Great Gibson ES-175 clone - Seventy Seven Hawk

[jzucker]

thanks jabberwocky

[jzucker]

Another video of the hawk...

[Robertkoa]

Nice !
I can see how that Guitar would work well for Pop/R&B instrumental/ stuff .

Beautiful sound and your Playing is excellent...love those voicings.

Someone on another Thread told me that he got* EVO Gold Fretwire on his Seventy Seven Archtop... (EVO wears almost as long as Stainless but feels more like polished Nickel).

Great that you can get or they use Jescar Fretwire !

Might sound insignificant but even their Nickel Wire is a little harder ( more durable)than regular Nickel and it feels really good to Play on IMO.

I love the 'Studio Polished' Tones ( and Playing ) you are getting from this Guitar!

The sustain/ long even decay on this Guitar seems to equal stoptail Guitars which would be a big advantage to me.

I never envisioned Playing an Archtop but Tone is Tone !

Would probably sound good in Neck with single coil switch.( or Parallel which can sound P 90 -ish....for some things overdubs etc.

I still have not yet seen a reasonable Demo of the D'Angelico EX-DH 16 inch wide 3" deep Archtop..

I keep hearing Demos of ' Jazz Oriented ' Guitars where they Play twangy Country or Rockabilly or Rock all the way through..lol and I can't REALLY hear the Guitar.

The Reviewers rarely show:
"How fat and warm can the Neck Pickup get?"

Must be even more frustrating for Trad Jazzers.

Anyway when JZ Reviews a Guitar I never have this problem - so thanks.

I also like the smaller dot neck inlays more than Blocks - cool.

[jzucker]

[Robertkoa]

Here is the thinner Version.

Demo sounds very good but has Tone Knob rolled back a little too far or at the Amp ..( being really picky - really just want a more thorough Demo ).
Sounds very deep for a 'Thinline ' to my ears though- right ?

IF this has 90% of the Tones ( no way to quantify I know ) of the Fat Hawk Jazz it might be more practical for ' live ' work..

This Guitar sounds like it would work great also for Legato and Fusion and Blues stuff - would be interesting to hear if it still 'sings' on the Neck PU in single coil .

I really like the evenness across the neck..the deep sounding low strings and the singing sustain ( I know some Classic Beboppers like the big thud and rapid decay for single lines - I love ' bloom' even for my Jazzy R&B ).




Seventy Seven makes deep sounding Guitars.

The Hawks..the Exrubato Jazz and the little
Albatross Jazz are very impressive in Demos.

I would love to see Jack Z. Review the Exrubato Jazz (ES 330 Style with trapeze tailpiece )-
and the Hawk ( thinline ).

[Thraxman]

I see it's been about a 1 1/2 years since the last post on this thread and was wondering if the Seventy Seven Hawk was still being admired with the passage of time.

[Greentone]

Jack Zucker had the most experience here with this instrument. His videos sound great.

I'd like to get my hands on the 350/CC.

[stevus]

One of my guitars is the Seventy Seven Hawk Jazz (not the Deep, like JZ has). I like it a lot. Sounds great and plays very easily. Recently I purchased a 15 inch full-hollow Westville guitar, which is an even better guitar in every way.

I have tried the ATC150 CC and ATC350 CC extensively. Great guitars, on the level of Westville (in fact, these are Westvilles, but with the AT label). Regrettably for me their size is not comfortable enough.

[Robertkoa]

Those Westville Guitars really have a warm open tone , even the Semi Hollows -

They are expensive though... and still suffer from 335 -itis - the fixed idea that a semi hollow must be similar in thickness to a 335 and have a looooong Center Block.

I imagine that the deeper bodies are much better ..

I was on the Westville Site a few years ago ...and when I converted Yen to Dollars - I realized there may be great guitars there- but definitely no bargains and not comparable to 77 in pricing ...

[stevus]

'no bargains and not comparable to 77 in pricing ...'

That is what I thought too, until I tried a Westville (or several, actually). No doubt, the Hawk, or any Seventy Seven model, is a great guitar. You will hear that from every owner on this forum. But Westville guitars are in a different league. These are handmade, high-end guitars. And a bargain, though in the higher price segment.

[Robertkoa]

Yes - I heard the 'Water' model on a Demo from a good Player and noticed the Tones first then went to their Site and noticed it was a thin body design- thin like a 335 or close.

Only Sadowsky and Westville ( that I am aware of - there must be others ) seem to be able to get this resonance / sound out of a thin body like that.

The question I have is why so thin ?


As soon as a Builder goes to about 2.25" sometimes 2" deep whether stoptail or trapeze - (yes the resonance may be different between those two ) but still two flavors of really good as long as the Block is very short- BAM - we get resonant tone .

Very few deaths have occurred from thicker semis . Probably zero- why is everyone afraid of Guitars that are halfway in between a solidbody thickness
(Es 335 Es330 and 796.4 copies over 60 years time ) and an Archtop thickness ?

My new rant...lol.

Don't get me wrong here..on the 'Cookie Forum ' I maintain that Oreos do not taste better when made thicker- but Guitars may be different.

Do we want an enhanced solid body (335 etc) or do we want a true hybrid that has long sustain and more stability than an Archtop for Modern Stuff..I want to have a choice...Eastman may lead the way...

Anyway the Westville Semis do have a very
nice sound especially the 'Water' but they are 4 grand - right ?

Funny thing- on Reverb.com there are Japanese Sellers selling Carvin/Kiesel Guitars new for higher than you can order one from Kiesel ( including options) plus $175 shipping ¿?


But Japan is making some nice sounding stuff.

If there is a market for it - China and Korea may continue to 'up' their game too.


This one is promising - very well designed-
has better pots - and could do a lot of other Styles.. only a Maple Top left . spruce has to be ordered...

[stevus]

The Westville Water/Butter has a depth of 1 3/4", The Solar and Corona Series are available in 1 3/4" or 2 2/5". Different players, different preferences. For example, Yotam Silberstein has a 2 2/5" Solar (maple top), Ricardo Grilli uses a 1 3/4" Solar (spruce top). Indeed, these guitars have great sustain and stability. That's also one of the things you are paying the extra for.

Not sure if Eastman will lead the way. If you think so, I guess you have never seen or tried any of the high-end brand guitars of Japanese luthiers. There are several. I just sold my AR810 after getting a Westville. The Eastman was a great guitar for its price, but the Westville is so much better and also more advanced in design (and more expensive, of course).

It's not uncommon in Japan that brokers sell guitars on their website for higher prices than you would get in a store. Often they don't even have these guitars in stock.

[Robertkoa]

Where they appear to be 'leading the way'
just by my heavily biased concept is
they are exploiting the idea of Semihollow with a very small block and I am hoping they go a little deeper and use Spruce Tops on some.
The ElRey series is cool and the 186mx 185mx are cool ...and again with Spruce tops could easily go further then further still at 2.25" .

I am hoping for a new class of semi hollow where it's obviously hollow and Phatt - then you can get back to a thinner tone like a SolidBody with a parallel switch.
Might require a 20 fret or 21 fret neck also.

Just putting Spruce Tops on a 186mx or 185mx might do it- probably not all the way .

If I was a Pro Carpenter I would not want to start deep in the hole on Jobs with $400. hammers...lol.

So if I do a Music Project - I don't want to start with a $6800 Guitar .
IF it was the Marchione Semihollow for $6800- I would though. (that's half price I think).

I think we have seen what Archtops can do
I don't think we have seen what semi hollows can do...

Listen to the 25.5" scale Marchione...absolutely new ground to me.

So far the Japanese seem to be building what are now refined Guitar Designs that already exist.

I don't care that much because I am not in the Industry ...but I do want a Guitar that goes from almost 175 with more sustain -stoptail ....then hit the series parallel switch and it tightens up to 335 ish - then hit the single coil and really hear the strings .

I had a few solidbodies built that way and they went far on the solidbody spectrum ...even covering 335type BUT now I would like to go 'broader' and I might be able to with Eastman for $2500. Maybe.

Comins could do a larger deeper version of the GCS1 and do it easily IF he wanted to I suspect- will the Market support a $2000 plus Chinese or Korean Guitar ?

No idea...don't really care just want one that does what I want - IF I can get it.

I don't like the idea for myself of having multiple Guitars - like 5 or 6 for different tones anyway....

[Thraxman]

Interesting. Westville instruments are new to me. I'll have to give them a looksee.

[GNAPPI]

just by my heavily biased concept is they are exploiting the idea of Semihollow with a very small block and I am hoping they go a little deeper and use Spruce Tops on some.

The ElRey series is cool and the 186mx 185mx are cool ...and again with Spruce tops could easily go further then further still at 2.25" .

I am hoping for a new class of semi hollow where it's obviously hollow and Phatt - then you can get back to a thinner tone like a SolidBody with a parallel switch. Might require a 20 fret or 21 fret neck also.

Just putting Spruce Tops on a 186mx or 185mx might do it- probably not all the way .

So far the Japanese seem to be building what are now refined Guitar Designs that already exist.

Multiple snips...

Agreed and you're not alone, I think right now the git closest to your description is the D'Angelico MIJ NY-SS. After getting the EX-SS earlier this year, I'm impressed with it enough that I'd like to find an NY-SS in the U.S. at an affordable price.