Nighthawk Pickups

[Chistopher]

I was thinking of buying an Epi Nighthawk Custom to muck about with. I was thinking about ordering a slanted Thrash Factor for the bridge, some sort of Jaguar pickup for the middle, and a mini humbucker sized Filtertron for the neck. Any ideas? I'm trying to see how far I can venture into left field without getting a foul, so to speak. I'll probably also route it out for a flush mount Floyd Rose as well, if anyone's interested.

 

[gimmieinfo]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

I was thinking of buying an Epi Nighthawk Custom to muck about with. I was thinking about ordering a slanted Thrash Factor for the bridge, some sort of Jaguar pickup for the middle, and a mini humbucker sized Filtertron for the neck. Any ideas? I'm trying to see how far I can venture into left field without getting a foul, so to speak. I'll probably also route it out for a flush mount Floyd Rose as well, if anyone's interested.

I can't recall just how i did it, but i had one of those and was able to slant regular pickups to use in the bridge. I think what i did was take the coils off the pickup i wanted to try and put them on the nighthawk's bridge pickup plate. Been a while so i THINK thats how i did it. But in any case it frees you from having one or 2 choices for a bridge p/u because you can use most any standardized humbucker coil set.magnet. At the time i think there was only one aftermarket option, may have been duncan i think.
On a side note, i ended up selling it because nothing i put in it would make that guitar sound quite right. The dynamics and tone when you rolled the volume down to clean up just never sounded or felt right regardless of whether i used treble bleed and if so what value etc etc. Something about the fender scale length IMO just doesn't work with gibson woods and design. Maybe thats why they never got very popular.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

I found with a 300k volume and 500k tone you can get fairly close to the ball park of Gibson tone with the Nighthawk. I know someone who had the slanted SH-4 SD released a while back expressly for Nighthawks, and it actually sounded pretty good with the aforementioned pot combo. I was also using this as a chance to test out the Thrash Factor, which is similar to a JB.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

Could be cool.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

Superb, undervalued guitar... I never modded one, so looking forward to your input. Always looking for a good base platform.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

Cool man, I've always really dug Nighthawks!!!! I grew up in the 90's & I remember falling in love with the one pictured in the Musicians Friend catalog when they first came out.. (The Gibson 2 pickup version) Obviously at the time they're price range was quite out of reach for me but I did play a couple & I thought they were great!!! Plus I always really liked the fact that they were a little bit different from the rest of Gibson's offerings...

I've tried to get my hands on one several times over the past decade but every time I find a 2 pickup model for sale it's either beat to hell & damaged in some way or the seller is asking some exorbitant price for it. Perhaps I should check out the Epi's, I'm not crazy about the middle pup but for what I'd save vs buying a discontinued 90's Gibson I'm sure I could get over it??!

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

I'm thinking about putting a Power'Tron in the neck, but I'm still thinking about a middle pickup. Is there anything similar to an SSL-1, but in a Jaguar style pickup?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

I'd think the closest you can get to the SSL-1 is probably the Antiquity II Jaguar.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

i have a trio of antiquity II jag pups in a strat since i wanted flat pole a5 vintage style pups. they sound fantastic

 

[Mincer]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

The Antiquity II Jaguar bridge uses calibrated alnico 5 rod magnets and a custom coil wind for a focused 60s surf tone that is bright and jangly.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

Oh I see. It also says A2.

Antiquity II Jaguar - Bridge
The Antiquity II Jaguar bridge uses calibrated alnico 5 rod magnets and a custom coil wind for a focused 60s surf tone that is bright and jangly.
OUTPUT
DCR:6.6K
MAGNET:ALNICO 2

 

[jeremy]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

all antiquity II pups are a5, all antiquity pups are a2.

its a mistake on the website

the vintage jaguar would be another fine option, i just dont have first hand experience with it. id guess the comparison would be similar to a ssl1 vs surfer

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

Cool man, I've always really dug Nighthawks!!!! I grew up in the 90's & I remember falling in love with the one pictured in the Musicians Friend catalog when they first came out.. (The Gibson 2 pickup version)

I like the 2 pup Nighthawk and love it's Blues hawk brother even more- But I use 2 and 4 positions a lot on Strats and would love to find one of the 3 pup nighthaks with the 'normal' (non-slanted) bridge pup- Some of it's asthetics, but I've never understood the slant either- in a humbucker I like articulate bass.

Haven't played an Epi, but they tend to do a good job with most G designs.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Nighthawk Pickups

Oh I see. It also says A2.

Antiquity II Jaguar - Bridge
The Antiquity II Jaguar bridge uses calibrated alnico 5 rod magnets and a custom coil wind for a focused 60s surf tone that is bright and jangly.
OUTPUT
DCR:6.6K
MAGNET:ALNICO 2

Hahaha, I didn't see that. We'll add that to the list for the website.