Right out the box this thing plays amazing! The pickups sound amazing and the flames maple top is absolutely stunning. From beautiful chimey cleans to full boar distortion this guitar handles it all well. A big thanks to ibanez for the great build and a big thanks to sweetwater for making sure it was well taken care of and made it to my hands the way I'm sure ibanez intended it.

First, the mahogany body with maple cap is key. No basswood nonsense. Old school mahogany "umph". Makes all the difference, IMO. Second, the necks on these are absolutely fantastic. The baked maple is fast and the old school C shape is perfect. Not too thin like the Modern Elliptical on my Suhr Modern. And, the fret work on these Ibanez guitars is world class. Love, love, LOVE this neck! You can absolutely buy it unplayed and be confident that the neck will be glorious.

Granted, upgrade modifications were necessary. First thing, the dynamix circuit board switch, the 5 way blade, and the Hyperion pups came out. The pickup "tap" system is just a PCB with mini-capacitors and an IC logic chip. This is not how great tone is made.

Put a Suhr SSV in the neck with a P/P tone to split it and a SD Custom Shop Artist EVH @ 14.4 DCR in the bridge. Best bridge pup EVER. Turn the volume output down and it's a nice PAF. Turn the volume up to 10 and it is Eddie's tone bang on. And, the Suhr SSV neck is the best split-tone pup out there. Single coil tone from the SSV is FANTASTIC. These two pickups in this guitar with a 3-way blade are THE ULTIMATE rock tone combo. (I left the mini-toggle switch hole empty.)

End result: The quality of a Suhr modern with a fatter and roasted maple C neck, Suhr level fret work, and a mahogany body for "umph" ... at HALF the price of a Suhr.

The USA makes GREAT guitars and I didn't want to go offshore for a super-strat but THIS Ibanez MM1 with new pickups forced me to do it. UNBEATABLE quality for the price.

First time purchaser of an Ibanez, first roasted maple neck, first stainless steel frets, or titanium saddles. This is a guitar with incredible features. The neck is so smooth and is so comfortable to play. Stainless steel frets are amazing. The flame maple top is just incredible (and very difficult to photograph). This is a game changing guitar for me. I play more often, I enjoy playing more and I am improving quickly. I am now seriously considering the Tom Quayle version. Josh Sackett is a true professional and handled the transaction perfectly. All of my purchases through Sweetwater have been handled perfectly and all by Josh. I will be back for more.

I absolutely love this instrument. It's a players guitar. I can set and fingerpick some country and turn right around and jam with an old Holdsworth tape, no sweat — sings like an angel. It just amazes me how quick I can get in the zone with this thing. You know that place where you don't even have to think about it and what you grab at is there? This thing really performs. I have to say, I was really scared about making a big buy like this, but it couldn't have been easier. Dustin Keesbury is my rep and he was wonderful. I told him my fears, he patted me on the head, gave me a cookie and basically
said, "you can trust us, it'll be ok." I'm so glad I did, cause I'm having a blast. Thanks so much, Dustin. I can't wait for people to hear this thing. God bless you. To the players, go for it! You're liable to scare somebody with this thing. It's that good. So, guitar 10, service ten. It's a win

I absolutely love this guitar. The neck feels great and it plays amazing. I can't find one thing to complain about. Great quality control!

This guitar is a true piece of art , The tones are so beautiful and the feel is like nothing I've played before . I love this guitar the longer i have it and even if i didn't play i would keep it in a glass display case in the middle of my living room . Had some issue with shipping on a similar model but my sales rep TJ made everything as it should be in the end . If your looking for top of the line ibanez with some class this guitar is the one . Couldn't be happier .

I have played all the AZ guitars and think they are pretty good overall. The MM version is the best sounding followed by the TQM, mostly due to the Mahogany and Maple top. The tone is nice and rich and although the dynamic system has very few interesting tones, the base tones are nice. I don"t like the tone of the other models as I found them bland and harsh. This guitar looks much better in person and the color changes in different light and looks cool. I like the whammy bar, but it could be a little more comfortable, the saddles feel odd. The action is pretty good, but could be lower and the neck is fairly thick. The one thing I don"t like about the AZ range is how stiff the strings feel on all of them. A set of 10-46 feel like 11-52. Bending is harder than almost any other guitars I have played and it can"t be fixed with a setup. 9s feel like 10s. Not sure why this is??? Otherwise it"s nice.

I have never written a product review in my life but I feel compelled to do so for this guitar! I've owned a lot of high end guitars and still have quite a few in my stable (USA PRS's, Ibanez prestige's, Jackson USA's, Gibson USA's, ESP USA, Custom shop Dean) and this guitar surpasses them ALL. The attention to detail is top notch, not a flaw on the guitar and it sounds fantastic. Its an absolute mojo Machine aswell. It has single rejuvenated my love for playing, I cant put the thing down! Cannot recommend it enough!