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Hatsubai « Maple neck version »
Published on 10/24/11 at 14:32This guitar is one of the few Gibsons that they made with a maple neck. How do I know? The finish was taken off of the back of the neck, and it was oiled with a mixture of tru oil and wax. These happen to be some of my favorite Les Pauls ever made, and they work awesome for heavy metal. The guitar features a mahogany body with a maple top, a maple neck with an ebony fretboard, 22 frets, trapezoid inlays, binding, a TOM style bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
Given that this guitar was almost 40 years old, it was expected to have some wear. The nut on this was replaced with a brass nut, and I have a feeling the previous owner was a big fan of John Sykes. The back of this was chewed up a bit thanks to a belt, and the neck needed to be refret. The neck itself was nice and straight so no issues there. The finish on the gold hardware was starting to pit from acidic sweat from the previous owner. Despite all of that, this was quite an awesome guitar, and I'm a huge fan of the way this guitar played.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a pair of Seymour Duncan Distortions in it, and it kinda reminded me of the way those Edwards Sykes models were set up for whatever reason. On top of that, there was a coil split on the bridge tone to help give it some extra versatility. The Distortion in the bridge was awesome for this guitar. It could do everything from blues to death metal, but it hovered closer to the metal side more than anything else. It was tight and had the perfect amount of bite for this guitar. The neck was a bit too bright for me, but a quick touch of the tone knob fixed that. The split coil features allowed me to get some real sick clean tones with this thing.
OVERALL OPINION
These are my absolute favorite versions of the Les Paul Custom. The maple neck just really makes this into a tone machine for heavy metal. The way the mahogany and maple mate is like a match made in heaven. It's a bit harsh for blues and other genres, but it excels at the main genre I play, and that's good enough for me.
UTILIZATION
Given that this guitar was almost 40 years old, it was expected to have some wear. The nut on this was replaced with a brass nut, and I have a feeling the previous owner was a big fan of John Sykes. The back of this was chewed up a bit thanks to a belt, and the neck needed to be refret. The neck itself was nice and straight so no issues there. The finish on the gold hardware was starting to pit from acidic sweat from the previous owner. Despite all of that, this was quite an awesome guitar, and I'm a huge fan of the way this guitar played.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a pair of Seymour Duncan Distortions in it, and it kinda reminded me of the way those Edwards Sykes models were set up for whatever reason. On top of that, there was a coil split on the bridge tone to help give it some extra versatility. The Distortion in the bridge was awesome for this guitar. It could do everything from blues to death metal, but it hovered closer to the metal side more than anything else. It was tight and had the perfect amount of bite for this guitar. The neck was a bit too bright for me, but a quick touch of the tone knob fixed that. The split coil features allowed me to get some real sick clean tones with this thing.
OVERALL OPINION
These are my absolute favorite versions of the Les Paul Custom. The maple neck just really makes this into a tone machine for heavy metal. The way the mahogany and maple mate is like a match made in heaven. It's a bit harsh for blues and other genres, but it excels at the main genre I play, and that's good enough for me.