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Hatsubai « Aging done by Tom Murphy »
Published on 07/21/11 at 19:50The aging is the reason why everyone buys these guitars, and it's thanks to Tom Murphy that they're able to sell these at extraordinary prices; his finishing skills really are some of the best out there. The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, trapezoid inlays, pickguard, binding, hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The aging on this guitar looked spot on, thanks to Tom Murphy's professional services over at Gibson. You could notice this on the headstock especially. That's probably the number one giveaway that the guitar was done by a professional of this caliber. The neck profile on this guitar is pretty chunky, so if you're one of those people who can't deal with really thick necks, you might want to look elsewhere. I seem to be able to adapt from super thin necks like the Wizards to extremely thick Nocaster necks without much of a problem. The flatter radius on this was wonderful, and it allowed me to lower the action lower than a normal Strat would allow.
SOUNDS
I should preface this by saying that I'm not normally a huge fan of Gibson pickups. I tend to prefer something that's a bit higher output in the bridge and a bit fatter in the neck. The bridge pickup in this is pretty much the standard Gibson bridge pickup in that it has that fatness going on, and it's a very medium output pickup overall. It gets that classic PAF sound, but that's about it. The neck pickups I always found to be a touch bright, but I'm used to super fat neck pickups. I find that they help me solo easier, and it helps make the neck and bridge tones be a bit more distinguishing from each other.
OVERALL OPINION
Gold Tops have always been some of my favorite models, and the finishing that was done on this thanks to Tom Murphy was just spot on gorgeous. These things really do look just like a guitar that was normally aged throughout the years. Now if only they didn't cost so much...
UTILIZATION
The aging on this guitar looked spot on, thanks to Tom Murphy's professional services over at Gibson. You could notice this on the headstock especially. That's probably the number one giveaway that the guitar was done by a professional of this caliber. The neck profile on this guitar is pretty chunky, so if you're one of those people who can't deal with really thick necks, you might want to look elsewhere. I seem to be able to adapt from super thin necks like the Wizards to extremely thick Nocaster necks without much of a problem. The flatter radius on this was wonderful, and it allowed me to lower the action lower than a normal Strat would allow.
SOUNDS
I should preface this by saying that I'm not normally a huge fan of Gibson pickups. I tend to prefer something that's a bit higher output in the bridge and a bit fatter in the neck. The bridge pickup in this is pretty much the standard Gibson bridge pickup in that it has that fatness going on, and it's a very medium output pickup overall. It gets that classic PAF sound, but that's about it. The neck pickups I always found to be a touch bright, but I'm used to super fat neck pickups. I find that they help me solo easier, and it helps make the neck and bridge tones be a bit more distinguishing from each other.
OVERALL OPINION
Gold Tops have always been some of my favorite models, and the finishing that was done on this thanks to Tom Murphy was just spot on gorgeous. These things really do look just like a guitar that was normally aged throughout the years. Now if only they didn't cost so much...