Juan Cristobal Moo In the Ibanez lineup, yes. Lowest to highest it goes Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese (prestige), LA Custom Shop, Japanese (custom shop).
Caleb Neff Indonesian over Korea? Isn't it the other way around? I'm no Ibanez expert so you can be right, it's just strange for me as in case of any other brand korean made models are better than indonesian ones.
ThelowRider For Ibanez specifically, Indonesian is the next best thing to Japanese. The standards are made in both China, the Iron Label is Korean, Premium is Indonesian, and Prestige is Japanese.
Thanks, excellent review, reminds me my Roadstar Ii from 84, and my S series from the 90 th..both of them like brand new, they keep up with my Strat or my Prs any time any day..no bend, twist, weat or whatsoever..just made for 1/2 a century full of rock fun! I get one of Azs... Thats the plan
Good video lads. I've been following these very guitars on RU-vid in the last few days... I recognise the grains on the wood! I guess they'll be moving on before I can get to see them in person.
When reviewing these guitars with a tremolo bar and no locking nut, you need give the whammy a work out to show that it stays in tune. That would be a true advantage over a Fender strat that I'd be interested in.
@@StompboxTV thats really not the feedback the premium AZs are getting. All AZs from indonesia have tons of tuning issues and poor quality fretwork...just look around most buyers decided not to use the tremolo because of this. And ibanez isnt doing anything about it which is really twisting my brain and preventing me from getting one of these
@@joaopereira2096 I'd suggest trying one for yourself. That'd be a lot better. If you really want/need a locking tremolo then the Ibanez range is hardly lacking in that regard!
Oliver James yeah but the straight ones are limited and overshadowed by the other, only JS and Andy Timmons are straight and the rest are angled even the cheaper GIOs
Oliver is right. Ibanez has been using the triangular headstock decades before Suhr even existed. With this in mind, I don't get all the people saying Ibanez copied Suhr. It's laughable, especially considering Suhr made their mark copying Strats and Teles while since the 80s Ibanez has been doing their own thing with models like the Jem and RG550.
Its not correctly book-matched. They didnt use the opposite part of the cut, so it doesnt take the lighting the same and makes it have this effect. Also its not deep stained (enhancing the grain), so that doesnt help either.
Yes that's always bothered me too. Obviously makes no difference to how it plays and sounds, but from a cosmetic perspective I've never liked it if it didn't match well.
Did he say the flame top on the blue one was a lot better, think I need an eye test because it looks only half flamed to me and it's certainly not worth twice as much, both great looking guitars though.
I'm torn between paying more for the better titanium bridge / nut or settling for the basswood body. I know there are many more differences between the prestige / premium lines but those are the only two differences that are important to me. I tried to tell from the video the difference but it's hard to tell on a video....is the basswood body a significantly different tone (not necessarily worse) than the alder on these guitars? I know the differences between alder/basswood in general but it's guitar specific in my limited experience. Great video btw guys! I'm not an Ibanez guy (ESP/Schecter) but these guitars look and sound amazing!
Not really. Suhr business is like 80% custom guitars, said by John Suhr. Ibanez take on the pro series is not a huge thing on Suhr's market. As long as Ibanez doesnt have a custom shop or customizable guitars, they cant compete. I just placed a custom order for a classic S, which i cannot do with Ibanez, as much as I love them, saddly.
Suhr is for people who like the idea of owning a 'boutique' guitar and being proud to show that to friends/family. I have no problem with that - every once in a while we all like to treat ourselves with some fancy things. but if you keep that sentiment aside, standard production guitars can run circles around 'boutique' items in terms of price performance ratio.
I just ordered an SA460 ABB today. What is the difference between the AZ series and latest SA series guitars to justify the price differential? They look a lot thicker/heavier and must have better P/U's? Not looking for a fight.. just very interested in what the AZ offers for that amount of money? Thanks.
Hey guys, please help!! What is the string spacing like? I am about to preorder one but in the description it says there is narrower string spacing. I have a American professional strat. How would you compare the string spacing between those two guitars? Also is there any differences in the neck feel and string spacing between the two prestige models? The ssh and the hh.
i dont think the indonesian dont have only different options, they have worse: the roasted maple on the japanese has s tech the other has not, the japanese has titanium which is better material by all means than stainless steel, bone nut is better than tusq nut for the reason the D string will always slide the tusq nut with time even though its a great nut and the japanese is made in japan with better all around construction with prestige fret work and so on and obviously better woods. so yes its not a question of being different, the first is BETTER. however that doesnt mean the indonesian guitar isnt a great guitar by itself with awesome features, just dont say the japanese is just different from it, if it was they would have the same price. the japanese is a different and BETTER guitar. besides that great video and informative. i didnt know about the dynamix, i though it was a mere coil split. good to know its not
careful dude...the switching system on these guitars will do split AND tap functions...the HH models will split but also power tap each humbucker to give you a somewhat P90-sh sound
Pe Peroni Ibanez really did go all out on the difficult to remember specs didn't they? It's bad enough watching failed explanations of what positions 2 and 4 do on the HH equipped S and RGs and now there's guitars that split and tap.
I'm just not one who is a fan of the whole "roasted" whatever wood thing. Not sure if it makes a difference in tone or not, I just don't like the look. But that's just me.
What amp and fx are you using with the brown Indonesian Ibanez? Interested to know what the dirty channels are - may be interested in the complete set up.
Check out Reverb.com (I'm in the US too). A lot of reputable stores sell there (Chicago Music Exchange, Riff City, ZZounds), you can pay with Affirm (everyone approved credit). New, used, b-stock, whatever. I don't get anything for that, but I've had really good luck buying on Reverb. There are always E-II models available for cheap.
helixworld yeah I ordered one into my local shop and that's my biggest fear. I mean I already was thinking of putting tom amderson pickups in it but i mean 3 grande plus tax, new pups and installation... creeping dangerously close to " might aswell buy a custom territory"
Oh, so the less expensive stuff is not of lesser quality, it's just different. Yeah, go on talking shit to your viewer's face, they'll love you for it.