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Hatsubai « Thick sounding Jackson »
Published on 10/20/11 at 17:18This is a guitar you don't see too often. A lot of these weren't made because they didn't sell as well as some of the flagship models that Jackson has, but they're pretty cool guitars if you're into that kind of thing. The guitar features a spruce body, a mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, 22 frets with dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, two humbuckers, two volumes, one tone and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
This is basically Jackson's answer to the Gibson/PRS market. The one thing you'll notice about this is that the scale length is different. It tends to give it a sweeter feel, I found. The guitar itself had a very good weight to it, and it was beautiful to look at. The bridge on this isn't exactly my favorite in the world, but it works fine for what it was meant to do. It wasn't cutting up my hand too bad like some tend to do. The frets on this were pretty good, although not perfect. I found a few minor flaws that today's USA series wouldn't have. The nut could also have been cut a bit better, but it's not a huge deal. It wasn't binding, so there wasn't a huge issue.
SOUNDS
The pickups in this were Seymour Duncan 59s. The 59 in the bridge is a very sweet bridge pickup. It has a hot PAF kind of sound. You can get that real "woody" or "wooly" or whatever sound quite nice. It's one of Duncan's most organic pickups, I've found. It tends to be suited more towards blues and rock than metal, but it can do metal. It's not quite as tight as the other bridge models that Duncan has, but it is a little thicker as a result. The 59 in the neck is one of my favorite neck pickups ever. It has the perfect amount of bass and treble to really sing. The mids are slightly pushed back but not so much that it leaves you lost in the mix. The highs give you enough cut to be heard through dense mixes, and the lows give it that real thick sound that works awesome for legato.
OVERALL OPINION
These are real cool alternatives to Les Paul and PRS style guitars. They're not quite the same, but they do offer something unique that other manufacturers weren't totally offering at the time. The unique construction and tone woods gave it some character that you don't normally get, and the guitar was high quality enough for the price that you didn't feel bad purchasing one of these.
UTILIZATION
This is basically Jackson's answer to the Gibson/PRS market. The one thing you'll notice about this is that the scale length is different. It tends to give it a sweeter feel, I found. The guitar itself had a very good weight to it, and it was beautiful to look at. The bridge on this isn't exactly my favorite in the world, but it works fine for what it was meant to do. It wasn't cutting up my hand too bad like some tend to do. The frets on this were pretty good, although not perfect. I found a few minor flaws that today's USA series wouldn't have. The nut could also have been cut a bit better, but it's not a huge deal. It wasn't binding, so there wasn't a huge issue.
SOUNDS
The pickups in this were Seymour Duncan 59s. The 59 in the bridge is a very sweet bridge pickup. It has a hot PAF kind of sound. You can get that real "woody" or "wooly" or whatever sound quite nice. It's one of Duncan's most organic pickups, I've found. It tends to be suited more towards blues and rock than metal, but it can do metal. It's not quite as tight as the other bridge models that Duncan has, but it is a little thicker as a result. The 59 in the neck is one of my favorite neck pickups ever. It has the perfect amount of bass and treble to really sing. The mids are slightly pushed back but not so much that it leaves you lost in the mix. The highs give you enough cut to be heard through dense mixes, and the lows give it that real thick sound that works awesome for legato.
OVERALL OPINION
These are real cool alternatives to Les Paul and PRS style guitars. They're not quite the same, but they do offer something unique that other manufacturers weren't totally offering at the time. The unique construction and tone woods gave it some character that you don't normally get, and the guitar was high quality enough for the price that you didn't feel bad purchasing one of these.