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Hatsubai « Decent fixed bridge Ibanez »
Published on 08/18/11 at 13:09A lot of people always beg Ibanez to release hard tail bridges of their models. Generally, these are lower quality guitars, and this is the same case with this. It's a more budget model when compared to the MIJ series. In fact, this is made in Indonesia in their new plant they have. The guitar has a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 jumbo frets, dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar itself is made decently. The frets aren't quite as nice as the Japanese guitars, and you can especially notice that around the edges where the frets end. They're sharper and not nearly as rounded as the Prestige line up. The nut on this wasn't cut for the gauge strings that were on it, and it caused a little bit of a problem. The finish on this was decent, but it was nothing too spectacular. All in all, it's about on par with what you'd see from the Indonesian factory around this era.
SOUNDS
The guitar had EMGs swapped into it. Originally, these came with EMG knockoffs that sound pretty awful, but the real EMGs in this guitar helped give it some life. The guitar had two EMG 85s in it. The 85 in the bridge is very nice for that super fat and chunky rhythm sound. It can work nicely in basswood, but I find it can sometimes get a bit too bass heavy at times. I also find the 81 records just a touch better when in the bridge. The 85 in the neck is awesome for super fat and warm high gain leads. You can do legato for days. The downside is that the guitar sucks when it comes to clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is decent if you want a backup guitar, but I don't think I'd get one of these as my main guitar. The bridge on this isn't exactly my thing, the pickups need to be swapped, the fretwork can be iffy and there are lots of little things that I just seem to notice after all these years of playing.
UTILIZATION
The guitar itself is made decently. The frets aren't quite as nice as the Japanese guitars, and you can especially notice that around the edges where the frets end. They're sharper and not nearly as rounded as the Prestige line up. The nut on this wasn't cut for the gauge strings that were on it, and it caused a little bit of a problem. The finish on this was decent, but it was nothing too spectacular. All in all, it's about on par with what you'd see from the Indonesian factory around this era.
SOUNDS
The guitar had EMGs swapped into it. Originally, these came with EMG knockoffs that sound pretty awful, but the real EMGs in this guitar helped give it some life. The guitar had two EMG 85s in it. The 85 in the bridge is very nice for that super fat and chunky rhythm sound. It can work nicely in basswood, but I find it can sometimes get a bit too bass heavy at times. I also find the 81 records just a touch better when in the bridge. The 85 in the neck is awesome for super fat and warm high gain leads. You can do legato for days. The downside is that the guitar sucks when it comes to clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is decent if you want a backup guitar, but I don't think I'd get one of these as my main guitar. The bridge on this isn't exactly my thing, the pickups need to be swapped, the fretwork can be iffy and there are lots of little things that I just seem to notice after all these years of playing.