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Hatsubai « Very solid for the price »
Published on 11/04/11 at 15:00Jackson is working on making a bit of a comeback on the medium priced guitars lately. The new X series is a throwback to the old school X series they used to have, but these seem to be a bit higher quality from what I've seen. The guitar features a basswood body, a neck-thru maple neck design with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets with sharkfin inlays, a licensed floyd rose bridge, two EMG pickups (81/85), one volume, one tone and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar itself was put together quite nicely. There are no issues with the neck joint thanks to it being a neck-thru design. The fretwork on this was pretty good, too. The frets were fairly level, and the ends were beveled enough to where it doesn't slice your hand when you move it up and down the neck to various different fretting positions. No need to worry about the nut being cut properly because it has a locking nut. The floyd on this is decent, but there are better floyds out there, in my opinion. It's not the worst, but I wouldn't say it's the best, either. Fluttering was a little stiff, and the way the arm secured seemed to be sloppy thanks to the tolerances. The rest of the guitar was put together quite well.
SOUNDS
The guitar had EMGs installed in it stock, and that's probably its biggest selling point. EMGs alone are worth a good chunk of change, so these real pickups are definitely a selling point. Anybody who has played EMGs before already knows how they are, what they excel at, etc. These are no different, even with the basswood wings. The 81 is super tight and compressed. It can deliver some crushing metal tones with ease, but the cleans suck, and it can be a bit sterile at times. For recording, it's one of the best pickups in the world. The 85 is super fat and compressed. It does awesome fat, smooth leads. Perfect for legato and sweeps. The cleans are a bit bland, but it's not too bad. For genres other than metal, they're probably not the best pickups.
OVERALL OPINION
These are pretty solid guitars, and if you're looking for a good quality V without breaking the bank, this could very well be the guitar you're looking for. The guitar is pretty good stock, and aside from a setup, not much else would be needed. I'm interested in seeing how much these'll go for on eBay.
UTILIZATION
The guitar itself was put together quite nicely. There are no issues with the neck joint thanks to it being a neck-thru design. The fretwork on this was pretty good, too. The frets were fairly level, and the ends were beveled enough to where it doesn't slice your hand when you move it up and down the neck to various different fretting positions. No need to worry about the nut being cut properly because it has a locking nut. The floyd on this is decent, but there are better floyds out there, in my opinion. It's not the worst, but I wouldn't say it's the best, either. Fluttering was a little stiff, and the way the arm secured seemed to be sloppy thanks to the tolerances. The rest of the guitar was put together quite well.
SOUNDS
The guitar had EMGs installed in it stock, and that's probably its biggest selling point. EMGs alone are worth a good chunk of change, so these real pickups are definitely a selling point. Anybody who has played EMGs before already knows how they are, what they excel at, etc. These are no different, even with the basswood wings. The 81 is super tight and compressed. It can deliver some crushing metal tones with ease, but the cleans suck, and it can be a bit sterile at times. For recording, it's one of the best pickups in the world. The 85 is super fat and compressed. It does awesome fat, smooth leads. Perfect for legato and sweeps. The cleans are a bit bland, but it's not too bad. For genres other than metal, they're probably not the best pickups.
OVERALL OPINION
These are pretty solid guitars, and if you're looking for a good quality V without breaking the bank, this could very well be the guitar you're looking for. The guitar is pretty good stock, and aside from a setup, not much else would be needed. I'm interested in seeing how much these'll go for on eBay.