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Hatsubai « Classic old school P90 tone »
Published on 11/20/11 at 16:34If you ever wanted to have that old school P90 tone, this is the guitar you want to look for. It has everything about it that just screams "that" tone when you happen to think of P90s. 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 P90s, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The neck profiles vary depending on what year you buy, and the one I played had a fairly thick neck. Some people will dislike this, but it was never a huge deal to me. 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. The tuners on this model aren't as bad as the older Standard model, but I'd still replace them with locking tuners. Id' also most likely go ahead and refret this guitar as the frets were pretty low on it.
SOUNDS
The P90s in this were pretty mind blowing, but they were some old school Seymour Duncans that I've never seen or heard of before. The standard Gibson P90s are actually pretty good, in my opinion. They get that normal Les Paul P90 tone without too much of an issue...probably because that's exactly what they are. However, these were some Duncan creations that were lower gain P90s for blues, and they were pretty amazing pickups. The bridge was very clear and organic. You could hear every single note ring out, they were that clear. The neck was great for leads, too. That's generally an issue I tended to have as they lacked output, but these had just enough output for what I was looking for.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a guitar that can deliver the goods in terms of P90 tone, this is the guitar you want to look at getting. The problem is that you'll most likely have to do a bit of work to it. A lot of these had low frets, worn nuts and a few other things that need to be taken care of, so if you happen to buy an older guitar like this, expect to throw a few extra hundred bucks its way to get it playing the way it needs to be.
UTILIZATION
The neck profiles vary depending on what year you buy, and the one I played had a fairly thick neck. Some people will dislike this, but it was never a huge deal to me. 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. The tuners on this model aren't as bad as the older Standard model, but I'd still replace them with locking tuners. Id' also most likely go ahead and refret this guitar as the frets were pretty low on it.
SOUNDS
The P90s in this were pretty mind blowing, but they were some old school Seymour Duncans that I've never seen or heard of before. The standard Gibson P90s are actually pretty good, in my opinion. They get that normal Les Paul P90 tone without too much of an issue...probably because that's exactly what they are. However, these were some Duncan creations that were lower gain P90s for blues, and they were pretty amazing pickups. The bridge was very clear and organic. You could hear every single note ring out, they were that clear. The neck was great for leads, too. That's generally an issue I tended to have as they lacked output, but these had just enough output for what I was looking for.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a guitar that can deliver the goods in terms of P90 tone, this is the guitar you want to look at getting. The problem is that you'll most likely have to do a bit of work to it. A lot of these had low frets, worn nuts and a few other things that need to be taken care of, so if you happen to buy an older guitar like this, expect to throw a few extra hundred bucks its way to get it playing the way it needs to be.