Bought mine new a year ago and love it. It is a goldtop with Burstbuckers. My main guitar for 40+ years was a 62 LP SG, which is great but has tuning issues. I love the sound, the feel, and the light weight. Also the body contour, no more bruises on the ribs. Mucho sustain, I was surprised at that. Plenty of growl through a Fender Blues Jr. I only wish it had a traditional 4-knob set-up.

My attention was originally caught by the Epiphone Nighthawk Reissue - looks like stunning value for money. But then I saw the Gibson 2010 Standard on the Gibson website and absolutely fell in love with it. I live out on the fens so there aren't many Gibson dealers out here and those that there are didn't have one in stock. Fortunately, Andertons of Guildford had one on display and were prepared to let me return it for a refund if I wasn't happy so I broke every rule in the book and ordered a guitar without ever having seen it, touched it or played it.
It arrived today and I've just spent the last three hours unable to put it down. It's magnificent. The tonal range on this guitar is amazing - from smooth, deep, three-in-the-morning-smokey-dive jazz to a real down-home country twang and everything in between. Marvellous.

Looks - I got the "Memphis Mojo". In other words, dark brown. and the first thing to say is that it's way darker than the pictures suggest. Of course, each guitar might be different but at first glance, mine looks black. With the white binding, that's really cool - but when it catches the light, the colour really pops out and shows the grain off beautifully. The shape may not be to everyone's taste but I really like it. It's a fraction smaller than a Les Paul and just different enough to stand out from the crowd.

Quality - there's a small mark on the guitar as it was Anderton's display model but they told me about if before I bought it and threw in some goodies to make up for it. There's also a slight "bleed" of the binding material on the florentine horn but they seem to be the only issues. The guitar was set up perfectly for me out of the box and it plays beautifully - that sustain is fantastic.

Sound - you can get the full specs elsewhere but I'm really impressed with the range of sounds this guitar can produce. OK, it's not really going to do heavy metal very well but the 5-position pickup selector and the two pull-pots let you dial in pretty much any sound you want. Also worth mentioning that the tone control has a huge range of adjustment on it. Much more than on my Les Paul.

Comfort - I like Gibsons. I like the 12" radius fingerboard, I like the shape of the neck and I like the size and weight of their guitars. And the Nighthawk is no different - it's a longer scale length (25.5" like a Fender) but other than that is instantly familiar to anyone who's held a Les Paul.

Value For Money - This is a tricky one. I've scored it 5 stars because, when compared with the rest of the Gibson range - this is stunning value. It seems to be every bit as well put together as a two-and-a-half grand 335, has a great tonal range and yet is less than half the price. I can't help thinking that the price will rise with future releases as the market for the Nighthawk gets established. Which makes mine a bargain. that said, there are some excellent guitars out there for hundreds, not thousands of pounds so you're obviously paying something for the name on the headstock. But the acid test is would I pay more for it? And, to be honest, yes I would.

Overall - As you can probably tell, I'm really pleased with this guitar. I have the option of returning it to Andertons for a full refund - but that's not going to happen. They'd have to prise it from my cold, dead fingers to get it off me. And now, I need to back and play it some more.

In my opinion this is a great guitar that was misunderstood when it was introduced. These are no longer made and they have become hard to find, especially in the three pickup incarnation. There are two pickup versions as well. Despite the scarcity of these on the market, he prices have not begun to escalate out of sight yet but that will happen. This guitar was designed to give you a Fender/Gibson experience and it delivers. You can do anything with this where real music is to be produced.

A masterpiece! Kudo's to Gibson on this one. I'm more of a Fender player than a Gibson so the 25 1/2" scale just feels like home. Such a joy to play and it sounds great too. You can't go wrong here. It's my #1 and will stay that way. Goodbye Fender! A classic that will someday be reissued. Mark my words. Amazing guitar.

This guitar is the most beautiful shape in the world. I'm in love.