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Ibanez az2402 Prestige review + mix demo

I bought an Ibanez AZ226PBCBB about a month ago with upgraded Suhr pickups and a Plek job. I have over a dozen other guitars and I haven't touch them since getting it, and I've been playing the heck out of it with the Cygnus upgrade. I felt guilty at first about spending a grand for a guitar I didn't need, but not anymore.
 
Tonedeaf said:
I bought an Ibanez AZ226PBCBB about a month ago with upgraded Suhr pickups and a Plek job. I have over a dozen other guitars and I haven't touch them since getting it, and I've been playing the heck out of it with the Cygnus upgrade. I felt guilty at first about spending a grand for a guitar I didn't need, but not anymore.
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Yep AZ's are very surprisingly good guitars :D
 
I have an AZ2204.
The quality is not as good as I hoped it would be. I'm used to better quality from MiJ Ibanez guitars. A lot of of minor stuff is crooked (endpin, switch cap, side fretmarkers,...).
But it sounds and plays great, so I kept it and love it ...
 
Justincase said:
It's a prestige..... Nice guitar.
I've not played an AZ yet...not sure if I'd like the oval C profile.
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My favorite neck profiles are my Warmoth's '59 Roundbacks. Even so, I bonded with this AZ real quick. To me it feels like a cross between a Fender Player Strat and an EBMM. I would not have bought it if they had a Wizard neck.
 
Tonedeaf said:
My favorite neck profiles are my Warmoth's '59 Roundbacks. Even so, I bonded with this AZ real quick. To me it feels like a cross between a Fender Player Strat and an EBMM. I would not have bought it if they had a Wizard neck.
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I'm the total opposite....I prefer wizard necks over pretty much anything I've ever played...even the USA Jackson custom soloist I used to have.
 
I also have a AZ2402 (prestige) and a AZ226 (premium) to cover all genres..
Maybe I was lucky or I become acquainted with the setup but they are wonderful guitars! They're always my first choice when playing (the prestige over the premium... something on the neck feeling I cannot explain)

Of course nothing can rival the tuning stability of an Ibanez Edge bridge :grin:
 
I prefer chunky necks, but more importantly, I prefer quality. So I would enjoy playing a thin profile high quality neck to a budget chunky neck. The neck on my AZ definately feels quality.
 
The AZ is a great guitar and the premium ones are good value. I would be pretty selective about picking one though as they really don't bother to select the cut of wood on the neck. Roasted or not it makes a difference to the stiffness. I've seen some pieces I would not use even on prestige.
 
Andy Eagle said:
The AZ is a great guitar and the premium ones are good value. I would be pretty selective about picking one though as they really don't bother to select the cut of wood on the neck. Roasted or not it makes a difference to the stiffness. I've seen some pieces I would not use even on prestige.
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How would you check for neck stiffness on an existing guitar? What would you be looking for?
 
Just reading up on this and John Suhr reckons there's no benefit to flat/quarter sawn roasted maple (as with AZ guitars) with regard to stiffness:

Maple has diffuse pores in its grain structure, so as far as stability is concerned, it does not have more flex in one direction over another. Most vintage instruments were Flat Sawn, simply because of the availability of wood in the ’50s and ’60s. A byproduct of this is there are plenty of people who feel Flat Sawn sounds better or feels better than Quarter Sawn. There are also people who feel that Quarter Sawn is punchier, and some companies are praised for using straight Quarter Sawn lumber on their necks. My opinion after building guitars for 40 years is there is basically zero difference. Quarter Sawn has a slight advantage in that it is more dimensionally stable in the width direction. However, we dry our wood very carefully so this is not an issue. With roasted maple, none of it matters.
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https://www.suhr.com/quarter-sawn-vs-flat-sawn-maple-necks/
 
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