Austin Hatchet Travel Deluxe

Austin Hatchet Travel deluxe (badged as Kay)


I bought it new for #35.00 in 1984..

Made in Korea I believe (81'-83')

Features "sawn in half body" (Travel Guitar) 2 "Di Marzio designed" (according to the hang tag) medium output ( 9K on my meter) Humbuckers 2 volume & 1 tone pot (gibson style gold speed knobs) , 3 way "mini" toggle selecter switch and phase switch..

Neck through the body construction with 2 pieces glued either side

Wood looks like mahogany with a maple? "skunk" stripe running the full length including the headstock..

The guitar is fitted with a strat type hardtail "gold" plated bridge and is strung through the body.

Fat neck has brass nut, 22 medium frets, fretboard is a fine grained dark wood (rosewood ?) and is nicely inlaid with brass position dots/markers..trussrod adjusts at the head
Headstock is 3 a side tapered ( flying V style ) and fitted with mini Grover copy tuners

Plugged in sounds just like what it is ... a small "plank" with screaming , very bright Humbuckers think 80's big hair metal and you've got the idea , phase switch produces a completely useless "thin tone" Not particularly suited to my style pop/punk thrash



I'm currently running a copy of NI Guitar Rig, and played through a Vox AC 30 or Fender twin emulation
the guitar can sound pretty nasty, though by turning down volume pots to less than 7 some really nice biting " tele" type tones start to appear (even more so after messing with panametric eq rack )

With a "cleaner" Fender twin reverb emulation I've at long last " found my sound " neck 5 bridge 7

Sustain is just amazing ! Probably due to the neck through "mahogany" construction & strat hardtail bridge, ( Santana would have endorsed it for free )
The guitar guitar weighs in at a little over 4 lbs so is kind to my poor old back( my '78 strat weighs in at nearly 9!)

Action was and still is an aquired taste !
When I bought it the Low E buzzed at 1st fret no matter how I adjusted truss/bridge saddles .

So I knocked the nut out with the intention of fitting a thin paper shim underneath and was surprised to find that someone at the factory had tried to rectify the problem with a cardboard shim already...

I managed to stop the buzzing by applying a single drop of superglue directly underneath the offending slot before sticking it back on.

The action is now much better but still pretty high (though great for extreme string bending)


The guitar is also neck heavy, to overcome this I stuck 3/4 lb of lead wheel balancing weights onto the rear of the control panel cover and improvised some strap locks using rubber tap washers (from plumbing section of hardware store).
the strap just came off the standard buttons I replaced original the "dog lead" D rings with

I use a thick (suede backed ) strap which stops it from slipping (sorted)

Not much of a finish to speak of just a very thin coat of stained varnish to darken the "mahogany"

Most of the "gold" plating has flaked off the bridge

'm sure it would withstand live playing I've seen photo's of Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) playing slide on one along with several "virtuoso" african guitarists I saw during the 80's ...

Non Existant

The guitar sounded so bright that I've gone all the way and created a "Bo Diddleyised " Tele Custom by fitting a tele bridge (top loading as unfortunately original holes /ferrules don't line up) , GFS vintage tele pup and mini hummer in the neck It now looks (refinished in a Gretchy gold sparkle over black) and sounds fantastic (posted reviews in pup section)

I've always fancied a tele but I like seperate volume controls for
each pup and didn't wan't another 9 lbs of ugly wood hanging around my neck- did I mention my poor old back?..

Favorite features - cool shape great sound and low weight

Lost or stolen... I'd just chalk it up to experience The only oneI've seen for sale was a cool looking red one for sale on-line (U.S. based) vintage guitar store for $149.00