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Hatsubai « Kinda hard to find »
Published on 08/10/11 at 16:35These are some of the very old Ibanez guitars that they made before the Roadstar series came into play. They're a bit low budget, so they need to be inspected more than some of the other Ibanez guitars. The guitar has a mahogany body with a maple neck, 21 frets, dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, two volume knobs, one tone knob, a three way switch, and this one had a coil split switch on it.
UTILIZATION
This guitar was pretty worn, and considering that it's like 30 years old, it's no real surprise that there would be some of these flaws. First of all, the nut needed to be redone. It was worn pretty heavily, and you could notice that it was pinching the strings. The frets on this were also worn pretty hardcore, and that was after they were leveled by another luthier. It needed a complete refret since they were so low already. The neck joint had a bit of a gap in it, too. The bridge itself was a bit rusty, but I didn't notice any obvious burrs in the saddles.
SOUNDS
The pickups in this were actually aftermarket. They were two DiMarzio PAF Pros. The PAF Pro is a pretty cool pickup, and I find they work best with neutral to darker woods. The PAF Pro in the bridge is very open sounding, and it's pretty versatile in what it can do. However, I find them to lack the compression that I like. I also find that it didn't mate well with this guitar. The PAF Pro in the neck was pretty cool. When you turn down the tone knob a bit, it's almost like a Breed or Air Norton but without the huge mids. The guitar had a coil split switch which added that single coil kinda tone, but that was a mod done by the previous owner.
OVERALL OPINION
These are hard to recommend. If you're just looking for a decent beater guitar at a cheap price, they can be something worth looking into. However, they were part of the budget line, and they're not the best guitars out there. I find that you can get more for your money if you look elsewhere.
UTILIZATION
This guitar was pretty worn, and considering that it's like 30 years old, it's no real surprise that there would be some of these flaws. First of all, the nut needed to be redone. It was worn pretty heavily, and you could notice that it was pinching the strings. The frets on this were also worn pretty hardcore, and that was after they were leveled by another luthier. It needed a complete refret since they were so low already. The neck joint had a bit of a gap in it, too. The bridge itself was a bit rusty, but I didn't notice any obvious burrs in the saddles.
SOUNDS
The pickups in this were actually aftermarket. They were two DiMarzio PAF Pros. The PAF Pro is a pretty cool pickup, and I find they work best with neutral to darker woods. The PAF Pro in the bridge is very open sounding, and it's pretty versatile in what it can do. However, I find them to lack the compression that I like. I also find that it didn't mate well with this guitar. The PAF Pro in the neck was pretty cool. When you turn down the tone knob a bit, it's almost like a Breed or Air Norton but without the huge mids. The guitar had a coil split switch which added that single coil kinda tone, but that was a mod done by the previous owner.
OVERALL OPINION
These are hard to recommend. If you're just looking for a decent beater guitar at a cheap price, they can be something worth looking into. However, they were part of the budget line, and they're not the best guitars out there. I find that you can get more for your money if you look elsewhere.