The Gibson Blueshawk is a relatively recently designed (1996-2006) Gibson

Gibson Guitar Corporation

The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...

 model designed mainly for blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 players (hence the name). It superficially resembles the Les Paul

Gibson Les Paul

The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...

 in that the body outline is similar. The Blueshawk was discontinued by Gibson in Spring 2006.

A variant on the Blueshawk is named Gibson Gibson Little Lucille

Gibson Little Lucille

The Little Lucille is a relatively recently designed Gibson model designed mainly for blues players. It superficially resembles the Les Paul in that the body outline is similar. The Little Lucille was discontinued by Gibson in 2006. The Little Lucille is a variant on the Blueshawk that features a...

and features a stop tailpiece and tune-o-matic

Tune-o-matic

Tune-o-matic is a name of fixed bridge design for electric guitars. It was designed by Ted McCarty and introduced in the Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar in 1954. In 1955, it was used on the Gibson Les Paul Gold Top...

 bridge.

Construction

The Blueshawk has a number of distinctive features that distinguish it from virtually all other Gibsons. The Blueshawk's body outline is the same as a slightly earlier range of guitars - the Nighthawks

Gibson Nighthawk

The Gibson Nighthawk was a short-lived electric guitar model line, manufactured by Gibson. The Nighthawk represented a radical change from traditional Gibson designs featuring many elements more commonly associated with Fender guitars. The Nighthawk superficially resembled the Les Paul, Gibson's...

(1993-1999) - but unlike the Nighthawks, the Blueshawk is a semi-hollow bodied guitar with twin f-holes and a flat (uncarved) top.

Other distinctive / innovative features include:

• 25.5 inch scale length (the same as many Fenders, Gibson’s more typically have a 24.75 inch scale length).
• Through-body stringing and bridge construction - similar to the Fender Telecaster
  Fender Telecaster
  The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
  
  
• Blues 90 pickups (a modified version of the P-90
  P-90
  The P-90 is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson since 1946. Having a more complex architecture and larger dimensions than Fender's single coils, it is occasionally mistaken for a humbucker.- History :...
  
   pickup)
• Noise reduction circuitry which employs a dummy coil
• A Varitone circuit (similar to that used on the Gibson ES345) - the Varitone circuit is a mid-cut/band-stop filter
  Band-stop filter
  In signal processing, a band-stop filter or band-rejection filter is a filter that passes most frequencies unaltered, but attenuates those in a specific range to very low levels. It is the opposite of a band-pass filter...
  
   with a choice of five center frequencies
• The Blueshawk is a light guitar (less than 7lbs) - the body is made from poplar, capped with maple - the body is small and relatively thin and has two cavities - the hardware is minimal.
• The Blueshawk has a contour carved into the back - similar to the Fender Stratocaster
  Fender Stratocaster
  The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
  
  .
• Simple control set - master volume, master tone, 3-way pickup selector, 6 way rotary Varitone control switch.
• Just above the fingerboard and parallel to it, between the front (neck) pickup and the front strap pin, there is a cursive-writing emblem using paint, saying “Blues Hawk.”

External links

• Gibson Blueshawk Gibson Musical Instruments
• Blueshawk.info - an independent enthusiast site dedicated to the Gibson Blueshawk and other Hawk guitars
• Review of the Gibson Blueshawk (May 12th 2006).