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Hatsubai « Modern styling »
Published on 10/10/11 at 14:20Fender is at it, once again. This time, it's the standard American series strat that comes in an HSS configuration and a pretty cool silver/black combination paint scheme that gives this a nice, modern look. The guitar features an alder body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, dot inlays, a two point tremolo system, HSS configuration, locking tuners, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a bit of a neck joint gap on it, but it wasn't too severe. I've seen worse. There is always a debate as to whether or not this affects tone, and while I think it does have some impact on tone, I feel it has more string alignment impact than anything else. If the neck gets knocked hard and gets shifted, the high e might be coming off the fretboard, and that's more of a concern to me than a 2% drop in tone. The fretwork on this was decent, and it was about what you'd expect from Fender these days. The neck shape was real nice, and I really enjoyed the overall thickness of it. I wish it had a flatter radius, though.
SOUNDS
The guitar had SCN pickups. These are special noiseless pickups that absolutely rock. They're not your daddy's single coils, though. If you're expecting a great blues tone, I'd recommend searching elsewhere as these are more meant for rock and other gain applications. They're a lot more modern sounding. This guitar has a special push button on it to engage a sort of capacitor on the pickups, and it's not something I recommend using as it just muddies up the tone. The pickups worked great with high gain, and they can even do metal. I especially liked the neck on this. It was ridiculous how quiet they were, too. However, they didn't have that sweet blues tone that the other American pickups tend to have.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is very solid, and I especially like the color scheme this one has going on. I enjoy the modern bridge and 22 frets, but the radius on these guitars can be a bit of a pain for me as I'm used to playing guitars like Ibanez and the such. If you're looking for one, be sure to buy used as you can get a killer deal on these on ebay and the such.
UTILIZATION
The guitar had a bit of a neck joint gap on it, but it wasn't too severe. I've seen worse. There is always a debate as to whether or not this affects tone, and while I think it does have some impact on tone, I feel it has more string alignment impact than anything else. If the neck gets knocked hard and gets shifted, the high e might be coming off the fretboard, and that's more of a concern to me than a 2% drop in tone. The fretwork on this was decent, and it was about what you'd expect from Fender these days. The neck shape was real nice, and I really enjoyed the overall thickness of it. I wish it had a flatter radius, though.
SOUNDS
The guitar had SCN pickups. These are special noiseless pickups that absolutely rock. They're not your daddy's single coils, though. If you're expecting a great blues tone, I'd recommend searching elsewhere as these are more meant for rock and other gain applications. They're a lot more modern sounding. This guitar has a special push button on it to engage a sort of capacitor on the pickups, and it's not something I recommend using as it just muddies up the tone. The pickups worked great with high gain, and they can even do metal. I especially liked the neck on this. It was ridiculous how quiet they were, too. However, they didn't have that sweet blues tone that the other American pickups tend to have.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is very solid, and I especially like the color scheme this one has going on. I enjoy the modern bridge and 22 frets, but the radius on these guitars can be a bit of a pain for me as I'm used to playing guitars like Ibanez and the such. If you're looking for one, be sure to buy used as you can get a killer deal on these on ebay and the such.