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Hatsubai « Very versatile »
Published on 06/28/11 at 15:35This is one of the higher quality USA made guitars that Fender has to offer. The guitar features an alder body with a maple neck, your choice of a maple or rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, dot inlays, HSS configuration, locking tuners, special neck heel, two point tremolo system, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
These guitars are generally put together pretty decently. There were no gaps around the neck joint area, so no issues there. In fact, this neck joint is one of those micro tilt ones with a small cutaway to help grab those higher frets a bit easier. The frets themselves were fairly level, but they could have used some more attention when it came to crowning. They were a touch flat. The edges weren't sharp, though. No issues with slicing your hand while moving up and down the neck on this guitar.
SOUNDS
This guitar had some aftermarket pickups swapped into it. It had a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the bridge with some Area pickups in the neck. The Tone Zone was very powerful, and it had an almost cocked wah kind of sound. It's a very love/hate pickup, but I find it can sound great once you start lowering it. Most people have it too close to the strings, and it starts to get too muddy sounding. The Area pickups in this thing are some of the best single coil pickups ever made. DiMarzio really outdid themselves with this. They're a bit underpowered for metal, but they work so nice for blues that it's crazy.
OVERALL OPINION
The DiMarzio pickups in this really helped a ton. They were aftermarket, so if you want yours to sound as good as this one did, you might want to replace yours. It depends on how much you like the stock Fender pickups. Honestly, the Fender pickups aren't too bad, so you might not want to replace them at all.
UTILIZATION
These guitars are generally put together pretty decently. There were no gaps around the neck joint area, so no issues there. In fact, this neck joint is one of those micro tilt ones with a small cutaway to help grab those higher frets a bit easier. The frets themselves were fairly level, but they could have used some more attention when it came to crowning. They were a touch flat. The edges weren't sharp, though. No issues with slicing your hand while moving up and down the neck on this guitar.
SOUNDS
This guitar had some aftermarket pickups swapped into it. It had a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the bridge with some Area pickups in the neck. The Tone Zone was very powerful, and it had an almost cocked wah kind of sound. It's a very love/hate pickup, but I find it can sound great once you start lowering it. Most people have it too close to the strings, and it starts to get too muddy sounding. The Area pickups in this thing are some of the best single coil pickups ever made. DiMarzio really outdid themselves with this. They're a bit underpowered for metal, but they work so nice for blues that it's crazy.
OVERALL OPINION
The DiMarzio pickups in this really helped a ton. They were aftermarket, so if you want yours to sound as good as this one did, you might want to replace yours. It depends on how much you like the stock Fender pickups. Honestly, the Fender pickups aren't too bad, so you might not want to replace them at all.