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Hatsubai « His most famous signature model »
Published on 07/11/11 at 20:11This guitar is probably Satch's most famous model as it's his longest running one, I believe? It's been around since the early to mid 90s and is still made to this day. It's one of those "can't improve on perfection" guitars, if you ask me. While there are actually some slight differences between the years, these are the specs of the guitar I'm reviewing -- The guitar has a basswood body with a maple neck and a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets with dot inlays, a LoPro Edge bridge, two DiMarzio humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way toggle switch.
UTILIZATION
This guitar was absolutely amazing in terms of build quality. The frets themselves felt fantastic. There were no sharp edges, and the frets were perfectly crowned. With the higher end Ibanez guitars, this is fairly normal. The frets were nice and level, so I was able to get some low action without much of an issue. The overall build quality was great, and there were no real big neck joint gaps. The guitar came equipped with what's probably my favorite tremolo out there -- the Ibanez LoPro Edge. It feels amazing, sounds great and lasts forever.
SOUNDS
The guitar is pretty versatile with its coil tap. The bridge pickup is a DiMarzio FRED and the neck is a DiMarzio PAF Pro. The FRED is interesting in that it's like a bizarre PAF. There are all kinds of unique harmonics coming out of this that other pickups don't seem to have. It's not for everyone, but I really like it for lead tones. The PAF Pro in the neck is a proven combination that's been around since the days of rack effects units. It's a fairly warm tone, but it has a nice treble bite to it so you can really be heard. It helps balance the frequencies with the bridge pickup. There's also a push/pull on the tone that allows you to coil split these for that almost single coil tone.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a Satch guitar, check out this one. These come equipped with everything you need, meaning you don't need to replace the pickups like in so many other Ibanez guitars out there. The floyd is great, the construction rules and it just feels right.
UTILIZATION
This guitar was absolutely amazing in terms of build quality. The frets themselves felt fantastic. There were no sharp edges, and the frets were perfectly crowned. With the higher end Ibanez guitars, this is fairly normal. The frets were nice and level, so I was able to get some low action without much of an issue. The overall build quality was great, and there were no real big neck joint gaps. The guitar came equipped with what's probably my favorite tremolo out there -- the Ibanez LoPro Edge. It feels amazing, sounds great and lasts forever.
SOUNDS
The guitar is pretty versatile with its coil tap. The bridge pickup is a DiMarzio FRED and the neck is a DiMarzio PAF Pro. The FRED is interesting in that it's like a bizarre PAF. There are all kinds of unique harmonics coming out of this that other pickups don't seem to have. It's not for everyone, but I really like it for lead tones. The PAF Pro in the neck is a proven combination that's been around since the days of rack effects units. It's a fairly warm tone, but it has a nice treble bite to it so you can really be heard. It helps balance the frequencies with the bridge pickup. There's also a push/pull on the tone that allows you to coil split these for that almost single coil tone.
OVERALL OPINION
If you're looking for a Satch guitar, check out this one. These come equipped with everything you need, meaning you don't need to replace the pickups like in so many other Ibanez guitars out there. The floyd is great, the construction rules and it just feels right.