Gibson Hummingbird Studio Rosewood - Rosewood Burst Review

Gibson Acoustic Studio Rosewood Acoustic-electric Rosewood Burst

The finish on the the guitar is flawless and beautiful. The playability is amazing. The only drawback is , it dose not have a tone control like my J45. Just volume a volume control. This instrument has a very warm sound. I have always wanted a Gibson Humming Bird , and so glad it is a part of my collection. Also a big Thank you to my sales engineer , Mike Johnson , for making… read more this purchase a great experience, and the team at Sweetwater.

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A beautiful tone and sound, but the price is just too high

So let's get some trivialities out of the way:- there's no Hummingbird decal. I personally prefer this but if you really want the bird drawing then this is not the guitar for you.- it's rosewood, not mahogany. I can't compare the sound too directly since I only have the one Hummingbird, but compared to recordings of new mahogany Hummingbirds, it seems that the rosewood is clearer… read more and brighter. I think these two "issues" are basically irrelevant but they are worth mentioning since the Hummingbird is a famous style of guitar whereas this is a bit different. But this is certainly a nice guitar:- despite the standard body size this thing really packs a serious punch; it's a cutting, booming sound where each string rings clearly. It will turn heads and stand out in a crowd.- it is a very pretty guitar and the rosewood used in the body is clearly extremely high-quality. No QC issues I've noticed.- it has a clear high end and great sustain with fretted strings (perhaps at the expense of a rich open string voicing compared to a similarly-priced Martin). This is a great acoustic guitar for jazz/R&B/etc players who use nonstandard chord voicings. The bass is a bit weak in terms of how well it "thumps" but the soundboard picks up a lot of subtleties in the E and A strings, so you can still add a lot of flavor and energy to the lower register.- out of the box the intonation and playability were superb. It's also held up well with some heat and humidity in August/September - I try to keep my apartment reasonable but it's hardly a controlled climate. It came with coated strings, which I hate, but I suppose it's the fashion these days. That said… I can't help but feel that $ is too much money for this particular guitar. I am still playing with the stock coated strings and perhaps that's part of the problem. I am also not an expert on flat-top acoustic guitars (I typically play archtops). But I have played "mid-range" Martins for less than $2000 that sounded better.I wish I had a more rigorous explanation than this, but if you're a guitarist you'll understand: a while back I tried the cheapest Gibson Les Paul at the store ("only" $) - and was totally blown away at the quality of the guitar. More recently I was blown away by a Loar acoustic archtop. I bought both guitars and they were worth every penny.Sadly I am not "blown away" by the Hummingbird. Especially given that this isn't a more unique mahogany guitar, I am sure you can find a nicer rosewood dreadnought acoustic at a lower price. At $ I really can't recommend buying this guitar (especially online).

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