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Greetings. My name
is BlueRick and this is the opening article in a series of columns
that will deal with equipment and sound processing gear. Since I am a
‘guitaraholic’ most of what will be presented will be guitar, stomp
box, sound effects, and recording related.
Oh yeah….I like to keep my reviews short and sweet (much like me) and
always to the point. Hence the name MINI-VIEWS….so let’s get started.
Let’s start with the premise that every guitar player wants a Gibson.
NO? I think you lie. Every guitarist does want one, but not every
player can afford to buy one. Well, several years ago I bought one, a
Gibson BluesHawk and here’s what you need to know about it.
First of all it cost me five hundred dollars. That makes it
inexpensive. The minute I bought it, it became my ‘go-to’ guitar for
all critical situations, recording or live. What is it? Well all you
really need to know is that it’s a Gibson.
The BlueHawk is a single cutaway guitar with two pickups. It’s very
light weight, so you won’t lean to one side when the night is over.
The tuners are plastic (I told you it’s not an expensive guitar) and
the pickup covers are plastic as well. The body is slim with a pair of
sexy ‘f’ holes cut in it. The controls on the body of the guitar
include two rotary pots. One is for volume. The other is for boost
when you pull it up and for bass treble when you turn it. There’s a
three position toggle switch for different pickup combinations.
Finally, there’s a chicken head knob that controls the tone of the
pickup outputs according to your taste; dark to light. I like dark.
The neck is typical Gibson, which means to say it feels great. The
cutaway body gives easy access to the upper frets, all of which are
useable. The frets themselves are smooth, big and easy to navigate.
You can bend, shake and vibrato to your heart’s content.
The sound? Well run this guitar through a Fender Champ amplifier (an
article for a later date) and get ready to start grinning. It plays
clean, dirty and all points in between with out any problem. The
guitar can play all styles of music but trust me…it likes the Blues
the best. Why else would it be called a BluesHawk? All I can say is
…sweet.
You can purchase these babies for about eight hundred bucks new. But I
like to go the used route where you can get them now for around five
hundred dollars or less. Check eBay and see if I’m right.
That’s it for this time until next time. Don’t lose the beat……………….BlueRick
BlueRick is the stage name used by Rick Solomon, a veteran of the
local NY music scene. He’s played in clubs, bars, street fairs and
guitar shows and expos. He’s also an on-call studio musician with a
great deal of recording experience. He’s currently in studio
completing his latest album, “Promised Land”. You can hear BlueRick on
his website,
www.BlueRick.com.
BlueRick@BlueRick.com |
