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Hatsubai « Budget model »
Published on 09/06/11 at 13:28This is the guitar that Ibanez released for the budget line up. It's not as good as the other versions out there, and it's intended for those who can't afford the higher end models. The guitar features a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 extra jumbo frets, dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar was average in every way. The first thing I noticed is that this guitar weighed a ton. It was almost as heavy as some of my Les Pauls. I'm a firm believer that a heavy guitar is not necessarily a good thing. In fact, I find them to be usually dead sounding when compared to other, lighter guitars out there. The frets needed some attention, as did the nut. A good do-over was pretty much needed. The ends were sharp, and the frets weren't that level. The nut was worn down pretty good, and it needed to be replaced. The guitar itself has also seen some good amount of abuse, too.
SOUNDS
The guitar did not sound that great. The first thing I should mention is that this had some faulty electronics in it. The tone pot was pretty much dead, and no amount of electronic spray seemed to fix it. The volume crackled, but it wasn't too bad. The switch was starting to flake out, too. What's worse is that the guitar itself didn't seem to be all that resonant. Combine all of that with some of the bad Ibanez pickups that are normally installed in this, and you got a recipe for disaster. That said, I can't fault it too much as I didn't try it with aftermarket pickups, so I never learned its true potential.
OVERALL OPINION
I don't really recommend getting this unless you absolutely love the Iceman shape. I much prefer the mahogany bodied guitars instead of the basswood ones. They seem to be a bit better, overall. Maybe it's the shape or the grade of basswood that was used on these, but the mahogany ones just seem to be a bit better to me.
UTILIZATION
The guitar was average in every way. The first thing I noticed is that this guitar weighed a ton. It was almost as heavy as some of my Les Pauls. I'm a firm believer that a heavy guitar is not necessarily a good thing. In fact, I find them to be usually dead sounding when compared to other, lighter guitars out there. The frets needed some attention, as did the nut. A good do-over was pretty much needed. The ends were sharp, and the frets weren't that level. The nut was worn down pretty good, and it needed to be replaced. The guitar itself has also seen some good amount of abuse, too.
SOUNDS
The guitar did not sound that great. The first thing I should mention is that this had some faulty electronics in it. The tone pot was pretty much dead, and no amount of electronic spray seemed to fix it. The volume crackled, but it wasn't too bad. The switch was starting to flake out, too. What's worse is that the guitar itself didn't seem to be all that resonant. Combine all of that with some of the bad Ibanez pickups that are normally installed in this, and you got a recipe for disaster. That said, I can't fault it too much as I didn't try it with aftermarket pickups, so I never learned its true potential.
OVERALL OPINION
I don't really recommend getting this unless you absolutely love the Iceman shape. I much prefer the mahogany bodied guitars instead of the basswood ones. They seem to be a bit better, overall. Maybe it's the shape or the grade of basswood that was used on these, but the mahogany ones just seem to be a bit better to me.