Aside from some great leaps in technology, I'll always remember the '90s as the decade that reawakened the Blues as a popular form of music. And based on the rapidly expanding Blues sections in the CD stores, it looks like the trend isn't going to slow down any time soon.

One of the mysteries of the Blues is that, by basing its style on only a handful of well known forms, it actually allows a great deal of freedom in other areas of expression, including tone and playing styles. And over the years, these tones and styles have been explored on a number of electric guitars including Stratocasters, Telecasters, Les Pauls, ES-335s, solid-bodies, wide-bodies, hollow and semi-hollow bodies, and even a rectangular box or two. And the widely varying types of Blues have been influenced by Jazz, Rock, Country, Soul and R&B.

Love the Blues? Want to play the Blues? Now you can own a finely-crafted instrument with the flexibility and authority needed to speak authentically in any style of Blues (or Rock, Country or Jazz for that matter). Gibson's BluesHawk ($1253 list) brings a new look and an arsenal of hot new sounds to the Blues with a classy F-hole body and a pair of unique "Blues 90" single-coil pickups. A plushly padded custom-fitted gig bag is also included.

The BluesHawk features a maple-capped poplar body, a mahogany neck (25 1/2-inch scale), rosewood fingerboard and luxurious gold hardware. It's lightweight and well balanced, with a comfortably contoured back. Diamond-shaped inlays plus the single-ply binding add a distinctive touch, and the narrow neck profile sports a slight V-shape for better playability. The bridge features a low-profile string-through-body-system that contributes to the deep resonance and admirable sustain of the instrument. The BluesHawk is available in three finishes: Chicago Blue (shown here), Ebony and Heritage Cherry.

The electronics are distinctively Gibson. And the combination of two "Blues 90" pickups with their three-way position pickup switch and the six-position Varitone selector
knob give you all the sounds you're looking for, regardless of who you're playing with that night. Of special note: Though these are single coil pickups in the style of Gibson's venerable P-90s, they include a dummy coil to keep the hum and buzz usually associated with single coils under control, much like a humbucker.

For me, the Varitone selector is one of the most exciting features of this guitar. I spent hours trying each of the 18 possible combinations (3-way pickup switch x 6-position Varitone selector) through several different amplifiers with varying amounts of overdrive, and every setting I tried produced yet another source of timbres to explore and that's not even including the possibilities offered by using the Tone control, which also has a push-pull switch to bypass the Varitone.

I found that I could conjure up the crystalline bell-like tones of a Strat neck pickup (thanks to the extended frequency response that's characteristic of single coil pickups), as well as the mid-range snarl of a Les Paul bridge pickup (this is, after all, a Gibson), plus the muted, full-bodied warmth of a hollow-bodied jazz humbucker, and every type of out-of-phase spank and twang needed for the Country buff. In case you hadn't already noticed, I'm truly smitten by this Varitone selector. (If it were possible, I'd add one to all of my guitars.)

And speaking of adding, you can also equip your BluesHawk with an optional Maestro vibrato bar (which is actually the same as the classic Bigsby vibratos from the '50s and '60s). Make no mistake, this is not your neighbor kid's dive-bombing whammy bar; this is a far more subtle and refined tremolo that's reminiscent of the Stray Cats, Chris Issacs and those '60s spy movie soundtracks. The extra gold hardware looks pretty sharp too.

So if you've always wanted to own a Gibson, or just feel like adding another one to your collection, call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer and find out just how easy (and affordable) it can be to put some authentic Blues into your music.