Hatsubai « Unique with the third humbucker »
Published on 07/31/11 at 17:53I could never get used to these three humbucker guitars, and I never quite understood why they would amke this model. The guitar has the following specs:
Alder body with a flame maple top
Maple bolt-on neck with a rosewood fretboard
24 jumbo frets with dot inlays
Hard tail bridge
Three humbuckers
One volume knob
One tone knob
Three way switch
UTILIZATION
The middle pickup always gets in the way of my picking whenever I play. I found myself hitting that thing more often than not, even when I started to slam the pickup. The neck joint had a bit of a gap to it, which may or may not hinder tone, depending on who you ask. The biggest issue I find with slightly off neck joints in that the neck can shift and cause the strings to go out of alignment. This can cause the famous "high e slipping off the fretboard" issue. I'm not a big fan of hard tail bridges, but it seemed to work. The nut wasn't too badly cut, and I didn't have any tuning issues.
SOUNDS
The humbuckers in this were pretty dull sounding, and a lot of that has to do with the basswood body. The pickups seemed like they were designed for alder bodied guitars, and they just didn't mesh with the tone woods that this was made out of. The bridge was decent, but it was a far cry from the higher quality Duncans out there. The middle pickup is COMPLETELY useless, and I have no clue why anybody would want a middle humbucker. The neck pickup was decent, but it was a touch muddy, even with the tone knob maxed out. If you're going to look into one of these, be sure to replace the pickups.
OVERALL OPINION
Not being a huge fan of middle pickups and hard tail bridges, I found that I didn't really jive with this guitar. However, I tried to be as objectionable as possible regarding everything. The main issue with this is the stock pickups as they sound pretty bad. Aside from that, it's a decent guitar.
Alder body with a flame maple top
Maple bolt-on neck with a rosewood fretboard
24 jumbo frets with dot inlays
Hard tail bridge
Three humbuckers
One volume knob
One tone knob
Three way switch
UTILIZATION
The middle pickup always gets in the way of my picking whenever I play. I found myself hitting that thing more often than not, even when I started to slam the pickup. The neck joint had a bit of a gap to it, which may or may not hinder tone, depending on who you ask. The biggest issue I find with slightly off neck joints in that the neck can shift and cause the strings to go out of alignment. This can cause the famous "high e slipping off the fretboard" issue. I'm not a big fan of hard tail bridges, but it seemed to work. The nut wasn't too badly cut, and I didn't have any tuning issues.
SOUNDS
The humbuckers in this were pretty dull sounding, and a lot of that has to do with the basswood body. The pickups seemed like they were designed for alder bodied guitars, and they just didn't mesh with the tone woods that this was made out of. The bridge was decent, but it was a far cry from the higher quality Duncans out there. The middle pickup is COMPLETELY useless, and I have no clue why anybody would want a middle humbucker. The neck pickup was decent, but it was a touch muddy, even with the tone knob maxed out. If you're going to look into one of these, be sure to replace the pickups.
OVERALL OPINION
Not being a huge fan of middle pickups and hard tail bridges, I found that I didn't really jive with this guitar. However, I tried to be as objectionable as possible regarding everything. The main issue with this is the stock pickups as they sound pretty bad. Aside from that, it's a decent guitar.