Gibson Nighthawk

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Written by vintage on January 28, 2009 – 6:53 pm -

Nighthawk (1993 - 1998)

In 1985 under the new ownership of Henry Juskewiscz, Gibson wanted to regain their classic reputation by focusing more on detailed featured specs of reissues. They also wanted to start a new genre of guitars that bared their name but didn’t have that standard classic sound and tone..

In 1993 Gibson built a guitar with a wide range of sounds by placing a coil tap switch which doubles as a tone control knob. When these switches were pulled up or down the humbuckers were converted to single coil making the guitar extremely versatile. This guitar was called the Nighthawk. It is possible to mimic the sound of a Fender Stratocaster by switching to single coil.

Maybe not the most popular guitar ever made, however, many guitar players even today like these guitars because they are light, less expensive, and versatile.

In 1993 Gibson introduced three variations of the night hawk: the nighthawk custom, which had a flame maple top, single cut Les Paul style body, gold hardware, mini humbucking pickup in the neck position, single coil pick up in the middle, a slanted humbucker, trapezoid inlays, push/pull master tone five-way switch, ebony finger board, and made in antique natural, fireburst and amber finishes.

The Nighthawk Standard had double parallelogram inlays, rosewood fingerboards and was made in fireburst, amber and vintage sunburst finishes.

The Nighthawk Special had dot inlays, rosewood fingerboards, and was made in ebony, cherry or vintage sunburst finishes.

In 1994 Gibson started to make some Nighthawk models with floyd rose vibratos, and optional two pick up versions with no single coils, in 1995 they added another guitar to the family called the Blueshawk with f-holes which are still in production.

The Nighthawk never really established a following in the market and all three versions were discontinued in 1998.

Vintage Price Value For 2007 :
1993 - 1998 > $1000 to $1200 (Nighthawk Custom)
1993 - 1998 > $600 to $900 (Nighthawk Special)
1993 - 1998 > $850 to $1100 (Nighthawk Standard)

These guitars have increased in value an average of 11% per year since 2000.