Gibson has given its Hummingbird range a makeover, unveiling a trio of acoustics that rework the classic square-shoulder dreadnought into a cutaway acoustic electric guitar, each fitted with LR Baggs electronics as standard.
The new cutaway models include the Hummingbird Studio EC, Standard EC, and Standard Rosewood EC, and present the Gibson songbird in an all-new light. No question, all three instruments are high-end acoustic guitars, fresh out of Gibson’s acoustic facility in Bozeman, Montana.
Keith Richards, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift… Anyone who is anyone has picked one a Hummingbird at some point, and the songs have tumbled out of it.
It is one of the world’s most-loved acoustic guitars for a reason, and a dream instrument for generations of players. But one thing the Hummingbird isn’t big on was upper-fret access. That’s fine if everything you need can be found between frets 1 and 14 and believe the symmetrical figure-of-eight shape of the acoustic cannot be improved upon.
And yet some players need those frets up the dusty end – especially bluegrass virtuosos whose fiddle tunes see them scale the fingerboard as a matter of course. That’s where the new cutaway Hummingbirds might have the evolutionary advantage on their forebears.
The Hummingbird Studio EC, retailing at £2,599/$2,999 is the most affordable of the three, presenting the classic Sitka spruce top and mahogany bodied Hummingbird in a satin nitro finish, with an LR Baggs Element Bronze system to make it stage ready.
You’ll find the acoustic guitar pickup and preamp controls in the soundhole and that Sitka spruce soundboard braced with Gibson’s 1930s Wide-X top bracing.
Now here’s where Gibson remixes the menu for this Studio model. The Round SlimTaper neck should have an unfamiliar feel but it is carved from mahogany substitute utile.
We also have a 16” radius rosewood fingerboard instead of the more commonly found 12”, all to make string bending easier. Hey, Gibson has made that cutaway for a reason; it wants you to play some leads on this.
But don’t worry. It still has the MOP parallelogram inlays counting out the 20 frets.It also has a decorative pickguard with graphics specific to the Studio model. Gibson is offering this in an exquisite Tri-burst finish, which looks the part with that multi-ply binding on the top.
The Hummingbird Standard EC is more classic. This reverts back to the mahogany neck and the high-gloss nitrocellulose finish and is offered in Heritage Cherry Sunburst and in Ebony as a Gibson exclusive (grab it online or in-person at the Gibson Garage in Nashville or London).
While it has the same rounded SlimTaper as the Studio, the rosewood fingerboard has a more conventional 12” radius. The electronics have been upgraded to LR Baggs’ superlative VTC system. Again, controls are mounted discretely insight the soundhole. The Hummingbird Standard EC is priced £3,399/$3,999.
