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Hatsubai « HSH Performer series Dinky »
Published on 07/18/11 at 07:17This is yet another guitar in the Performer Series that's more aimed towards those who are very low on money. The main difference between this and the PS2 is that this has an HSH configuration. The guitar has the following features:
Alder body
Maple bolt-on neck
Rosewood fretboard with 24 jumbo frets
Licensed floyd rose bridge
HSH configuration
Dot inlays
One volume pot, one tone pot and a five way switch
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a few issues with it. The neck joint on this had a fairly noticeable gap. This can severely hinder potential tone due to lack of total sound transfer. The frets themselves really needed a nice once over. They weren't properly crowned, and the edges were sharp. Fixing both of those issues would have made this guitar play a lot better. The only other real issue would be that this bridge was awful. It's some cheap pot metal licensed floyd bridge that seems to lack all sustain. A real original floyd rose would be much better in terms of stability and overall tone.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty dismal. The bridge pickup was bright, and it didn't have any definition at all. Under gain, it just completely fell on its face. The middle position was decent for tones, and it split decent with the neck and bridge, but I don't put too much attention towards middle pickup tones as I find them more for cleans than anything else. The neck pickup sounded very muffled, and it couldn't get a good lead tone to save its life. If you're going to keep this, you really need to replace the pickups.
OVERALL OPINION
You could spend a good few hundred bucks upgrading this guitar by replacing the pickups and swapping out the licensed floyd for a real one. The problem is that the wood on these models can be such a crap shoot that it's pretty much not worth the time and investment. You'll also want to get a full fret level and crowning on this given how sloppy the fretwork on these models can be.
Alder body
Maple bolt-on neck
Rosewood fretboard with 24 jumbo frets
Licensed floyd rose bridge
HSH configuration
Dot inlays
One volume pot, one tone pot and a five way switch
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a few issues with it. The neck joint on this had a fairly noticeable gap. This can severely hinder potential tone due to lack of total sound transfer. The frets themselves really needed a nice once over. They weren't properly crowned, and the edges were sharp. Fixing both of those issues would have made this guitar play a lot better. The only other real issue would be that this bridge was awful. It's some cheap pot metal licensed floyd bridge that seems to lack all sustain. A real original floyd rose would be much better in terms of stability and overall tone.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty dismal. The bridge pickup was bright, and it didn't have any definition at all. Under gain, it just completely fell on its face. The middle position was decent for tones, and it split decent with the neck and bridge, but I don't put too much attention towards middle pickup tones as I find them more for cleans than anything else. The neck pickup sounded very muffled, and it couldn't get a good lead tone to save its life. If you're going to keep this, you really need to replace the pickups.
OVERALL OPINION
You could spend a good few hundred bucks upgrading this guitar by replacing the pickups and swapping out the licensed floyd for a real one. The problem is that the wood on these models can be such a crap shoot that it's pretty much not worth the time and investment. You'll also want to get a full fret level and crowning on this given how sloppy the fretwork on these models can be.