This $299 INDONESIAN Guitar Rules! (Ibanez AZ Essentials) Feat.  

Very torn...buy both??

For that price, why not get both?

*Hits the gong

HSS for lyf. Single coil neck pickup is insane, but for the bridge to have that compression is necessary for me.

HSS

Squire

I have it and damn, it does shred really good. Pick the HSS one and you'll see.

Look at the 2021 squier affinity models. Very good compared to the old affinity.

Fender, Squier, Epiphone, Hamer, Washburn, Parker too I know because I used to live near these factories in East Java

@@theshuriken in Purwerejo?

@@fredriksvard2603 imho Yamaha Pacifica 112V have more value than Fender MIM, i have Pacifica 112 V which pickups i replace with Dimarzio set, the overall cost still cheaper than Fender MIM in my country

@@fredriksvard2603 it's okay if you've tried but haven't found one yet, from what i read on the internet and what i owned personally (i own Pacifica 112VMX, Sterling LK100d Steve Lukather, g&l tribute bass L2500, and Epiphone Emperor) they are real good for the price, it's not that a MIM guitars are bad, but at least in my country a Fender MIM is more expensive than a Pacifica 612 which already have a seymour duncans in it or a regular Pacifica 112V with Pickups mods

@@fredriksvard2603 does it have to be a Sterling?, i mean if you're not specific about the brand or if you're not a Musicman / Sterling fan maybe you can check G&L Tribute L2000 (4 strings) or L2500 (5 strings), it has both passive and active pickups (the active pickups has bass and treble boost mode in it) and it also has both series and parallel pickup combination, check it out, maybe you will like it, cheers,...

Love hardtail

Fender really doesn't like offering hardtails, so they? Well, it's risky; they might sell a bunch of them! That would of course cause them to have an existential identity crisis, and that's just bad for business.

I've had several strat style guitars and have never used the term.

I agree, but I also feel like a Made-in-Mexico Fender Player 2 point trem is a solid quality trem that shouldn't cost more than 15% more to manufacture and install than one of these cheap 6 point vintage style ones. There's just no excuse that a decent 2 point trem with a medium sized block should cost that much money to make. Sure, too expensive to offer on a $150 guitar, but a $350 guitar? C'mon now..

@@enthused7591 Agreed, even the new Affinity models have a 2-point. Unfortunately for us these companies will always be about saving pennies (maybe even dimes, in this case) and market segmentation. Saving pennies because millions of pennies adds up fast. Segmentation because if they make the $300 guitar too good we won't buy the $600 one. In light of the AZES, I'm anticipating a mid-range AZ to come in right under the Player strat: $650-700, with a lot more features than this, including a 2-point. Just a guess, but man, I do hope so... not counting this guy, AZ models start at $1,300. They need one in the mid-range.

Idk. A know a lot of people who refuse to play anything other than the super classic looking guitars. They hate guitars with headstock they aren't familiar with. It's so weird. They judge them purely on looks and I feel like there's way more out there than I personally know.

@@kitten-whisperer it could be the classics are better? I sold my chinese tele for a usa strat. I’m never going back to import guitars

@@Ottophil you sound just like them lol. "What is that called? An ever tune bridge?! Gross! I'll stick my my les paul that's insanely heavy and the g string goes out of tune every time I look at it too hard" If you actually think Ann imports are bad because of one guitar you had, well that's just a dumb way of thinking but more power to you.

Mines being returned horrible back bow in the neck could not be straighted or zeroed. Tooling marks between frets, chip and no Allen wrench. Piece of junk

@@kennethm.3296 so you’re calling them pieces of junk cause you got a bad one ?😂😂grow up cry baby

​@@andreimclive Welcome aboard! These are stratocasters, and a stratocaster (often shortened to "strat") was pretty much designed to be sort of the AK-47 of guitars with easy-to-replace/disassemble/repair/upgrade parts. Pups = Pickups. There are three main types: single coil, humbuckers and P-90. Hotrails are humbuckers that are the same size as a single coil for easy swap-out. In the context of stratocasters, here is a video I hand picked for you: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--lVWDl-4Ue8.html (If the link does not work, copy this into the youTube search: Guitar Pickups 101 - Here's Eveything You Need To know! ) A superstrat is pretty much a stratocaster designed for high gain sounds (hard rock/glam/metal). Check out this video for a lesson on the differenced between a strat and a superstrat: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XXIJ_lvO2w8.html (If the link does not work, copy this into the youTube search: Strat vs Superstrat - Guitar Style Comparison ) I mentioned a VegaTrem because I like my Charvel So-Cal that has a Floyd Rose 1000 series bridge. A Vegatrem attempts to give you similar or even better Floyd Rose style functionality with a stratocaster-style bridge. Check out this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TWob97UM3Xc.html (If the link does not work, copy this into the youTube search: Tom Quayle testing the VegaTrem VT1 Ultra Trem ) Cheers!

@@brianbergmusic5288 Impossible, first time I’ve seen a nice comment about guitars for newbies

@@andreimclive hell yeah dude, welcome to the mothafuckin THUNDER(struck)DOME

@@brianbergmusic5288 Have you checked out the Vega trem? If yes, how did you like it? I seriously want to try it out but I'm not sure if it will fit on my AZ premium trem studds and the cavity.

@@andreimclive Welcome.

I was thinking the same thing. An AZSES has to be in the plans

They do already have a line up for it. Well, they are AZ inspired so they are rather expensive.

I just wish they'd put another tone for the bridge single coil on the SSS model so we can tame the brightness down a little to ballance it out with the rest of the pickups. That, with trem will be my perfect guitar. I might just get the HSS one and lower the humbucker down to ballance the output. It's never ganna be as icy bright as single coils anyways no matter how much I lower it so. Plus, it comes with a trem so.

Fender Strat Aerodyne ll (new version) is 24'75 scale guitar with alder body and two point trem.

🔷

oh no ...

Yes, a sunburst hardtail, just so the wife can't tell I bought another guitar!!! Lol

Yeah that mint green pickguard ruins the Ivory one

@@greg6509 Have you seen one in person? It’s makes a difference. I played one today (same color) and I liked it alright. I ended up getting the same one, but with a “tremolo” bridge.

I thing Prb looks good

i have a squier vintage modified stratocaster from indonesia that was about the same price at launch. i can't wait to get a hold of these bc the neck is pretty thick on the squier and the frets are spaced out wide. i have small hands and I think the 25 inch scale, and 22 frets, instead of the 21 on the squier, will help with comfort

If the people demand it

@@treyxaviermusic I don't know if this goes without saying but we demand it

Welcome!

Agreed. I'm kind of surprised they haven't come out with an az model in that price range yet.

@@pastorofmuppets1968 I was chatting to Rich.Words.Music about these and he says this is a prime modding instrument. Turn it into a custom $500-$800 AZ yourself!

@@peterklein5861 if there was one with a roasted maple neck and fingerboard I would have definitely considered doing that

Yes, an alder bodied AZ hardtail with a roasted maple neck, sunburst!

Didn't find any. No lefty support.

@@otakurocklee i agree but they do offer many other models lefty,but yes a lefty version of one of these guitars 🎸 would be nice,for the price $299 is a steal

Well, to all lefthanded beginners Just go with right handed guitars. Of course, for more variety of guitars you can get and plus, the right handed guitars are actually easier for us to play because we have stronger left hand fingers. I'm saying this as a left handed person and started with the normal right handed guitars and still playing right handed guitars.

Hello

What do you mean? All AZs have stainless steel. Premium and Prestige.

@@user-pt1ye7vd7m not those ones

@@notalkguitarampplug-insrev784 Oh you meant the features on the Japanese. Not that you want them to add those features to the Japanese line. I see. I guess I misunderstood.

Agreed. The only one that isn’t pastel is the black, and it has a white guard. Frustrating.

@@stuminnis4050 guards are interchangeable, along with hardware.. it’ll take you 10 minutes and 15 bucks for whatever color guard you want

Whattttttttt lol I love mine truly. It plays and sounds incredible, looks are subjective

@@TylerSmithMusic1 yeah but when I spend 1500 plus on a guitar I want it to look the part as well 😋 I agree they sound terrific.

@@RJW14 personally I love the way mine looks. But to each their own! To me the neck is really gorgeous, and the sea foam green, pink models looks really refined. I promise I’m not some guitar snob lol

@@TylerSmithMusic1 I know it's just my taste in guitars :) Also the one I like least is the H-H one with the flat sunburst. 😂 Personally I like carve tops with figured woods.

The Gretsch Juniors are probably better made and have better all-around tone, but they aren't a contoured strat shape, so it comes down to what people want. Gretsch absolutely makes the very best overall guitars under $400-$500 though.

I heard from some of the dudes in the liop that the classic vibe actually played better but about which sound better? idk, im gonna try it myself to be fair.

@@enthused7591 The AZES are are are meant for everything from blues to thrash metal, a "jack of all trades, master of none" as it were. But yeah, I'm probably inclined to agree with you since Gretsch tends to focus on certain music types

@@TheMrMRsmoke If it's the like MIM Fenders for $300 less, but $150 - $200 more than the AZES; then those dudes are probably right

In that price range it's their own Ibanez pickups. But their pickups in that price range became really better over the last few years!

PTP