The Hummingbird sound (or why I bought this guitar). One of the other Hummingbird reviews here states that the buyer wanted a guitar to exactly reproduce the acoustic rock sound of some Rolling Stones' songs such as "Sister Morphine", and that the Hummingbird he bought (a 1996 model) did that perfectly, but had very short sustain. I started looking for a high-end acoustic to play mostly folk and folk rock stuff on, and I did not begin by looking at Gibsons.
But…after going in and out of a fair number of guitar stores and superstores, and picking up a Hummingbird or two and playing them in the store, I discovered that this guitar, made the way Gibson Montana makes them now, is something special. The Hummingbirds that I've played have all had a sweet, round, chime-like tone that people can distinguish from other acoustics. (Literally, they can. I've had friends of mine who are not musicians or anything other than casual listeners come with me to check out some guitars, and I've done an experiment several times, with the same results. I'll ask them to turn their backs to me and just listen, without judging the guitar's sound by how it looks. My friends can usually tell the difference between, say, a rosewood Martin and a Taylor, but every time I've played different guitars for them and asked them which one "sounded the best", the Hummingbird won – no exceptions.)
The Hummingbird sound is pretty versatile, too. It rings like crazy when played hard with a flatpick, sounds very good on solos played up the neck, and turns rich and extra warm for fingerstyle playing.
On the "sustain" issue raised in another review: I'm in a moderately quiet room, with a/c blowing and a computer humming away in the background. I just hit a variety of chords in succession, G, C, D, E and let each chord ring until I could not hear it anymore. My watch tells me that the average sustain until the chord can't be heard over average background noise is about 10 seconds. I did the same thing with a Martin SWD, and the time was pretty much identical. I don't know how to account for the difference, except to say that acoustics do show a fair amount of variation in tone and playability from one to the next, even in the same model.
Gibson Hummingbird, manufactured in 2000 by Gibson Montana, in Bozeman. 20 frets total, 14 frets clear of the body. Gibson calls this a "square shoulder" acoustic. It is actually close in size and shape to the Martin Dreadnought acoustic, but the Hummingbird is slightly bigger in most body dimensions. Solid spruce top, solid mahogany sides and back. Solid mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard, fingerboard position markers are mother-of-pearl parallelograms. Finish is gloss lacquer for everything: body, neck, headstock.
Gibson Hummingbirds from the Bozeman, Montana factory for the past several years have been (and continue to be) finished in "Heritage Cherry Sunburst". For me, the "HCS" finish doesn't look good compared to the way Hummingbirds were finished originally, which was a rich cherry red sunburst soundboard shading to yellow in the center of the top. The "HCS" finish is a distinct orange color on the rim of the guitar's top, shading to a more faded yellow in the center. The exact shade of orange is like Campbell's tomato soup. When I called Gibson Montana and asked if I could order the original finish through a dealer, they said no problem, and explained that they finish the guitars in the "HCS" finish now because original Hummingbirds (1960 – 1968) are fairly collectable, and most collectors examples have sunburst tops that have faded through the years.
The guitar has multiple body bindings on top and back, and the fingerboard is also bound. Probably the most distinctive visual feature of the Hummingbird is its engraved pickguard, which is oversized, dark tortoise colored plastic engraved with a hovering Hummingbird, vines, flowers and a butterfly. I think it's beautiful, but my mind boggles at the thought of a (for example) classical guitarist with an instrument decorated as gaudily as this. I really believe that when Gibson brought out the Hummingbird in 1960, they expected to sell a LOT of them to country and western players.
Other features: the bridge is solid rosewood, top belly design, decorated with two mother-of-pearl dots, one on each side of the bridge pins. The bridge saddle is bone, but the nut is plastic (more on that later.) The strap button at the bottom is nickel plated, or maybe stainless steel.
This is a "short scale" acoustic guitar: scale length is 24 3/4 inches, and the neck is fairly slim. It plays fast, and doesn't get in your way. The bound fingerboard and the capped frets (a Gibson tradition) help the Hummingbird's playability also.
The guitar came with a very well fitted arched top hardshell case, a humidifier to fit in the soundhole and good instructions on how to use it (and when), a good owner's manual, the lifetime warranty card, and a neat pick made from the same tortoise shell plastic as the pickguard with the Gibson Montana logo in goldleaf.
In every respect except the action and strings, the Hummingbird was close to flawless right out of the box. The finish was beautifully done, the "custom" color I ordered (really just the original cherry sunburst) was exactly as I wanted, almost everything was as it should have been. Gibson ships Hummingbirds (along with most, but not all, of their acoustics) with Gibson light-guage phosphor bronze strings, and when I took the guitar out of the case and first played it, the G string was pretty close to dead – the others were okay. I also noticed that the guitar's action was not as low and playable as most of the Hummingbirds I had played in the stores locally. After a couple of trys, I found a local luthier who was Gibson certified, and he adjusted the action perfectly after installing a set of medium-guage Gore Elixers. He commented to me that the guitar was one of the most beautiful he had seen from Gibson (as well as the first Gibson Montana acoustic actually built in 2000), but he told me that the plastic nut had not been cut properly for best playability, and he had to do some filing to get it right. After his work, the guitar played extremely well, and I am very happy with it.
Gibson gets REALLY high marks here. I called Gibson Montana several times, and was always able to get my questions answered either right away, or with a callback not more than a day or two after I called them. The factory people are VERY knowledgeable, they know what they're building and what kind of history stands behind the guitars they make today. The gentleman I talked to about the "custom" color immediately knew what I was after, and didn't hesitate to tell me why they changed to the "tomato soup" sunburst (that's what HE called it). He told me about the $200.00 upcharge for a custom color, and encouraged me to shop some of their dealers to get a discount on the upcharge. I have not had any reason to have the Hummingbird repaired under warranty (which is for the life of the original owner), but I strongly suspect that Gibson Montana would be just as helpful with warranty problems as they were in giving me the information I needed to get the guitar I wanted.
Based on some other reviews in Harmony Central, I orderd the guitar through E.M. Shorts Guitars, a division of Wichita Band Instrument Co. Their Website address is http://www.wichitaband.com, and the guy I dealt with, Jon Ray, was very helpful. Their prices were considerably below the Mars Music and Guitar Center prices for the Hummingbird, and I would not hesitate to recommend them for anybody looking to purchase a good guitar or bass.
Scott C. Tomlinson (06/03/2000)
