Epiphone Nighthawk Electric Guitar  

When I first saw the Nighthawk, I thought it was probably the ugliest looking guitar in the world, and I didn't want any part of it. However, out of curiosity I listened to demos on the guitar, and fell in love with its sound quality immediately.

When I received this guitar, the packaging was solid, and I received the guitar without a scratch or blemish. It was comfortable to play right out of the box, and in reality it isn't as ugly as it looks in the picture above.

I have 12 other guitars which I has spent more for, and I am impressed with the amount of range and tonality that comes out of this instrument. It is probably one of the cheaper and better sounding guitars out of my collection. I choose to use this guitar more than any of my others. 

As a guitar player, I like to play all different styles of music. This guitar had the perfect tone for any style I threw at it. Indie, Hard Rock, Reggae, Punk, Metal, Ect. Whatever style I played through my amp blew me away and I was impressed with the sound quality. The Nighthawk sounds excellent through a tube amp especially.

The variety of pickups and their combination of available sounds are outstanding for a guitar in this price range.

Fit and finish are  amazing. I had purchased a Gibson melody maker that I returned the next day because the quality was not worth any  price. The nighthawk build quality is far superior!

A lot of value for the money. The nighthawk looks, plays and feels like a more expensive guitar

• I have only had this guitar for a little over a week but I recommend it to all levels of player . It will be my guitar of choice for  rehearsal as well as live performance.

The tonal options are fantastic. The Binding, Mother of Pearl Inlays, Grover Tuners, set neck and string through body put together add up to a very pleasurable playing experience.

Mine is perfect.

I consider this guitar with its sound, playability and quality to be the type of guitar (not many do) that actually exceeds the price paid. It holds it tuning, the intonation was correct right out of the box, sound is awsome and it's look is definately high end.

The Epiphone Nighthawk is a great option If you don't have the experience or $$$ for a high end quality guitar.

If you look at the product/case table on Epiphone.com, you will see that this guitar fits the SG case 940-EGCS and not the LP case 940-ENLPCS. It can be wedged into the LP case ,but the SG case is the correct case. The sparse finish (can appear unfinished at first glance) between the fretboard and the rhythm pickup is just the way they are and not a production anomaly. Production quality issue - Yes. All three examples I ordered had the same finish issue. If I had known this than the first shipped guitar would have been acceptable. The second one shipped had nearly nonexistant finish on the same area. Had the selector switch not been intermittant and the sound not have been inferior to the first unit, it would have been a keeper. The third unit had the same finish issue but sounded better then try #2 and without the switching problems. Third times the charm and Musicians friend was great as usual. The guitar was worth the extra hassle, especially if one knows about the finish quality from the beginning. It really is a tiny area. I just thought it was a production hiccup at first. Also remember to send your warrantee card to Epiphone within 15 days to guarantee coverage. Thats 15 not 45 days. All said and done it's a honey of a guitar and crazy versatile. 

Excellent overall value and features.

I've been giving this guitar a good workout weekly for the past 3 months in the band I play in. It's not the best guitar I've played or own/owned (I currently own more than 50, from cheap to very expensive - vintage Fenders and Gibsons among them), but for the money, I feel that it's an amazing value.

Seems well built in general, BUT ... here's where my problems have arisen. This past week, I began to get microphonic feedback (that nasty high pitch squeal - even while not playing) when I got the gain up a bit (not just the volume, but even the overdrive/distortion - even at low volumes). By the next night, it was totally out of control, now to the point of unusable.

I realized that it is mainly the middle single coil, but also some on the slant HB. I use the middle/bridge (in non-coil tap mode) combination a lot, and therefore I will be moving to another guitar until I get this sorted out. I'm afraid that the bridge HB will continue to get worse as well, and I'm chalking it up to cost-cutting measures on this Chinese made model (I still believe that it's a lot of guitar for the money).

I am now in the search for a repair or replacement for the two pickups. I'm not sure that I want to approach the repair (myself or reputable tech), and Seymour Duncan makes a Bridge HB replacement only, but they need to be ordered, because no dealers have them in stock. Also, the middle p/u will need to be custom ordered and will take at least a month. They EACH run about $100. For those keeping score at home, that would mean a total investment of about $600 in this guitar (providing I do the installs myself).

The hit on the pickup replacement takes it down a few notches.

I like the guitar, and I WILL repair it, but be forewarned, this could be an issue with someone else like me who will be gigging with it regularly.