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Hatsubai « Good price, cool mid boost »
Published on 11/18/11 at 11:17For anybody who has ever played a Clapton strat, you'll know the main feature that this guitar boasts. It has a special midboost feature, and that's probably its biggest selling point. I find it strange that the MIM line will have something like this, but the MIA line doesn't seem to have anything comparable. The guitar features an alder body, a one-piece maple neck with a skunk stripe down the back, 21 medium frets, dot inlays, a vintage style tremolo, three single coil pickups, a midboost feature, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a nut that needed to be reshaped. One good way of checking if you need to redo the nut is if you're having tuning stability issues after you've already stretched the strings. When you tune up, you'll sometimes hear this slight "ping" noise. That's the sound of your string catching on the nut. After about 15 minutes with some nut files, I was able to get this to where it needed to be. A little bit of nut lubricant also helps. There are some liquid based ones that work great, but graphite works nicely in a pinch. The fretwork is decent on this, but there were a few low frets that prevented me from getting the action I truly wanted.
SOUNDS
The guitar's single coils are decent in terms of overall tone, but they're far from mind blowing. If you've ever played a MIM strat, you'll know how they sound. To be honest, I'm not even that big of a fan of the MIA pickups, either. I find they tend to be a bit too bland most of the time, so I usually replace them right away with something from Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio or the such. The coolest feature about this guitar is the extra mid boost that you have. It really gives this guitar some extra versatility. With this particular guitar, I found myself leaving it on more than off, but I've played guitars where it sounds better off, so you'll have to experiment.
OVERALL OPINION
The mid boost is the main reason to buy this guitar. If that's not something you need, then I'd recommend buying a used MIA model if you can spring the cash. They're a little more consistent, and I find them to sound a bit better most of the time. However, these are still very good models, and I doubt you'd be truly disappointed.
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a nut that needed to be reshaped. One good way of checking if you need to redo the nut is if you're having tuning stability issues after you've already stretched the strings. When you tune up, you'll sometimes hear this slight "ping" noise. That's the sound of your string catching on the nut. After about 15 minutes with some nut files, I was able to get this to where it needed to be. A little bit of nut lubricant also helps. There are some liquid based ones that work great, but graphite works nicely in a pinch. The fretwork is decent on this, but there were a few low frets that prevented me from getting the action I truly wanted.
SOUNDS
The guitar's single coils are decent in terms of overall tone, but they're far from mind blowing. If you've ever played a MIM strat, you'll know how they sound. To be honest, I'm not even that big of a fan of the MIA pickups, either. I find they tend to be a bit too bland most of the time, so I usually replace them right away with something from Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio or the such. The coolest feature about this guitar is the extra mid boost that you have. It really gives this guitar some extra versatility. With this particular guitar, I found myself leaving it on more than off, but I've played guitars where it sounds better off, so you'll have to experiment.
OVERALL OPINION
The mid boost is the main reason to buy this guitar. If that's not something you need, then I'd recommend buying a used MIA model if you can spring the cash. They're a little more consistent, and I find them to sound a bit better most of the time. However, these are still very good models, and I doubt you'd be truly disappointed.