Hatsubai « Low budget beginner Dinky »
Published on 11/03/11 at 17:08These are the bottom of the barrel Jacksons and are only meant for those who are looking for an extremely cheap guitar. They're marketed towards those who are just starting out and are not really recommended to anybody else due to the body wood that they use. The guitar features an Indian Cedro body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, sharkfin inlays, a two point vibrato bridge, two humbucker configuration, one volume, one tone and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
This is a cheap guitar, and you can tell right away. First off, there is a huge neck joint gap on this. When I say huge, I mean huge. The frets on this were cut sharp, and they weren't nearly as polished as they should have been. When you move your hand up and down the neck, it would really grab into my palm and be real annoying. The frets themselves weren't level, and there were dead spots once you started putting the action below medium and started bending. The bridge on this is real cheap and doesn't stay in tune. The nut itself wasn't cut properly, and it created additional tuning instability.
SOUNDS
I should first state that this guitar didn't sound very resonant unplugged. It was very dead sounding from the beginning, and I can guarantee these awful stock pickups weren't doing it any favors. The bridge pickup was so bright and harsh that I had to turn down the tone knob, and I never do that. It sounded so synthetic that it was ridiculous. The neck pickup was also harsh and didn't have any clarity at all. Leads were very hard for me to play on this, and the guitar just didn't resonate one bit. I wouldn't even recommend replacing the pickups in this because I doubt it would do anything positive for the overall sound given how dead the body was.
OVERALL OPINION
If you want a good, cheap, beginner strat, look into the LTD line up or something. These guitars just aren't that good, and they are too inconsistent to really even consider. Too many issues prevent me from recommending this guitar, but the unfortunate truth of the matter is...I've actually played worse.
UTILIZATION
This is a cheap guitar, and you can tell right away. First off, there is a huge neck joint gap on this. When I say huge, I mean huge. The frets on this were cut sharp, and they weren't nearly as polished as they should have been. When you move your hand up and down the neck, it would really grab into my palm and be real annoying. The frets themselves weren't level, and there were dead spots once you started putting the action below medium and started bending. The bridge on this is real cheap and doesn't stay in tune. The nut itself wasn't cut properly, and it created additional tuning instability.
SOUNDS
I should first state that this guitar didn't sound very resonant unplugged. It was very dead sounding from the beginning, and I can guarantee these awful stock pickups weren't doing it any favors. The bridge pickup was so bright and harsh that I had to turn down the tone knob, and I never do that. It sounded so synthetic that it was ridiculous. The neck pickup was also harsh and didn't have any clarity at all. Leads were very hard for me to play on this, and the guitar just didn't resonate one bit. I wouldn't even recommend replacing the pickups in this because I doubt it would do anything positive for the overall sound given how dead the body was.
OVERALL OPINION
If you want a good, cheap, beginner strat, look into the LTD line up or something. These guitars just aren't that good, and they are too inconsistent to really even consider. Too many issues prevent me from recommending this guitar, but the unfortunate truth of the matter is...I've actually played worse.