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Hatsubai « Fender's version of the famous Charvel »
Published on 03/17/11 at 06:44The Fender Floyd Rose Classic Floyd Rose Stratocaster was made for just a few years during the early 90s. It features an alder body, maple neck, Original Floyd Rose and an HSS configuration. The pickups are some standard American single coils and a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the bridge. I don't remember all the finish options, but I know there's at least vintage white, black and sunburst. Keep in mind that there's actually a MIJ version and MIA version. Mine is an MIA version, and I'm not sure if they came with rosewood fretboards. The floyd on this is actually flush mounted and rests directly on the body; it cannot be set to pull up unless you shim the neck due to the way Fender did the route. The neck shape is a standard thin/medium C style neck with 22 large (not jumbo) frets. Tuners are Fender's vintage style tuners which help avoid the strings getting snagged on things ... such as your finger.
UTILIZATION
Besides the OFR, there's really not much different about this guitar. The biggest difference would probably be with the PAF Pro in the bridge more than anything else. You still have your typical four bolt heel which can lead to some difficulty getting up to the high frets. The 9.5'' radius can lead to some issues getting real low action; it's impossible for me to achieve the action I usually aim for, so I'm running mine at ~1/16'' @ the 12th fret. For those that care, the nut is actually a rear mount, so while there's a possibility of the headstock being weaker, cracking is usually mainly only found in the thinner Ibanez necks. Also worth noting is that it comes with a wrench holder on the back of the headstock. It makes it convenient for string changes, but make sure you tighten the tiny screws that hold the allen wrenches, or else it'll rattle.
SOUNDS
The PAF Pro in the bridge wasn't bad, but I wanted something a bit more. The PAF Pro is a fairly clean pickup that doesn't compress like most average pickups as it was meant to go along with the oldschool 80s racks. After messing around with some pickups, I actually settled on a pickup I'm not a huge fan of -- the Duncan JB. This pickup was aggressive enough to do metal but polite enough to still work with the single coils. The singles aren't too bad, but they're somewhat bland. I replaced the neck with a Duncan SSL6, and it just oozes that overwound single coil sound now. Most people use this pickup in the bridge, but it sounds great in the neck when matched with a moderate to higher output pickup in the bridge. Despite it being alder and maple, the guitar is pretty thick sounding, and my particular guitar weighs quite a bit.
OVERALL OPINION
It's hard to recommend this guitar today given the new Charvel series. I'm not a fan of the 9.5'' neck, but my particular guitar sounds too good to let go. Anybody looking for Fender's version of the famous Charvels that were released back in the day might want to take a look at this. Gus G actually used this model for the longest time before he got his endorsement.
UTILIZATION
Besides the OFR, there's really not much different about this guitar. The biggest difference would probably be with the PAF Pro in the bridge more than anything else. You still have your typical four bolt heel which can lead to some difficulty getting up to the high frets. The 9.5'' radius can lead to some issues getting real low action; it's impossible for me to achieve the action I usually aim for, so I'm running mine at ~1/16'' @ the 12th fret. For those that care, the nut is actually a rear mount, so while there's a possibility of the headstock being weaker, cracking is usually mainly only found in the thinner Ibanez necks. Also worth noting is that it comes with a wrench holder on the back of the headstock. It makes it convenient for string changes, but make sure you tighten the tiny screws that hold the allen wrenches, or else it'll rattle.
SOUNDS
The PAF Pro in the bridge wasn't bad, but I wanted something a bit more. The PAF Pro is a fairly clean pickup that doesn't compress like most average pickups as it was meant to go along with the oldschool 80s racks. After messing around with some pickups, I actually settled on a pickup I'm not a huge fan of -- the Duncan JB. This pickup was aggressive enough to do metal but polite enough to still work with the single coils. The singles aren't too bad, but they're somewhat bland. I replaced the neck with a Duncan SSL6, and it just oozes that overwound single coil sound now. Most people use this pickup in the bridge, but it sounds great in the neck when matched with a moderate to higher output pickup in the bridge. Despite it being alder and maple, the guitar is pretty thick sounding, and my particular guitar weighs quite a bit.
OVERALL OPINION
It's hard to recommend this guitar today given the new Charvel series. I'm not a fan of the 9.5'' neck, but my particular guitar sounds too good to let go. Anybody looking for Fender's version of the famous Charvels that were released back in the day might want to take a look at this. Gus G actually used this model for the longest time before he got his endorsement.