Years later I find this article🦂

[Barklessdog]

http://www.chicagofretworks.com/2008/08/11/a-blueshawk-bass-with-custom-electronics/

http://www.chicagofretworks.com/2008/08/11/a-blueshawk-bass-with-custom-electronics/

Now residing in the collection.

[clankenstein]

Cool article.I had forgotten about the dummy coil!

[Barklessdog]

The coolest thing to due would to get Rob to build one.

[Alanko]

This is cool! I've seen the bass here, and maybe elsewhere (?), but never seen what went into producing it. Very cool! That wiring harness looks absolutely insane. I'm guessing that some of the trickiness comes with reversing the phase of the dummy coil for one of the pickups? Then a Varitone switch with a push/pull inductor bypass on the tone control?

[Barklessdog]

I tried to wire it myself without luck, so I took it to the shop to get an electronics person to do it.

Yes, the positions were,  the neck and dummy, the neck, bridge, no dummy , and the bridge and dummy.

http://archive.gibson.com/Files/schematics/dsbhwiring.gif

[Alanko]

That is a great wiring scheme, but I can't fully follow it as I can't see how the switch works. It looks like the dummy coil is 'fixed', and the phase is flipped on the pickups themselves? What does the wee resistor and capacitor pair do for the neck pickup? I'm guessing it cuts low frequencies from the neck pickup when the switch is in the middle setting? It seems to be tied to the ground side of the neck pickup, jumpering it to the middle terminal on the switch?

[gearHed289]

Very cool. I don't think i ever caught the fact that you had a dummy coil in that bass. Alembic "Series" instruments also have 2 single coils and a dummy in the middle.

[moonshinegtrs]

What a cool Bass! I have seen it before, nice job...

Many years ago (1995/96?) I was working at the main plant for Gibson USA. I was working night shift mainly because they were trying to get me into management and I knew that it was the kiss of death. Back in those days it was a great place to work, mainly because of the workforce... Great people who took what they did very seriously, Management? That was a whole nother matter.

I had been there since 1989 and I had worked hard to get involved wherever I could. This led to me pretty much having the run of the place, I worked in several departments trying to lean as much as I could from the old timers.

I knew the guy from the custom shop that had designed the Nighthawk guitar (Dave many brain cells ago...), it was a cool design with a definite nod to Fender (scale length). Some people loved it while others couldn't stand it. I thought it was different for Gibson, but kind of cool.

One night after getting caught up with work I was wandering around the plant and I started looking at Nighthawk bodies; I started thinking about  at the possibility of making a Nighthawk bass, I took a body off of the line and grabbed a Les Paul bass neck (it was the flat top body model, not a Standard). It didn't take long to fit the neck to the body and I had it glued up. The next evening I added hardware and set it up (no finish, raw wood or whitewood as we called it with two Bartolini humbuckers and passive controls; Vol/Vol/Tone). There was a slight neck dive but nowhere near as bad as a TBird. I thought it came out really well so I showed it to a friend that was a bass player and worked on day shift (night shift was far removed from any of Gibson's management. As far as they were concerned we didn't exist, which was fine with me)... He dug it and he said he would show it to the Gibson Brass. Cool.

After a few days I started hearing about my friend and his idea for a new Gibson Bass... The Nighthawk Bass! I had given him the bass I put together and he decided to present it as his own...

After he presented it to Gibson Brass they took it and decided that the body was too small so they increased it by 10% Then they added TB+(TBird) pickups as well as other small changes. it started looking weird and eventually it was locked awayi n the safe with all of the other prototypes that will never see the light of day.

I've been in that safe...

[Basvarken]

Great story. Thanks for sharing!
I wonder what else is in that vault. The bac5 continental?

[doombass]

Yes, a really nice story. I've always liked the Nighthawk design, especially the 3 pickup Custom version.

[Basvarken]

The coolest thing to due would to get Rob to build one.

I sold the G3 pickups that I had in my first Brooks bass... 

[Barklessdog]

That is a cool story and do you have any pictures of it?

Rob I think you would use other single coils?

Also I made mine like the guitar with a popalar body, but mahogany and map,e would be cool to try.