View other reviews for this product:
Hatsubai « Awesome sounding strat »
Published on 11/18/11 at 11:23Ash seems to be one of the most under utilized woods by Fender, and I find that surprising considering that ash was the body wood of the first 10 original '54 strats. It's a great body wood, but you have to properly match the pickups, or else it can get a bit too odd sounding. The guitar features a lite ash body, a maple neck, 22 frets, dot inlays, a modern two point style tremolo system, three single coils, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The fretwork on this was pretty good. The ends were rounded off nicely, and they weren't cut back like I've seen on some other guitars. Some people just take a hard 45 degree angle when cutting fret ends, and I find that tends to be a mistake as the frets will fall off the fretboard. These didn't have such an extreme angle. The frets themselves were mostly level, but there were a few that were slightly low. It was only noticeable when you started bending past 1 and 1/2 steps with medium to low action. The nut was cut properly, so no issues there. The neck joint was also fairly tight with just a small gap. The bridge is awesome, and I find this to be much better feeling than the vintage style one.
SOUNDS
The guitar has SCN pickups installed in it. For those that don't know, these are the special pickups that Bill Lawrence made with Fender. They're super silent, have tons of power and work great for guitars like this. The bridge pickup is very modern and powerful. It can do metal without too much of an issue. The middle + bridge is good for clean, funky sounds. The middle pickup alone sucks, but I hate the middle alone. The neck + middle works awesome for cleans, and the neck is great for lead tones. The guitar also had the S1 switch put on it, but I find that to be fairly useless.
OVERALL OPINION
These are great guitars, and the extra bottom end of the ash body really gives this guitar something special in terms of tone. Alder is a good wood, but I like to mix it up with ash once in awhile. If you're looking for that strat tone but slightly different, get this guitar.
UTILIZATION
The fretwork on this was pretty good. The ends were rounded off nicely, and they weren't cut back like I've seen on some other guitars. Some people just take a hard 45 degree angle when cutting fret ends, and I find that tends to be a mistake as the frets will fall off the fretboard. These didn't have such an extreme angle. The frets themselves were mostly level, but there were a few that were slightly low. It was only noticeable when you started bending past 1 and 1/2 steps with medium to low action. The nut was cut properly, so no issues there. The neck joint was also fairly tight with just a small gap. The bridge is awesome, and I find this to be much better feeling than the vintage style one.
SOUNDS
The guitar has SCN pickups installed in it. For those that don't know, these are the special pickups that Bill Lawrence made with Fender. They're super silent, have tons of power and work great for guitars like this. The bridge pickup is very modern and powerful. It can do metal without too much of an issue. The middle + bridge is good for clean, funky sounds. The middle pickup alone sucks, but I hate the middle alone. The neck + middle works awesome for cleans, and the neck is great for lead tones. The guitar also had the S1 switch put on it, but I find that to be fairly useless.
OVERALL OPINION
These are great guitars, and the extra bottom end of the ash body really gives this guitar something special in terms of tone. Alder is a good wood, but I like to mix it up with ash once in awhile. If you're looking for that strat tone but slightly different, get this guitar.