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Hatsubai « Figured top Studio »
Published on 06/28/11 at 12:39This is pretty much the same as a normal Les Paul, really. The guitar has a mahogany body with a figured maple top, a mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets with trapezoid inlays, tune-o-matic bridge, no pickguard, two humbucker pickups, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
This guitar is really similar to the normal Les Pauls out there thanks to its figured top. The figured top is pretty top notch, too. The fretwork on the one I played was pretty good. The frets were level, the edges weren't sharp and I could get some nice, low action. That's extremely important to me as frets affect how the guitar plays the most, in my opinion. The nut was cut pretty good on this, too. It didn't bind, and I didn't have any tuning issues like so many of these guitars tend to have. The guitar had some decent weight, and it was fairly resonant too. I think these have a little bit more care put into them than the normal Studios.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty good. The pickups aren't really my thing, to be honest. The pickups are standard Gibson pickups, but they seem to work for most. The bridge pickup has some nice bite to it, and it has some decent output. I find they lack the character for heavy metal, but they can work for 80s metal. The neck is a bit too bright for me. I like a thick, fat sounding neck tone, and these generally have a bit too much bite for me. However, they're clean sounding, and that works awesome for clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
These are pretty good guitars if you can find them in good shape. The figured top looks great and the guitar was very resonant. If you ever come across one of these, play one. You might actually prefer it over a regular Standard. Be careful if you buy on eBay as there are tons of fakes out there. Make sure you verify it's a real Gibson.
UTILIZATION
This guitar is really similar to the normal Les Pauls out there thanks to its figured top. The figured top is pretty top notch, too. The fretwork on the one I played was pretty good. The frets were level, the edges weren't sharp and I could get some nice, low action. That's extremely important to me as frets affect how the guitar plays the most, in my opinion. The nut was cut pretty good on this, too. It didn't bind, and I didn't have any tuning issues like so many of these guitars tend to have. The guitar had some decent weight, and it was fairly resonant too. I think these have a little bit more care put into them than the normal Studios.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty good. The pickups aren't really my thing, to be honest. The pickups are standard Gibson pickups, but they seem to work for most. The bridge pickup has some nice bite to it, and it has some decent output. I find they lack the character for heavy metal, but they can work for 80s metal. The neck is a bit too bright for me. I like a thick, fat sounding neck tone, and these generally have a bit too much bite for me. However, they're clean sounding, and that works awesome for clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
These are pretty good guitars if you can find them in good shape. The figured top looks great and the guitar was very resonant. If you ever come across one of these, play one. You might actually prefer it over a regular Standard. Be careful if you buy on eBay as there are tons of fakes out there. Make sure you verify it's a real Gibson.