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Hatsubai « Just oozes mojo »
Published on 01/28/12 at 00:12This is one of the infamous CBS era strats that just has an absolutely amazing vibe going on. The guitar has an alder body, a three bolt maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 21 frets, the big CBS headstock, dot inlays, a vintage style tremolo, three single coils, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar is beat to hell, but this thing has one of the most amazing necks I've ever laid my hands on. It's all dirty and grimy from years and years of touring abuse, but it just felt so perfect in my hand. It's been refretted with 6000 frets, so there are no issues with the thing being some fretless wonder style guitar, although the frets on these originally weren't super low. The guitar has the infamous three bolt configuration, and it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. There's no real need to convert it to a four bolt like a few guys try to do. The three bolts will hold the neck fine. The main issue was that the quality control was pretty poor on these, but man if this thing didn't resonate...
SOUNDS
The guitar had all orignal pickups in it, and they had the coolest "woody" kind of tone going on. If you've ever listened to SRV, you'll know what I'm referring to. I actually think the 60s are some of the best pickups out there, and these early 70s ones are very close to my coveted 60s style pickups. The five way switch in this thing allowed me to get some crazy good tones out of this thing. If you're looking for a blues machine, this is exactly the kind of guitar you'd want. If you want to rock like Jimi, this is the guitar. I was just blown away by everything...except the price.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a solid guitar, and can afford these guitars, I recommend checking them out. I don't recommend rushing out and buying these blind as they can be real iffy in terms of overall quality and tone. I've seen some real dogs around this era, but the ones that are good are simply amazing. This was one of the amazing ones.
UTILIZATION
The guitar is beat to hell, but this thing has one of the most amazing necks I've ever laid my hands on. It's all dirty and grimy from years and years of touring abuse, but it just felt so perfect in my hand. It's been refretted with 6000 frets, so there are no issues with the thing being some fretless wonder style guitar, although the frets on these originally weren't super low. The guitar has the infamous three bolt configuration, and it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. There's no real need to convert it to a four bolt like a few guys try to do. The three bolts will hold the neck fine. The main issue was that the quality control was pretty poor on these, but man if this thing didn't resonate...
SOUNDS
The guitar had all orignal pickups in it, and they had the coolest "woody" kind of tone going on. If you've ever listened to SRV, you'll know what I'm referring to. I actually think the 60s are some of the best pickups out there, and these early 70s ones are very close to my coveted 60s style pickups. The five way switch in this thing allowed me to get some crazy good tones out of this thing. If you're looking for a blues machine, this is exactly the kind of guitar you'd want. If you want to rock like Jimi, this is the guitar. I was just blown away by everything...except the price.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a solid guitar, and can afford these guitars, I recommend checking them out. I don't recommend rushing out and buying these blind as they can be real iffy in terms of overall quality and tone. I've seen some real dogs around this era, but the ones that are good are simply amazing. This was one of the amazing ones.