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Hatsubai « Very solid guitar »
Published on 07/15/11 at 19:22The Standard has long since been the go-to model for Les Paul lovers all around the world, and it's for good reason. This is the guitar that really started it all. The 50s neck on here is the big point as it's a bit thicker than the normal necks 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
These are the regular Standards that most people know and love from yesteryear, but they seem to lack the vibe the older ones have. The fretwork was good on this, and the nut was cut correctly. However, I think the neck angle might have been off by a touch. I didn't have any way to measure it, but it looked a little different. It could have just been this guitar or my eyes. I'm not entirely sure.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty good, but it was a touch on the bright side compared to some of the other ones I've tried. The bridge has some nice bite to it while remaining decently 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. I'm thinking it came down to the wood more than anything else.
OVERALL OPINION
Be sure to play a lot of these before you buy one. Choose the one that both plays the best and sounds the best. There are some QC issues that can occur, but they're generally not too hard to remedy if you do have one that's a bit iffy. My favorite mod to these guitars, aside from a pickup change, is locking tuners. They really add some stability for tuning, as well as making string changes a lot quicker.
UTILIZATION
These are the regular Standards that most people know and love from yesteryear, but they seem to lack the vibe the older ones have. The fretwork was good on this, and the nut was cut correctly. However, I think the neck angle might have been off by a touch. I didn't have any way to measure it, but it looked a little different. It could have just been this guitar or my eyes. I'm not entirely sure.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty good, but it was a touch on the bright side compared to some of the other ones I've tried. The bridge has some nice bite to it while remaining decently 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. I'm thinking it came down to the wood more than anything else.
OVERALL OPINION
Be sure to play a lot of these before you buy one. Choose the one that both plays the best and sounds the best. There are some QC issues that can occur, but they're generally not too hard to remedy if you do have one that's a bit iffy. My favorite mod to these guitars, aside from a pickup change, is locking tuners. They really add some stability for tuning, as well as making string changes a lot quicker.