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Hatsubai « Inlays similar to my Angelus »
Published on 08/10/11 at 16:54This is the high end model of the PRS killer that Ibanez tried to make around this time. It's very similar to the other models, but it has a fancy top and some gold hardware. I find that it reminds me quite a bit of the old school Caparison Angelus that was released a year or so earlier. It has a mahogany body with a maple bolt-on neck and a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, unique inlays, a hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
This model had a very nice flame maple top on it. It was bookmatched nicely, and it really popped out considering how little this guitar was going for in the shop. The neck itself felt very nice, and the guitar was quite light. The gold hardware had some light pitting on it, but that happens with all gold hardware. The frets on this were great, and they had very little wear. The ends were also nice and rounded, so there were no problems with the thing scraping up your left hand every time you moved up and down the neck. Getting up to the high frets was also easy as it had an all access neck joint.
SOUNDS
This guitar had some aftermarket pickups that were installed in it. It had a DiMarzio Breed set installed. The Breed set is usually used in the RG series with basswood bodies, but it can sometimes work with mahogany bodies. The Breed Bridge is great for that fat, overdriven PAF sound with a bit of that signature DiMarzio linearity to it. It gets some really cool harmonics, and it can deliver a really smooth overdriven tone if you back off the tone knob. The Breed Neck is great. It's like a mix between an Air Norton and a PAF Pro. You get a fat humbucker sound in the neck, but it's not so dark that it's muddy. The best part was that the five way switch allowed for all kinds of different tones from funky to full blown metal.
OVERALL OPINION
They look great, and they tend to play pretty nice as well. They go for more money than the normal SC line, but I find that they sound a bit better, too. They're also a bit more consistent. The guitar benefits from a pickup swap, so keep that in the budget while purchasing one of these.
UTILIZATION
This model had a very nice flame maple top on it. It was bookmatched nicely, and it really popped out considering how little this guitar was going for in the shop. The neck itself felt very nice, and the guitar was quite light. The gold hardware had some light pitting on it, but that happens with all gold hardware. The frets on this were great, and they had very little wear. The ends were also nice and rounded, so there were no problems with the thing scraping up your left hand every time you moved up and down the neck. Getting up to the high frets was also easy as it had an all access neck joint.
SOUNDS
This guitar had some aftermarket pickups that were installed in it. It had a DiMarzio Breed set installed. The Breed set is usually used in the RG series with basswood bodies, but it can sometimes work with mahogany bodies. The Breed Bridge is great for that fat, overdriven PAF sound with a bit of that signature DiMarzio linearity to it. It gets some really cool harmonics, and it can deliver a really smooth overdriven tone if you back off the tone knob. The Breed Neck is great. It's like a mix between an Air Norton and a PAF Pro. You get a fat humbucker sound in the neck, but it's not so dark that it's muddy. The best part was that the five way switch allowed for all kinds of different tones from funky to full blown metal.
OVERALL OPINION
They look great, and they tend to play pretty nice as well. They go for more money than the normal SC line, but I find that they sound a bit better, too. They're also a bit more consistent. The guitar benefits from a pickup swap, so keep that in the budget while purchasing one of these.