Ibanez was *this close

[Chistopher]

I was looking at the new Ibanez AZ Essentials series, and It's a great idea, but not for me. The SSS was the one I was looking at. Master volume and tone, plus a switch that allows you to get pseudo-Gibson and pseudo-Tele sounds.

Pretty neat instrument, non-reverse Ibanez headstock, 25" scale, nice middle of the road neck, and a good fit and finish. I even like the goofy, knock-off strat look.

The only issue is the strat copy comes with a hardtail and the fat strat comes with a tremolo, so the only way to get a budget Strat with a tremolo would be to buy two and swap the SSS pickguard onto the HSS body.

Maybe I'll do that and sell the left over hardtail HSS.

 

[Chistopher]

$300 price tag

 

[Top-L]

Get fat strat with trem, new pickguard and a sc pickup.

 

[JMP/HBE]

.

Ive had an Ibanez it was okay but nothing to get excited about.
Would have liked to have a JEM 30+ years ago but for $3K rather have a Gibson.
Vai got where he is today w/a Charvel anyway.

 

[Securb]

Very reminiscent of the old Blazer line right down to the price. The Blazer was a fantastic bang for your buck guitar

 

[Blille]

I don’t get the hard tail thing either. Also I would have preferred for it to be 12” more in line with their fancier AZ.

 

[jeremy]

im a fender guy, and more strat than tele, but i love hard tails. seems silly they dont offer both sss and hss as trem options

 

[Securb]

The hardtail reminds me of the Nile Rodgers Strat that Fender did a while back. I did the option on an SSS.

 

[Blille]

im a fender guy, and more strat than tele, but i love hard tails. seems silly they dont offer both sss and hss as trem options

Exactly.

 

[Mincer]

I say get an HSS and a pickup that sounds like a single coil ( or a single coil under a humbucker cover) for the bridge.

 

[Ashurbanipal]

These guitars are intended for beginners, and the SSS one probably conceived as the more basic one, hence the hardtail; while the HSS is the next step up, I suppose, so it has the trem and a hb.

You can get aftermarket pickguards for these now on eBay.

The old Blazers are indeed cool - higher models got the tappable pups, phase switch and full brass trem.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I've had an Ibanez it was okay but nothing to get excited about.
Would have liked to have a JEM 30+ years ago but for $3K rather have a Gibson.
Vai got where he is today w/a Charvel anyway.

You gotta look for the right one. If you're a Gibson guy, you're certainly not going to be very excited about the RG550, which is like the stereotypical Ibanez.

I used to have an RGA121 with a Mahogany body and a Maple top which destroyed almost every other guitar I've had tone-wise. Craftsmanship was impeccable too.

I personally love Ibanez necks because they're not middle of the road in any way.

 

[Demanic]

Very reminiscent of the old Blazer line right down to the price. The Blazer was a fantastic bang for your buck guitar

Blazer through a Crate 10" combo, with the reverb maxed!
That brings back the 80's.

 

[Chistopher]

These guitars are intended for beginners, and the SSS one probably conceived as the more basic one, hence the hardtail; while the HSS is the next step up, I suppose, so it has the trem and a hb.

You can get aftermarket pickguards for these now on eBay.

The old Blazers are indeed cool - higher models got the tappable pups, phase switch and full brass trem.

But then how is 8 way switching going to help them? I understand the value of being able of being able to emulate a Gibson and Tele close enough that a beginner couldn't tell the difference, but at that level I remember not being able to decide what sounded best between just the 5 positions.

 

[Top-L]

Some of these guitars will be given to kids and be loved and cherished years later.

 

[Chistopher]

Anyone know off hand where I can find a schematic for the wiring? I can do it myself, so don't go out of your way to make one, but if anyone already has one on hand, it would save me a little time.

 

[EmiAba]

A second hand in good shape, in Italy is at 240 euro. That's pretty cheap. But is it worth?

 

[Ashurbanipal]

But then how is 8 way switching going to help them? I understand the value of being able of being able to emulate a Gibson and Tele close enough that a beginner couldn't tell the difference, but at that level I remember not being able to decide what sounded best between just the 5 positions.

That's the irony of this model , which I noted when it came out and all the promos were going 'yeah, this is a great started guitar'.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Or just get the HSS model and add a p/p to put the bridge pup coils in parallel or out of phase. Then you'd have the best of both worlds.

 

[Securb]

My singer showed up with the blue one in the middle at practice last night. The guitar plays and sounds terrific. He was able to get it to thump and grind. It also has fantastic cleans, especially the neck single which is as good sounding as anything I have heard. The neck was dead straight with a pretty good action. I would have lowered it a bit more, but he is happy with it. THe bridge is also damn good with a nice action on the tremolo. But me being me I kept thinking "If this guitar had a Babicz it would push it over the top". The guitar is a steal, considering the tone, playability, and variety of sound.