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Hatsubai « One of the few OFR models »
Published on 10/10/11 at 14:33While Richie Sambora was never a guitarist I really looked up to, I always liked his strats. It's probably because we're both floyd rose users. I really wish Fender would offer more floyds on their guitars as the rest of their line up is saturated with other bridges. The guitar features an alder body, a maple one-piece neck, 22 frets, star inlays, an original floyd rose, HSS configuration, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The first thing I looked at was the inlay work. Fender did a pretty good job at the inlays, and I didn't notice too many fillers being used. The bridge is the number one thing about this guitar. It features my absolute favorite Original Floyd Rose bridge, and it feels amazing. You have ultimate tuning stability. One thing about this guitar is that it's a flush mount floyd, so it naturally has a slightly different sound than most other fully recessed floyds. The fretwork on it was decent, but it could have been better. It was used, so it was hard to determine exactly what was from wear and what was from Fender. The rest of the guitar is about what you'd expect from something around this era.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the bridge with some DiMarzio Area pickups in the neck and middle. The PAF Pro in the bridge was a cool choice. It's very open, and it excels at hard rock. I find it's a bit linera at times, and there are other times when I wish it were a bit more compressed sounding. It's pretty open, so if you're into that kind of sound, it might work for you. It was a bit underpowered in this, though. Then again, I was mostly playing metal through this thing. The Area pickups were very silent, and they sounded amazing. They're some of my favorite singles out there, and they have an awesome blues tone once you roll down the volume a bit. They respond nicely to both pick attack and other dynamics, and the in between tones were absolutely to die for.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is one of the few floyd rose guitars out there, and Fender decided to quit making these. I really wish they'd release something similar in the future, but I don't have many hopes for that. They seem to be stuck on making the same guitar over and over again. Either way, if you can find one of these on eBay and can deal with the inlays, they're pretty cool guitars.
UTILIZATION
The first thing I looked at was the inlay work. Fender did a pretty good job at the inlays, and I didn't notice too many fillers being used. The bridge is the number one thing about this guitar. It features my absolute favorite Original Floyd Rose bridge, and it feels amazing. You have ultimate tuning stability. One thing about this guitar is that it's a flush mount floyd, so it naturally has a slightly different sound than most other fully recessed floyds. The fretwork on it was decent, but it could have been better. It was used, so it was hard to determine exactly what was from wear and what was from Fender. The rest of the guitar is about what you'd expect from something around this era.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the bridge with some DiMarzio Area pickups in the neck and middle. The PAF Pro in the bridge was a cool choice. It's very open, and it excels at hard rock. I find it's a bit linera at times, and there are other times when I wish it were a bit more compressed sounding. It's pretty open, so if you're into that kind of sound, it might work for you. It was a bit underpowered in this, though. Then again, I was mostly playing metal through this thing. The Area pickups were very silent, and they sounded amazing. They're some of my favorite singles out there, and they have an awesome blues tone once you roll down the volume a bit. They respond nicely to both pick attack and other dynamics, and the in between tones were absolutely to die for.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is one of the few floyd rose guitars out there, and Fender decided to quit making these. I really wish they'd release something similar in the future, but I don't have many hopes for that. They seem to be stuck on making the same guitar over and over again. Either way, if you can find one of these on eBay and can deal with the inlays, they're pretty cool guitars.