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Hatsubai « Crazy swirl that everyone seems to love »
Published on 07/07/11 at 20:30Steve Vai single handedly popularized the famous swirl, and this was one of the guitars that helped make that happen. The guitar has a basswood body with a maple neck, rosewood fretboard with 24 frets, special vine inlay, unique handle carved out in it, an Ibanez Lo Pro Edge tremolo, last few frets scalloped, HSH configuration, all access neck joint, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The swirl on this is really to die for. The one I'm using isn't the one in the picture, and I'm not sure why that picture is even in there in the first place. Regardless, the swirl looked awesome and really popped. The fretwork on this model was top notch, too. I was able to achieve nice, low action on this. The neck itself is a bit thicker than a normal Wizard, and I'm sure a lot of those who have issues with the normal necks will enjoy that. The inlay work was nicely done, and there weren't a lot of heavy fillers going on.
SOUNDS
This guitar had some Breeds installed in it. The Breed bridge sounded nice and fat. I find that these work awesome for basswood. In fact, I have the Breeds in my own personal RG550. They're like very hot, powerful and middy PAFs. The Breed neck had some bite to it, and it helped it cut. However, it wasn't so bitey that you couldn't get a nice lead tone. They also split very nicely with the middle pickup. I was able to get those stratty sounds without any issues at all.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar is one of the coolest, and it's also what helped revolutionize the entire swirl art form that so many people try to copy these days. They're generally high quality guitars that sound very resonant and already have good quality pickups installed in them. One thing to look out for are neck joint gaps and neck joint angles to achieve a nice pull up. Aside from that, they're pretty high quality.
UTILIZATION
The swirl on this is really to die for. The one I'm using isn't the one in the picture, and I'm not sure why that picture is even in there in the first place. Regardless, the swirl looked awesome and really popped. The fretwork on this model was top notch, too. I was able to achieve nice, low action on this. The neck itself is a bit thicker than a normal Wizard, and I'm sure a lot of those who have issues with the normal necks will enjoy that. The inlay work was nicely done, and there weren't a lot of heavy fillers going on.
SOUNDS
This guitar had some Breeds installed in it. The Breed bridge sounded nice and fat. I find that these work awesome for basswood. In fact, I have the Breeds in my own personal RG550. They're like very hot, powerful and middy PAFs. The Breed neck had some bite to it, and it helped it cut. However, it wasn't so bitey that you couldn't get a nice lead tone. They also split very nicely with the middle pickup. I was able to get those stratty sounds without any issues at all.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar is one of the coolest, and it's also what helped revolutionize the entire swirl art form that so many people try to copy these days. They're generally high quality guitars that sound very resonant and already have good quality pickups installed in them. One thing to look out for are neck joint gaps and neck joint angles to achieve a nice pull up. Aside from that, they're pretty high quality.