My Blues 90 has landed......

[BluesDan]

...and a day early too! Fed-Ex tracking had it arriving tomorrow, showed up today? That's a first, and a relief, one less day in transit.

First of all I have to thank the seller and fellow bb-er Thorn (Ron). Amazing guitar at a great price and he was a pleasure to chat with on the phone.

Secondly, this guitar is spectacular!! Amazing tone. Awhile back I inquired in a thread of how a Blues 90 would compare to a Gibby counterpart and someone responded that the Guild would "smoke" the gibby. Being partial to some of my Gibbys, I took that with a grain of salt........yet I was intrigued. Well I have to say, that statement is pretty accurate, definitely smokes my LP Studio, and I'm still A/B ing it against my Gib BluesHawk. Two different animals because the Hawk doesn't have true P90's, they are actually Blues90's (go figure) that have hum cancelling dummy coils, a kinda P90 / humbucker hybrid.

Anyway, I took the rest of the afternoon off to check this baby out, so I leave you with my pic of "Blues Heaven".........
My Gibby Blues hawk, Fender Blues Jr., and my new Blues 90............

 

[capnjuan]

Weeee doggie! It's a beauty Dan; I had Andy Hiwatt's for a moment while in transit ... there's a P90 guitar in my future, Congratulations! CJ

 

[cjd-player]

Nice guitar, Dan.

I have my Bluesbirds, but never had an opportunity to play a Blues 90.

 

[FNG]

11! 8) 8)

 

[Default]

I haven't had the pleasure of playing a p-90 equipped guitar, but boy, howdy, that's a nice pair!
BTW, 25 1/2 scale on the Gibson?

 

[BluesDan]

I haven't had the pleasure of playing a p-90 equipped guitar, but boy, howdy, that's a nice pair!
BTW, 25 1/2 scale on the Gibson?

Thanks all for the kudos everyone.

Default, yes the Blueshawk is 25 1/2 scale and a SUPER light guitar, weighing in at a featherweight 6 1/2 pounds. There is a website out there that I ran across at one time that was dedicated to just Blueshawks, its probably still around. I have found that most players either absolutely love the Blueshawks or hate them, not too much in between. I am hooked, I love the tone possibilities with the varitone 6 way switch (basically a notch filter), everything from a tele sound to a strat to a LP. And the Blues 90 pickups have enough bite and growl to be effective but less hum than your typical soapbar pups. Definitely a guitar that you would want to pickup and play before buying. IMO still one of the best Gibby bargains out there, you can pick up a mint one for under 800 bucks. Some even have the Maestro tremolo unit. The line was discontinued by Gibson a few years back.

 

[mad dog]

Dan:

Really beautiful instrument. When you say it smokes your LP Studio, is that the mid 90s studio w/P-90s, or the more recent HB-equpped model?

MD

 

[BluesDan]

Dan:

Really beautiful instrument. When you say it smokes your LP Studio, is that the mid 90s studio w/P-90s, or the more recent HB-equpped model?

MD

Hi Mad Dog, To be honest, my present LP has the Alnico Burstbucker V's, probably not a fair comparison. But my cousin had a late 90's (1996 maybe?) Gem series Studio LP with P90's, I think the color was actually called Topaz which I thought was rather fugly. I believe (not sure) that it was a Gibby custom shop job. I did play that one several times and it was the best sounding Studio I have ever played hands down. Based on my memory of that one, I like the tone and feel of this Blues 90 alot better.

 

[mad dog]

Dan:

I ask because I've long wanted to try that mid-90s, LP Studio Gem w P-90s. Same goes for the Guild Blues 90. I might get the chance to try both at once soon. Someone not far from me actually has one of each. It will be very interesting no doubt.

MD

 

[BluesDan]

Dan:

I ask because I've long wanted to try that mid-90s, LP Studio Gem w P-90s. Same goes for the Guild Blues 90. I might get the chance to try both at once soon. Someone not far from me actually has one of each. It will be very interesting no doubt.

MD

Those Gibby Gems are sweet guitars. I think there were like 5 or 6 different "gemstone" colors offered. My cousin used to get p/o'd at me because he paid like 2+ grand for it and I hated the color. I do recall it being a great P90 tone machine, it should be real fun checking that out side by side with the Blues 90. Keep me posted if you do, I would definitely be interested in your opinion.
BD

 

[Singin' Dave]

Very nice!! Welcome to the Blues 90 club!

Like that green finish. Here's my red:

 

[BluesDan]

Very nice!! Welcome to the Blues 90 club!

Like that green finish. Here's my red:

Thanks Dave.......Proud to be a member of the Blues 90 club!

Your red B90 is absolutely stunning!!!

Does anyone know how many color variations there were to the Blues 90's?

 

[Andy Hiwatt]

It's nice to see that the Blues 90 club finds new adepts every day..
Actually I'm also one of the last enthusiasts joining the club since I got my wonderful Blues 90 some weeks ago with the essential help of LTG and CapnJuan ...you might have read the whole story and seen some photos here:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9795&start=60

in the meantime I reallly fell more and more for my Blues 90, play it every day, hardly wanting to put it down once I start playing it, even unplugged is well sounding and a joy to look at..I have to confess it recently replaced my beloved 1964 T100D as my favourite instrument to play . I also took some more pictures with a better camera, glad to post 'em here:

 

[BluesDan]

It's nice to see that the Blues 90 club finds new adepts every day..
Actually I'm also one of the last enthusiasts joining the club since I got my wonderful Blues 90 some weeks ago with the essential help of LTG and CapnJuan ...you might have read the whole story and see some photos here:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9795&start=60

Gotta Love the reds!!!! She's a beauty Andy!

 

[AlohaJoe]

Beautiful guitars! Side by side it sure looks like the Gibby has a narrower neck. How much narrower is it? Looks like a shorter scale too. Man, I love those colors!

 

[BluesDan]

Beautiful guitars! Side by side it sure looks like the Gibby has a narrower neck. How much narrower is it? Looks like a shorter scale too. Man, I love those colors!

Tales of the tape:
The Gibby Blues hawk neck is 22 frets / 25.5" scale. It was Gibbys attempt to do "Fender" in my opinion. I would call the neck a cross between a '59 Les Paul and a Strat with a slight "V" or shallow "D" to it. It is a 1 5/8" nut. You either love it or hate it. I love it. Overall build quality of Blues Hawks is suspect, I would never buy one sight unseen, there are good ones and then there are sloppy ones. Collectability and price went up slightly when Gibson decided to discontinue the line in 2006.

The Blues 90 is 22 frets with the 24 3/4 scale. Chunkier neck. 1 11/16" nut.

I have had my Blues Hawk many years and the Blues 90 only a few days. But if the building were on fire and I could only grab one.........right now I would have to say the Blues 90. I have been fiddling around the last few days with the Blues 90 through a couple different Fender tube amps, and I have to say, I am in love.

 

[Singin' Dave]

Wish mine had those nice clear Guild volume and control knobs! If anyone knows where I can get some, I'm interested!

 

[AlohaJoe]

Thanks for the info Dan, that's just what I wanted to know.