Ibanez AZ242PBG
The Respectable Shredder
Many of us growing up between the 80’s and 2000’s have played Ibanez guitars or something trying to be an ibanez at least. Yet as time has passed, our hair cuts have become shorter, our jeans have become trousers and our guitars have become tamer.
Yet something inside us still yearns to plug a super strat into a high gain amp and tear into the fretboard as if it had just offended our mothers.
The AZ’s from Ibanez’s premium range offer us the best of both worlds, subtle colours with artfully interesting wood grains giving a nod to the world of flame tops yet staying tasteful.
Staying on appearances, the roasted maple necks look great and yet are functional in their feel.
The Seymour Duncan Hyperion pickups are powerful yet can be gentle and dynamic, they also feature coil tapping for single coil tones. In fact 10 different pickup combinations are possible via the switching.
The floating trems and locking nuts we remember with mixed feelings have been replaced by a Gotoh trem and locking tuners to provide both whammy fun and tuning stability.
All this together provides us with a guitar which jazz fusion players are flocking to, and if anyone needs a variety of tones, it’s them. So yes this will work great in the 70’s cover band but if you manage to convince the band to play some Pantera or Steve Vai then you have everything you need right here!