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Hatsubai « Current American Strat »
Published on 08/16/11 at 18:18This is the new go-to strat that Fender is pushing at the moment. It has quite a few features that older strats didn't have, but it's questionable how useful those features are. This guitar has an alder body with a one piece maple neck, 22 frets, two point tremolo, three single coil configuration, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The finish on the neck is very nice. It's a very thin finish, and the edges are rolled to help give that broken in feeling. This makes it very comfortable to play on when compared to a normal production strat. The nut on this was properly cut, and I didn't experience any tuning issues on this. The neck joint was super tight, and it was very resonant overall. The guitar also had a nice lightweight piece of alder on it. The frets were pretty good, although I've seen better from Fender.
SOUNDS
The first thing I should mention is the S1 switch. The S1 switch is basically throwing a capacitor on the pickups and fattening them up. I find it to be muddy more than anything else, so I think you're better off not using it at all. The pickups in this were the SCN pickups, and they were great for that higher gain thing. They're not the most dynamic pickups in the world, so keep that in mind. Some people dislike the extra power, but I enjoyed it. They're also super quiet, which is a huge plus considering how noisy these things can get.
OVERALL OPINION
I really like the SCN pickups that are in this. I find that the guitar itself is fairly neutral sounding overall, and the SCNs, while not the most dynamic pickups in the world, do a great job at the higher gain strat sound. The S1 switch is a bit useless, but if you ignore that, the guitar itself is pretty good.
UTILIZATION
The finish on the neck is very nice. It's a very thin finish, and the edges are rolled to help give that broken in feeling. This makes it very comfortable to play on when compared to a normal production strat. The nut on this was properly cut, and I didn't experience any tuning issues on this. The neck joint was super tight, and it was very resonant overall. The guitar also had a nice lightweight piece of alder on it. The frets were pretty good, although I've seen better from Fender.
SOUNDS
The first thing I should mention is the S1 switch. The S1 switch is basically throwing a capacitor on the pickups and fattening them up. I find it to be muddy more than anything else, so I think you're better off not using it at all. The pickups in this were the SCN pickups, and they were great for that higher gain thing. They're not the most dynamic pickups in the world, so keep that in mind. Some people dislike the extra power, but I enjoyed it. They're also super quiet, which is a huge plus considering how noisy these things can get.
OVERALL OPINION
I really like the SCN pickups that are in this. I find that the guitar itself is fairly neutral sounding overall, and the SCNs, while not the most dynamic pickups in the world, do a great job at the higher gain strat sound. The S1 switch is a bit useless, but if you ignore that, the guitar itself is pretty good.