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Hatsubai « Not the standard LP, but very cool »
Published on 07/07/11 at 18:41This is the guitar that most people thought Gibson would never make. It's certainly not a guitar for the purists out there thanks to all the radical changes. It's more geared towards shredders, really. It has a mahogany body with a figured maple top, a set mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard and trapezoid inlays, 22 frets, binding all around, floyd rose bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
This guitar was put together fairly nicely. One thing I should mention right off the bat is that this guitar has an improved neck joint. For decades, I've been complaining about how much of an awful neck joint the Les Paul has. With the added cutaway in this, it makes getting up to the higher frets so much easier that it's ridiculous. I couldn't believe how nicely it played. Since it has a floyd, there are no real nut issues with this guitar. The floyd itself is a ping floyd, I believe. They're decent quality, but there are better ones out there. The fretwork on this guitar was pretty nice, and I had no issues getting some low action.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty good, but I couldn't help think that it wasn't quite as "Les Paul" sounding. The bridge has some nice bite to it while remaining fairly thick sounding. You could easily do everything from blues to heavy metal with this thing. The neck pickup had a nice vowely tone, but I prefer hotter and smoother neck pickups. Rolling down the tone knob helped get the fattness I wanted, but it still didn't have that "oomph" that I like.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar feels great and looks great. If you're a purist, you'll surely hate this guitar. However, I'm more of a shredder, and I thought it was pretty awesome. However, there is definitely a tonal change between this model and some of the older non-chambered Les Pauls out there. It doesn't sound quite as full sounding, and it doesn't have that "depth" that comes standard with a normal Les Paul. It's just something to think about.
UTILIZATION
This guitar was put together fairly nicely. One thing I should mention right off the bat is that this guitar has an improved neck joint. For decades, I've been complaining about how much of an awful neck joint the Les Paul has. With the added cutaway in this, it makes getting up to the higher frets so much easier that it's ridiculous. I couldn't believe how nicely it played. Since it has a floyd, there are no real nut issues with this guitar. The floyd itself is a ping floyd, I believe. They're decent quality, but there are better ones out there. The fretwork on this guitar was pretty nice, and I had no issues getting some low action.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty good, but I couldn't help think that it wasn't quite as "Les Paul" sounding. The bridge has some nice bite to it while remaining fairly thick sounding. You could easily do everything from blues to heavy metal with this thing. The neck pickup had a nice vowely tone, but I prefer hotter and smoother neck pickups. Rolling down the tone knob helped get the fattness I wanted, but it still didn't have that "oomph" that I like.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar feels great and looks great. If you're a purist, you'll surely hate this guitar. However, I'm more of a shredder, and I thought it was pretty awesome. However, there is definitely a tonal change between this model and some of the older non-chambered Les Pauls out there. It doesn't sound quite as full sounding, and it doesn't have that "depth" that comes standard with a normal Les Paul. It's just something to think about.