Hatsubai « Hard tail model of the DR series »
Published on 07/24/11 at 22:08With every decent guitar on the Jackson line, there's almost always going to be a hard tail model for those looking for a guitar without a floyd. The guitar has the following specs:
Ash body
Maple bolt-on neck
Rosewood fretboard with 24 jumbo frets
HH configuration
No binding
Jackson hard tail bridge
Reverse sharkfin inlays
Three way switch
Master volume and master tone knobs
UTILIZATION
I'm not the biggest fan of hard tail bridges, so I didn't completely jive with this thing. The guitar had a bit of a neck joint gap, and I tend to weigh that fairly heavily as it can hinder tone. It also means that the strings can come out of alignment if you have to service the guitar for whatever reason. Trying to shift the neck while tightening down the neck screws can be a bit of a pain. The fretwork was decent, but I noticed that some of the frets had a few sharp edges that should have been tended to. The hard tail bridge on this is decent in terms of quality, but there are better ones out there. However, it does the job.
SOUNDS
The guitar is made out of ash, and it was fairly bright sounding. The bridge pickup was very bright, even with the tone knob turned down a bit. I found that it worked decently with dark amps, but anything like a Marshall or something would be way too much for it. The neck pickup was average at best, and I found it to be a bit stiff and a pain to solo with it. I like really fat neck pickups, and it just wasn't really doing it for me. If I were to keep this model, I'd put some different pickups in it. Since it's ash, I'd probably look into something like maybe some Bareknuckle Warpigs or maybe dual EMG 85s.
OVERALL OPINION
If you like ash as a body wood, you might like this model. They can be a pain to find, however. I've only seen a few come through my shop, and most of them were fairly bright sounding. They have a few quirks, but they can be decent once set up.
Ash body
Maple bolt-on neck
Rosewood fretboard with 24 jumbo frets
HH configuration
No binding
Jackson hard tail bridge
Reverse sharkfin inlays
Three way switch
Master volume and master tone knobs
UTILIZATION
I'm not the biggest fan of hard tail bridges, so I didn't completely jive with this thing. The guitar had a bit of a neck joint gap, and I tend to weigh that fairly heavily as it can hinder tone. It also means that the strings can come out of alignment if you have to service the guitar for whatever reason. Trying to shift the neck while tightening down the neck screws can be a bit of a pain. The fretwork was decent, but I noticed that some of the frets had a few sharp edges that should have been tended to. The hard tail bridge on this is decent in terms of quality, but there are better ones out there. However, it does the job.
SOUNDS
The guitar is made out of ash, and it was fairly bright sounding. The bridge pickup was very bright, even with the tone knob turned down a bit. I found that it worked decently with dark amps, but anything like a Marshall or something would be way too much for it. The neck pickup was average at best, and I found it to be a bit stiff and a pain to solo with it. I like really fat neck pickups, and it just wasn't really doing it for me. If I were to keep this model, I'd put some different pickups in it. Since it's ash, I'd probably look into something like maybe some Bareknuckle Warpigs or maybe dual EMG 85s.
OVERALL OPINION
If you like ash as a body wood, you might like this model. They can be a pain to find, however. I've only seen a few come through my shop, and most of them were fairly bright sounding. They have a few quirks, but they can be decent once set up.