One of the best guitars i have ever owned..

Amazing guitar. I own many really nice high end guitars and this guy is absolutely my favorite. A real gem. You can't go wrong.

Choosing between the AZ and a custom shop strat. I always loved the feeling of an Ibanez. The tones, comfort, and neck feel excellent. I made the right choice. My favorite in my collection.

This guitar rivals Suhr and certainly Fender custom shop for considerably less money. It is so smooth and refined, allowing the user to play effortlessly. The tremolo system is like liquid gold. One would be hard pressed to find a better playing and sounding instrument, boutique or otherwise!

I waited a few weeks before writing this guitar review in order to give myself ample time to playing it in and assessing its features. I had been in the market for a high-end Superstrat. Some of my must-haves were a roasted maple neck and fretboard, stainless steel jumbo frets, 12" radius, quality non-floyed bridge and a steel trem block. I originally had been eyeing a Suhr Classic S for a while, but could not justify spending $ on a guitar. The Ibanez AZ2402 Pretige, at $ was the better deal for me. It checked off all the boxes of features I was looking for in a guitar, along with some bonus features like a bone nut, auto-locking tuners and luminescent side dot inlays. This was like Ibanez's answer to a Suhr guitar.

So I found the guitar I wanted, but no store anywhere near me had it in stock. Purchasing instruments on the internet is not ideal, but many times it's the only option. I miss the days when you could walk into a music store and find a quality guitar off the rack and really demo it against others through an amplifier. Now days, depending on where you live, your music store choices are usually limited to Guitar Center (terrible customer service) or small shops with very limited inventory choices. Consider yourself lucky if you live in Indiana, where the Sweetwater mega complex is located!

So I decided on purchasing the guitar from Sweetwater. I love being able to see comparison shots of the actual guitar models being offered for sale. I was able to choose the wood grain pattern, and weight, that I preferred among four of the same models of the guitar I was considering. So I pulled the trigger.

The guitar arrived within a few days and it played great, right out of the box. I only had to slightly lower the action on the treble side, as to my preference. The only string that needed to be re-intonated was the G string. The first thing I noticed was how resonant the sound was acoustically, without being plugged in. This is my first guitar with stainless steel frets. They were perfectly leveled and were smooth as butter! The bone nut was cut accurately and neatly. Overall, the neck looked and felt great! This was my second guitar with a roasted maple neck and fretboard. There's nothing like the feel of roasted maple! In addition, the stability of roasted necks is outstanding! The guitar consistently stays in tune. Once the strings are stretched out I rarely have to tweak the tuning. I love the satin finished burst over the alder body, which is comfortably light at around 6 lbs.

So the guitar felt great to play in my hands, now on to the sound. I'm glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the sound of the pickups. I rarely keep the stock pickups when I buy a guitar, but these Seymour Duncan Hyperion pickups are so versatile. They sound fantastic clean, but they can also do fusion, rock and metal as well. This is my best sounding guitar through my EVH 5150 III 6L6 amp. It has more clarity and articulation than my EVH Ernie Ball Music Man, which was my primary guitar.

I'm very happy with this guitar and highly recommend it!

This is the only guitar that I like within one minute. I feel like I am so connected to this guitar. I love the roasted maple neck. It feels so smooth. Even at the highest volume it still sounds sweet. Once you hold this guitar it will hang around you for hours and then many more hours.

I'm happy with the tones of the guitar, but it constantly goes out of tune. Even after playing for like 1 minute (without using the tremolo) it's already a little out of tune. Furthermore the strings break constantly in the same spot (near the bridge) - might be an issue with the saddles on the bridge from what I've read. I've broken a string during a vast majority of the shows I have played with it. Nice sounding guitar but there's some major issues that make it very unreliable. It's more of a headache than a pleasure to play.

pickups were bright quiet with lots of distortion.
neck was thick body sfot thick bot not to thick sounded awesome

Bought the 2404 from Sweetwater (thanks Ikes) and had it Plek'd at Sweetwater. This guitar is incredible in every way!!! The SD Hyperion pickups are good but not my cup of tea....I swapped them for a Suhr Thornbucker Plus in the bridge and Thornbucker regular in the neck and HOLY TONEzilla!!! (raw nickel covers). This guitar now totally rocks....best neck and fretwork I've ever owned hands down.

I’ve been playing Ibanez guitars since 2000 and have been dreaming about the day they’d create an axe like this one...sound, feel, and design all superb. I didn’t give it 5 stars because the neck has a scratch on the rear right near the 3rd fret that isn’t a big deal but I feel it while playing...not sure if it’s from the factory or from the plek I had Sweetwater do for me...which btw I highly recommend having done. This guitar is up there with the best of em suhr ;)

This is a nice and needed addition to the Ibanez line. My initial impression out of the case is that this guitar feels like a top notch, custom guitar. I had difficulty finding one of these in a store prior to purchasing, so I thought it may be helpful to provide a detailed review to answer similar questions others may have.

FRETBOARD
The fretboard on this guitar is great. The roasted maple is smooth and snappy, and I particularly liked that it does not need to be lacquered like standard maple. The fretwork is immaculate. Also, the notes ring clearly and evenly throughout the whole neck.

One interesting thing is that the top of the fretboard is about 1/16th higher off the body than typical guitars of this design (i.e. S-style guitars). This means that the strings are a little higher, which makes playing feel somewhere between traditional S-style and a hollow body, but leaning more toward the former.

NECK
One of the areas where I had a hard time getting an understanding of prior to purchase was the neck. I could not get my hands on one in person, so my only sources of info were a few random forums. Hopefully what follows will be helpful for those who are still uncertain.

By comparison, my other guitars are a Music Man JP6 (.~735-.~838*), Ibanez S Prestige (~.670-.787), Ibanez AS93 (0.827-0.945), and a Schecter NJ Diamond Series 2019 (0.787-0.866). *I"m not 100% sure of the MM JP6 specs, but it is between the S Prestige and the Schecter.

The AZ specs are .807 (20.5mm) to .885 (22.5mm). I"m not a fan of the Wizard ultra-thin neck. But my preference is something skinnier than the larger traditional necks. The AZ neck feels beefy in my hands. I notice it the most when my thumb is off-center, more toward the shoulder of the neck. This is purely preference, but I think Ibanez overcompensated on these necks. They should have either reduced the shoulder thickness or scaled back slightly on the overall thickness. Or perhaps they could offer two different profiles. By comparison, out of all the guitars, the most comfortable neck seems to be the Schecter NJ Diamond Series import--which I did not anticipate.

If you are used to Music Man JP necks, the AZ will feel big. If you are used to something closer to the Schecter or the slimmer Suhr Modern Elliptical (0.780), you will still notice the difference, but you may find it easier to adapt. That said, I find myself getting used to the neck as I play it, and I've been playing the JP6 almost exclusively for 10 years.

STRING SPACING
I love the smaller 1.65 spacing at the nut compared to 1-11/16ths. It feels very comfortable, but without the strings getting too close together.

The bridge spacing is also narrower than the traditional Gotoh 510 series. For me, it has required some adjusting, but I"m getting used to it. I find that it is easier to play linear passages (i.e. 3 note per string). However, adjacent string picking such as arpeggios were a little trickier at first. I had to slightly adjust my technique to accommodate.

FINISH
I hesitate to say that online pictures of this guitar to not do it justice, but I was more impressed with the finish in person than online. No, it"s not a quilt or flame (and I do wish Ibanez would offer more options, including exotic woods), but the flat burst combined with the dark roasted maple does look gorgeous. I also like the flat finish. It is incredibly smooth.


TONE
Before purchasing, I saw mixed reviews of the pickups online. In fact, I was considering changing out the Hyperions for a Suhr SSV and an SSH+. After plugging it in and playing, I think these pickups are fine. They are less compressed than the ones in my MM JP6, and the neck pickup cuts through a little better in a mix.

The additional sounds with Power Tap engaged are mixed. I like the neck sound (position 5), and the bridge single coil mode (position 2). I wish the single coil neck mode selected the coil closest to the fretboard, though. The other coil is too close to the bridge to provide an S-style neck single coil sound. The other options provide additional tonal variety, but I"m not sure how often I would use them.

The switch is also a little awkward to get to. I would have preferred that it had the "push" pots like the JP15.


CONCLUSION
This is a great guitar and I would purchase again. In fact, it will be my primary guitar. I think with a few subtle changes such as slightly reducing the neck thickness and/or shape—or at least offering a couple of options, this would be a no brainer for anyone looking at a versatile, high performance guitar.

Purchased this guitar after looking at several other high end guitars. It fits what I was looking for perfectly by offering multiple sounds and great playability. It also does this for less $ than many of the others I tried out. The neck carve is not what I would have normally chosen but I'm glad I did with this one. Having played everything from Gibson les Paul's with thicker necks to jackson/gj2 and similar shredder type guitars with thin flat necks this neck is surprisingly comfortable and very adaptable to many styles of play. On the lower frets it chords and plays beautifully. It is hand filling, yet it isn't too big. As you move up the neck it seems to transition to more of a faster feeling shredder type of carve. The transition isn't overly exaggerated, you can definitely feel its presence but it is in no way a distraction. I am very glad I purchased this guitar because this neck seems to feel better and more comfortable everytime I play it. The sounds this guitar produces are very diverse it has amazing clean tones, You can get very strat & tele like sounds. It will do very buttery overdrive bluesy sounds in the neck position as well as heavier
Brighter overdrive sounds in the bridge position. You won't get super heavy metal type overdrive from these pickups (that's not what they're for) but it will produce nice smooth overdrive and do so with extremely good individual note definition. Overall this is a great guitar and I'm very glad I purchased it. I also want to add that Andy Hoye of Sweetwater is one of the most awesome people I've ever dealt with he made sure to follow up with me every step of the way with my purchase. He had the guitar checked over and had it set up the exact way I requested with my string choice. He sent me photos of the exact guitar he was shipping to me to make sure I was happy with it. If you're calling Sweetwater to purchase a guitar give Andy Hoye a shot at you business you will be happy you did.

Where to start??? I have been playing guitar since 1994. I started with Ibanez, and have owned many Japanese models including many Prestige RG models, S models, and many more higher end Ibanez models. Around 1999 I started playing Tom Anderson guitars and Music Man EVH and Petrucci models when they came out. I really enjoyed the attention to detail those guitars offered and still do. Around 2008 I started to play Suhr guitars and loved them almost as much as the Tom Anderson I had owned and played. I still had a few Ibanez models but I favored the Andersons more because they were such complete guitars and are still my favorite brand. When the Ibanez AZ came out I was a bit intrigued and pretty much had zero interest in buying one because even if it was good, it wouldn't be as good as a Suhr or Anderson because of the fact that Ibanez, although a good brand, would most likely cut corners on quality and components somewhere along the building process. Well, after buying one of these and playing it, I was slightly correct in my assumption, but not by too much.

The guitar is very nice looking in person and feels and looks the part. The matte finish is surprisingly classy looking and it almost looks like satin nitro (I wish it was). But, it works and gives the guitar a classy, old violin look. The neck looks very much as nice as the neck on my old Suhr classic Antique (great looking maple grain pattern). It looks much better in person than in the pictures online and has an understated and grown up look.

The body is very comfortable with nice contours throughout. More comfortable than an RG for sure, but also just as comfy as my Anderson Angel. It sits well on the body. The whole guitar resonates very well, almost as good as any Suhr or Anderson. The neck joint is great, easy to play up high on the neck and the neck pocket is perfect.

The neck carve is nice, round and fairly comfortable. It feels surprisingly like a slightly bigger Suhr Classic Pro neck, and slightly bigger than an Anderson Angel even taper neck profile. Its a bit bigger at frets 1-7 and then stars to get a bit thinner up top (Think slightly thick medium C to medium D going from frets 1-24) I think it would be nicer if it were just a tad thinner. The neck finish is fairly thin satin, it feels good but it could benefit from a slightly thicker coat of satin for a more luxurious feel like Suhr, Music Man and Anderson, who's necks all feel much nicer in the hand. The frets are very well done, frets ends are smooth and they are almost perfectly level. The guitar could use a plek job to get the action nice and low (bending the high e on this particular guitar results in choked out notes when setup with a low action) So frets could use more attention. The nut was cut well (better than most mass produced guitars). Intonation is near perfect! The guitar plays well and has a bit of a stiff high tension string feel as Suhr guitars also do. The guitar will need to be set up and plekd to see just how good it can be, but in comparison to its aim (Suhr, etc. ) it plays about 90% as good as those higher end guitars, but needs that extra 110% work and care put into them to get them perfect.

Hadrware is decent at this price point. Gotoh makes nice things and we find them on all the high end guitars out there. The bridge however has some flaws. The saddles sit very high off of the base plate). The arm has a bushing in the insert that makes a crunching noise when moving the arm around (All my Ibanez RGs do this too and it is annoying). The block could be bigger and string retainers drilled deeper, the springs could be a nicer material. Otherwise its a nice smooth 510 style as you would find on a Suhr, Schecter USA or Anderson. The volume and tone knobs are ugly and cheap looking. The rubber grip fell off the volume knob about 5 minutes after I started to play it (glued on). I will replace these with nicer looking knobs. the 5 way switch feels a bit cheap, nothing like that on a Suhr or the like. The mini toggle switch could be smoother and smaller. Its a bit big, clunky and ugly as well. The tuners, while good at what they do are an absolute terrible design as far as locking goes. In order to lock the string in, you must pull the string through, hold it with one hand and then turn the tuner while holding a flat head screwdriver on the top of the tuner post (and hoping it does not slip off and scratch the face of the headstock). There are many far better locking tuners out there in 2018. I wish they used a rear locking style tuner for this like all the good brands use! It adds more mass, tone and makes things easier without having to use 3 hands and risk scratching your headstock and having the string slip out because your are not sure if it locked completely. I will be replacing these with Hipshot tuners. The string tree also looks a bit weird but it does the job.

Tone and pickups. Well, this guitar is a very neutral sounding guitar. Upon plugging it in I thought the tone knob was off, but it was all the way up. This is a very dark guitar with a flat eq curve. You will have to adjust your amp and pedals to suit it. Once dialed in, it sounds great. Clear and woody. and focused. I think this guitar would benefit from a maple top, as it would fill out the tone more, add sustain and some highs to the tone. The dynamix system is not bad. There are a few tones that sound great and the rest are just kind of okay. The split coil tones are not great, but sound okay. One nag I have with Ibanez is positions 2 and 4 in all their guitars are always way too quiet when playing clean. This is never a problem with the other guitars I was talking about before. Not sure how to remedy this... The guitar sounds awesome through my Wampler Dual Fusion pedal. It sounds ok into my Friedman BE100, but not great as most other guitars do. This guitar likes overdrive pedals more than amp distortion it seems.

Overall it is a great guitar that needs a few tweaks to be as good it can possibly be. That bar is already set very, very high by the brands it is trying to exist along side of. At this price point, it is very good... It could benefit greatly from rear locking tuners, a maple top, more lively electronics, gloss finish and nicer knobs and switches. A slightly less cumbersome neck profile, and flatter radius and better dressed action for zero fret out. Lets be honest, who buys a super-strat for high string action? While it wont replace my Anderson Angel, it will do until I can Afford another. This is a great guitar overall that could use some obvious tweaks to be as good as it can be. Still, a great guitar and should make most pretty happy!

I'm very happy with the purchase of this Ibanez AZ guitar. I have other few guitars but this has been my favorite guitar ever since I purchased this. Neck feels super comfortable and looks gorgeous. Love the vintage style body color. This guitar is much more affordable then Suhr guitars and it shares the same high end quality or even better with additional roasted baked maple modern C shape neck. I don't like the floyd rose trem system on other Ibanez guitars and I was waiting for them to come up with the modern trem system with the recessed bridge for floating ability and it seems like my wait is over now. I'm overall very happy with the purchase. Thanks to sweet water customer rep Scott Agustyniak. He's very friendly and helpful and pleasure to do business with.