The Gibson Nighthawk II Prototype

Rabs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLUcu9GXxt4

axisus

Uggh. A video. Was hoping for pix!

Did a 10 second skim, everything I saw looked ugly.

TTony

Summary

Here are a couple of prototype guitars that Gibson decided not to make.  I'm calling them the Nighthawk II for no apparent reason whatsoever.

ICBM

It looks like a copy of a cheap Schecter with an extra stupidly fragile headstock.

I liked the original Nighthawks, apart from the daft angled humbucker and the ugly bridge. If they'd done one with a trem and a maple neck I might even have bought one.

TTony

ICBM said:

It looks like a copy of a cheap Schecter with an extra stupidly fragile headstock.

I liked the original Nighthawks, apart from the daft angled humbucker and the ugly bridge. If they'd done one with a trem and a maple neck I might even have bought one.

That daft angled humbucker is a great pickup though - love the power & sound I get from mine.

ICBM

TTony said:

That daft angled humbucker is a great pickup though - love the power & sound I get from mine.

Yes, I could have lived with it - but it would have sounded just as good if it had been a normal straight one, and the option to change it if you want something different would have been useful. Yes, I know you can swap coils, and there might even be a replacement of some sort, I can't remember... but it would be so much easier just to drop in any standard humbucker.

Funkfingers

Seymour Duncan offers ‘59 and JB humbuckers in the slanted format. Other models can be ordered specially.

pintspiller

I fancied the original Nighthawk at the time. I don't believe I played one. Sid Griffen of Long Ryders had one (could have been an Epiphone) and he seemed to get a Telecaster sounding tone with it.

guitars4you

TTony said:

ICBM said:

It looks like a copy of a cheap Schecter with an extra stupidly fragile headstock.

I liked the original Nighthawks, apart from the daft angled humbucker and the ugly bridge. If they'd done one with a trem and a maple neck I might even have bought one.

That daft angled humbucker is a great pickup though - love the power & sound I get from mine.

Kind of like a hot Tele p/up with a similar tight attack

When you look at some of the other odd ball Gibson Guitars, that flopped sales wise,  I thought the Nighthawk had more acceptability about it