60's Gibson Hawk Amps

[B Bent]

Any of you cats familiar with this guy or have any kind of opinion or experience you would like to share. There's one in pretty nice shape here in Atlanta for cheap. I thing it might be a fun amp to have and tinker with.

2x10's
Verb and Trem
Tubes/Handwired

That's about all I know.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: 60's Gibson Hawk Amps

Not familiar, but I've heard good things.

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: 60's Gibson Hawk Amps

I've got a 62 Falcon- cool amp.

I think the only reason they're not regarded as well as Fender is because the cabinets aren't as "burly" as Fender's.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: 60's Gibson Hawk Amps

we talked a bit today...give me a shout and we'll talk some more...

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: 60's Gibson Hawk Amps

I think the only reason they're not regarded as well as Fender is because the cabinets aren't as "burly" as Fender's.

That's an interesting observation, because I've always wondered the same thing. Gibson amps always have a cheaper look, and I think a lot of people stray away from them for that reason. Sometimes, I wonder if even the newer Goldtones will be sought after years from now, just because they stopped making them? I've liked a lot of 60's Gibson amps, but never owned any Gibson amp. I really want a 1-12 or 2-12 Goldtone 30.

 

[Gunny47]

Re: 60's Gibson Hawk Amps

I think Gibson should reissue their amps, they only have 1 reissue out and I love it. Their new amps dont really appeal to me much, I want VINTAGE!

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: 60's Gibson Hawk Amps

That's an interesting observation, because I've always wondered the same thing. Gibson amps always have a cheaper look, and I think a lot of people stray away from them for that reason. Sometimes, I wonder if even the newer Goldtones will be sought after years from now, just because they stopped making them? I've liked a lot of 60's Gibson amps, but never owned any Gibson amp. I really want a 1-12 or 2-12 Goldtone 30.

I think if anything the reputation of having Trace Elliot before them will likely make them sought after.

My Velocette is a SMOKIN Blues amp!

I was wondering about the Goldtones though...didn't see them on the site. Did they just up and nuke the entire line?

 

[Mkf411]

Re: 60's Gibson Hawk Amps

That's an interesting observation, because I've always wondered the same thing. Gibson amps always have a cheaper look, and I think a lot of people stray away from them for that reason. Sometimes, I wonder if even the newer Goldtones will be sought after years from now, just because they stopped making them? I've liked a lot of 60's Gibson amps, but never owned any Gibson amp. I really want a 1-12 or 2-12 Goldtone 30.

I love those 1-12 or 2-12 Goldtones. The only word I can think of to describe the tone is authoratative (if that's a word). Big 70's rock guitar tone and good reverb. I've got to get one. But I'm also not sure they will be sought after. The 2-12's go for as low as $800 and 1x12's as low as$500 on ebay.

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: 60's Gibson Hawk Amps

I love those 1-12 or 2-12 Goldtones. The only word I can think of to describe the tone is autoratative (if that's a word). Big 70's rock guitar tone and good reverb. I've got to get one. But I'm also not sure they will be sought after. The 2-12's go for as low as $800 and $500 on ebay.

The 1 x 10's tend to go for around $400. These ones lack reverb. The 1 x 12's have reverb but also have the pentode/triode switch that will knock it down to 6 watts.

I think I've seen the Trace's going for less than the Gibsons, but the Trace's tend to be alot more scarce.

As far as being sought after, it's still early. There are still shops with some of the Trace's in stock! But what is a good sign is that alot of cats are just floored by the tone of them!

 

[kevlar3000]

Re: 60's Gibson Hawk Amps

I love em, as I have 2 Atlas heads as well as a Mercury head. All 1964. They went with a real futuristic design, odd angles, to coincide with the V and the Explorer. I imagine, that in the day it simply turned a lot of people off. That was a very unusual marketing approach that did not work too well. There is not a timeless look with these amps, it is dated in a way that I personally love, but for many, that is not the case. There are not massive numbers of these old amps left., My Mercury as an example, is one of 400 or so ever made. One would think the values would be off the charts. Much like the Porsche 914, it just did not connect...

Part two of this is that they built these amps to stay clean. In stock form all three of my amps were tonally rigid, bright and had very little 'sing' to them. They were marketed to jazz and country players, not your typical space age batch of folks... When you remove a couple caps and then juice the rest of em, these amps scream with the best of them. You gotta open em up and change stuff to do anything useful with em . I only know a couple folks who have spent time making these amps into monsters and am fortunate to be friends with one of them. I spent a lot of time tweaking my Mercury and now I just love it. They have good iron, good build quality for the most part. I am in love with the 6EU7 snarl in the pre section. Not a common tube which also leads to some of the collectibility issues. If they sounded as good as mine do now, I doubt I could have afforded one, let alone three.... Little did Gibson know that a British invasion was gonna change the rules of what electric guitar should sound like... Jeff Beck, Jimi and Eric were getting ready to break all the rules. Wouldn't work with an amp built to stay clean....

My favorite gigging rig....