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Hatsubai « Very cool headstock »
Published on 09/13/11 at 13:40This is a pretty cool guitar as it has one of my favorite wood combinations out there, along with a construction that helps beef up the natural brightness of the maple neck-thru design. It's definitely a guitar more geared towards metal than anything else. The guitar has the following features:
Mahogany Body
Maple Thru-Neck Design
Bound Ebony Fretboard with Piranha Inlays
Hard Tail Bridge
EMG 81 in the Neck and Bridge
One Volume
One Tone
Three Way Switch
UTILIZATION
The guitar had one issue with it that I couldn't really get over. The hard tail bridge on this is something that I'm just not a huge fan of. I'm much more of a floyd guy, so this angle was something that took a good bit of getting used to. The guitar itself was put together quite nice, and I couldn't find any obvious flaws. There were some things about the binding that I wasn't crazy about, but it was still a fairly clean job. The finish was top notch, and I only noticed some small swirl marks in the back and some sloppiness in areas that you don't normally see (tremolo cavity and electronics cavity).
SOUNDS
The guitar had dual EMG 81s installed in it, and it was a pure metal machine. The 81 in the bridge was super tight and in your face. It worked great with the mahogany wings. Normally, the 81 can be a bit bright, and couple that with the neck-thru design and ebony fretboard, and you have some crazy treble going on. However, the mahogany wings helped tame some of that natural brightness that normally occurs. Despite that, the EMG 81 in the neck just isn't my thing. It's too bright, and I'm not someone who enjoys bright neck tones as I use the neck for lead and clean tones. I like my leads and cleans to be super fat and smooth. The 85 in the neck would be a better choice, in my opinion.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is very solid, and it had my favorite wood combination. The only thing I'd change about this guitar is that I'd install a floyd rose on this instead of the normal hard tail. That said, they make a floyd rose version of this, so there's really not that much to complain about. The guitar is great, especially considering the amount of money you can get these for.
Mahogany Body
Maple Thru-Neck Design
Bound Ebony Fretboard with Piranha Inlays
Hard Tail Bridge
EMG 81 in the Neck and Bridge
One Volume
One Tone
Three Way Switch
UTILIZATION
The guitar had one issue with it that I couldn't really get over. The hard tail bridge on this is something that I'm just not a huge fan of. I'm much more of a floyd guy, so this angle was something that took a good bit of getting used to. The guitar itself was put together quite nice, and I couldn't find any obvious flaws. There were some things about the binding that I wasn't crazy about, but it was still a fairly clean job. The finish was top notch, and I only noticed some small swirl marks in the back and some sloppiness in areas that you don't normally see (tremolo cavity and electronics cavity).
SOUNDS
The guitar had dual EMG 81s installed in it, and it was a pure metal machine. The 81 in the bridge was super tight and in your face. It worked great with the mahogany wings. Normally, the 81 can be a bit bright, and couple that with the neck-thru design and ebony fretboard, and you have some crazy treble going on. However, the mahogany wings helped tame some of that natural brightness that normally occurs. Despite that, the EMG 81 in the neck just isn't my thing. It's too bright, and I'm not someone who enjoys bright neck tones as I use the neck for lead and clean tones. I like my leads and cleans to be super fat and smooth. The 85 in the neck would be a better choice, in my opinion.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is very solid, and it had my favorite wood combination. The only thing I'd change about this guitar is that I'd install a floyd rose on this instead of the normal hard tail. That said, they make a floyd rose version of this, so there's really not that much to complain about. The guitar is great, especially considering the amount of money you can get these for.