use some type of reference
marks as well.
Others have complained about the neck feel. Hum … it is slightly larger
than my LP knock off, it is smaller than my acoustics have been (except for
the Ovation). I find it very comfortable. Others have complained about
reaching cords … beats me! I have very small hands and have not trouble
with full barre cords. Now, I can’t reach some of the 14th’s on some cords
(namely, the 14th’s added to the 9th’s when using the “A” string root).
But, I can’t reach these on any 25.5-inch scale guitar!
Tone: 9-10
If you are going to own or play one of these it should be noted this thing
can survive with .09’s, but until you put .10’s or .11’s on it you are not
likely to see it come to life. The heavier the string the better! It is
very sensitive to various types of strings as well, so if you want a sharp,
snappy tone I found Fender 250’s in there. If you want a little warmer
sound go with the Dr.’s.
Remember ... this is a MAPLE top single coil. It is tight and bright! It
does not get muddy (Someone indicated a muddy tone) that I have found. The
thing retains string distinction well. But, the semi-hollow does cut the
sustain some (compared to a LP).
The guitar has a number of semi-hollow body strat and tele tones in it. I
found it had a bright and at times treble heavy tone to it. It is however a
guitar that if you play some you get a number of great tones. With the
various amps I found the varitone very useful in locating useable single
coil tones on for any amp. In general, it has what I would describe as very
tele-like in tone. If you can remember what the guitar in the Rolling
Stones song with “Pleased to meet you” in it this is what I mean by
tele-tone (I am sure someone will tell me it not a tele now!). If you are
familiar with Johnny Lang there is a lot of that tone in it as well. I
found my favorite tone with my SS Crate amp set was found using the clean
channel (BB King fan, go figure!). I set the volume to 5, EQ to 5 (low,
mid, and high), reverb to 6-7. The Blueshawk was set to the neck and tone
knob set to about 3-5. The varitone is in the 4th position (clockwise).
Under distortion (Daddy-O and using the gain on the amps), it crunched up
nicely. But, it is definitely treble-single coil sounding here. But it was
nice. The tones found on the Gibson site are very representative of my
experiences with the distortion tone.
I would say that this is not a plug-and-play guitar however. It has some
great tones, and is very flexible. But, you will have a different set-up
for each amp you use. If you are willing to play with the amp and guitar
knobs, you can find its versatility. John Jennings indicates, “it is a
little guitar that really works.” And, if you want to hear it on an album
you can find the tone on Billy Lee Riley - *Hot Damn,* and some on James
Peterson’s latest.
Customer Support: 8
I ordered this thing and waited a little over a week. The dealer then
checked, and found out they had mixed up the order. They were pleasant and
worked hard to correct it. A week later I called and after they had
checked, found out that Gibson had messed up the order. I week and half
later (after the dealer indicated he had “raised hell”) it came in.
During this time I began to obtain information from Gibson (direct)
regarding the guitar. I obtained friendly service and prompt replies (for
the most part). However, I was initially told that the Blueshawk came with
P90’s. Then when I asked about the Blues 90 specs was unable to get a
response for over a week. Only after asking about the mix-up and indicating
I was going to write up a review did I get the pickup specs. As I posed
these earlier, I will not again.
The dealer forgot to send a warrantee card, and the “on-line” registration
did not work when I tried the Gibson site.
Overall Satisfaction: 10
If I were going to get a single coil guitar, I would check this thing out.
If I were looking at strats and tele’s (or anything similar) I would think
it would be worth a good look. It is not a sound clone for the strat to
tele (or P90’s). But, it has a great similar sounding tone which is unique
enough to allow one to be distinct. If it were to die, I would replace it
ASAP. I love this thing. While it would not be my only guitar (I am a
humbucker fan), for any single coil thing I was doing this is my ticket.
But, be ready to spend some time with it. If you do you will love it I
would guess. But, if you are looking
If there are, more questions let me know. I am in love here. I really do
not care that others think it is “ugly” or “cheap” looking. I am very,
very, very happy with this thing. But, you must see if it does for you what
it does me. Don’t buy anything because some reviewer (or some famous
person) says so. PLAY IT, then PLY IT SOME MORE! Then if you like it, buy
it! If not buy what YOU like! In fact, I think Gibson has a seriously
under valued, rated guitar here. But, I hope it does not catch on in some
ways ... I would like to remain somewhat unique here!
Dale Pietrzak
Pietrza--(at)--zo.net
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