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Hatsubai « Pretty ugly and not that great »
Published on 08/08/11 at 18:17Ibanez has had a thing for releasing some really ugly guitars lately, and I'm not sure why. I guess they're trying to compete with ESP or something in that aspect. The guitar itself is based off of a quasi-Les Paul style guitar. It has a mahogany body with a maple top, a set mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, some unique inlays, a Gibraltar III bridge, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar itself isn't put together that great. The fretwork on this was pretty bad. There were some low frets that were causing the guitar to fret out in certain areas when bending, even with medium action. The frets themselves weren't totally crowned and needed to be properly polished. To make matters worse, the fret ends were a bit sharp, and you could really feel it while moving up and down the neck. The finish itself on this guitar wasn't too bad, although it started to get a touch sloppy in certain areas. I really like the bridge that's on this, but that's about all I can say when it comes to good things about this guitar. It's a pretty typical guitar that you'd find made in China.
SOUNDS
The guitar didn't sound good at all. I should first mention that this thing weighed a ton for whatever reason. These super heavy guitars generally sound bad, I find. They lack the resonance that the lighter wood tends to have. The bridge pickup in this was pretty bright sounding and high output. It would overdrive a clean channel without much of an issue, and it was a pain trying to dial out the treble that was associated with this thing. The neck was also super bright, and I really hate bright neck tones. I much prefer a fatter, smoother neck tone. To make everything worse, the pickup switch was all the way towards the back of the guitar, and switching on the fly was a huge pain.
OVERALL OPINION
I can't really recommend this guitar. On the one hand, it's a pretty typical MiC guitar, but it's not a good guitar by any means. For the price, you're better off saving your money and buying something used off of eBay. You'll find much better deals that way than buying something like this. I'd probably look at an Agile or something instead. At least they have a nice return policy.
UTILIZATION
The guitar itself isn't put together that great. The fretwork on this was pretty bad. There were some low frets that were causing the guitar to fret out in certain areas when bending, even with medium action. The frets themselves weren't totally crowned and needed to be properly polished. To make matters worse, the fret ends were a bit sharp, and you could really feel it while moving up and down the neck. The finish itself on this guitar wasn't too bad, although it started to get a touch sloppy in certain areas. I really like the bridge that's on this, but that's about all I can say when it comes to good things about this guitar. It's a pretty typical guitar that you'd find made in China.
SOUNDS
The guitar didn't sound good at all. I should first mention that this thing weighed a ton for whatever reason. These super heavy guitars generally sound bad, I find. They lack the resonance that the lighter wood tends to have. The bridge pickup in this was pretty bright sounding and high output. It would overdrive a clean channel without much of an issue, and it was a pain trying to dial out the treble that was associated with this thing. The neck was also super bright, and I really hate bright neck tones. I much prefer a fatter, smoother neck tone. To make everything worse, the pickup switch was all the way towards the back of the guitar, and switching on the fly was a huge pain.
OVERALL OPINION
I can't really recommend this guitar. On the one hand, it's a pretty typical MiC guitar, but it's not a good guitar by any means. For the price, you're better off saving your money and buying something used off of eBay. You'll find much better deals that way than buying something like this. I'd probably look at an Agile or something instead. At least they have a nice return policy.