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Hatsubai « Average guitar »
Published on 07/24/11 at 22:00These guitars were more on the budget side as they were made overseas and stripped down of a lot of features compared to some of today's guitars. The guitar has the following specs:
Basswood
Maple bolt-on neck
Rosewood fretboard with 24 jumbo frets
HH configuration
No binding
Jackson licensed floyd rose
Offset dot inlays
Three way switch
Master volume and master tone knobs
UTILIZATION
The number one thing to check on these guitars is the neck joint. There can be some very sloppy neck joints on these, so pay special attention to that. A neck joint with a gap can potentially hinder tone, and it can be a pain to line up the strings properly. The frets on these are usually pretty decent, but I find that they could all use a bit of a level and recrown considering their age. The ends tend to be pretty decent. I'm not a fan of the bridge that comes on this stock. I much prefer the original floyd rose as it tends to be a bit spongier and sounds a bit better.
SOUNDS
The stock pickups on this aren't that great. The bridge pickup is pretty bland overall. It has this almost muffled tone to it, even with the tone knob all the way up. It just lacks that clarity that some of the higher end pickups seem to have. Note separation was a bit of a problem. The neck is very much the same way, but I was able to get a decent clean tone going on with the thing, so there were no issues in that department. Then again, I play metal, so take that for what it's worth.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitars are decent, but I highly recommend both a pickup swap and a floyd swap. Both of those will make this guitar play much better than stock, and it'll sound a lot better. You should be able to get some good used deals on these as they're not offered anymore, so they could work as gigging guitars.
Basswood
Maple bolt-on neck
Rosewood fretboard with 24 jumbo frets
HH configuration
No binding
Jackson licensed floyd rose
Offset dot inlays
Three way switch
Master volume and master tone knobs
UTILIZATION
The number one thing to check on these guitars is the neck joint. There can be some very sloppy neck joints on these, so pay special attention to that. A neck joint with a gap can potentially hinder tone, and it can be a pain to line up the strings properly. The frets on these are usually pretty decent, but I find that they could all use a bit of a level and recrown considering their age. The ends tend to be pretty decent. I'm not a fan of the bridge that comes on this stock. I much prefer the original floyd rose as it tends to be a bit spongier and sounds a bit better.
SOUNDS
The stock pickups on this aren't that great. The bridge pickup is pretty bland overall. It has this almost muffled tone to it, even with the tone knob all the way up. It just lacks that clarity that some of the higher end pickups seem to have. Note separation was a bit of a problem. The neck is very much the same way, but I was able to get a decent clean tone going on with the thing, so there were no issues in that department. Then again, I play metal, so take that for what it's worth.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitars are decent, but I highly recommend both a pickup swap and a floyd swap. Both of those will make this guitar play much better than stock, and it'll sound a lot better. You should be able to get some good used deals on these as they're not offered anymore, so they could work as gigging guitars.