Gibson | Nighthawk Studio

The Nighthawk made a major splash when it first hit the scene in 1993, and through its several evolutions this guitar continues to be popular with a wide range of players demanding a marriage of the best of Gibson tradition and clever modern design features. Newly updated for the end of 2011, the Nighthawk Studio from Gibson USA features a new pickup array and switching, new tonewoods and three stunning new finish options—Goldtop (all-body finish) with gold top-hat knobs, Pelham Blue (all-body finish) with black top-hat knobs, and Silverburst with black top-hat knobs, all in high-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer. Electronics include a pair of Gibson’s most highly acclaimed humbucking pickups, with a simple control complement that’s nevertheless extremely versatile thanks to independent coil-split switching, offering six entirely different tones. All this, and the Nighthawk Studio is superbly playable, thanks to the first-class craftsmanship you have come to expect from Gibson USA.

While it clearly takes its cue from Gibson’s legendary Les Paul, the Nighthawk Studio has been designed from the ground up to provide an updated playing feel, superb resonance and sustain, and a big, bold tone, as well as a more contemporary look. It has a solid mahogany body with a glued-in neck made from solid quarter-sawn mahogany, carved to a traditional SlimTaper™ profile that measures .808″ at the 1st fret and .875″ at the 12th. The neck is topped with a 22-fret fingerboard made from torrefied maple, a super sturdy and clear-sounding heat-treated hardwood, and a Nighthawk headstock with mother-of-pearl Gibson logo and holly inlay. The Nighthawk Studio’s 25-1/2″ scale length yields all the chime and twang of longer-scale guitars, while classic Gibson set-neck construction retains the punch and endless sustain that is expect from any great double-‘bucker axe. Through-body stringing coupled with a unique and highly adjustable Nighthawk bridge and a PLEK-cut Corian nut (1.625″ wide) further enhance resonance and sustain.

For firepower, the Nighthawk Studio packs a pair of Gibson’s popular BurstBucker humbuckers—loaded in with double-black open coils—a BB1 in the neck position and a slightly hotter BB2 in the bridge. Made with unpolished Alnico II magnets and authentic 42-AWG enamel-coated wire, these are some of the most accurate reproductions of vintage PAF humbuckers available today. They are enhanced with push-pull switching on the master tone control to split the coils of each unit, yielding useful single-coil tones independently or in combination through the three-way selector switch. From rich, warm, bluesy humbucker tones in the neck position, to roaring lead voices in the bridge, to twangy single-coil tones and funky in-between tones, this simple control array makes the Nighthawk Studio a stunningly versatile instrument.