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That was a pretty tune you wrote just before filming. Back in 2017-2018 I had bought a premium az. The matte black one. I knew immediately I should of spent the extra money on the prestige. A year or 2 went by and Ibanez announced the new az with the more strat like trem. You can deck it basically. It has different more classic output pickups called fortuna pickups. I bought it. The difference between the premium and the prestige was apparent immediately. Such a great guitar. Effortless to play. I’m no Jimmy Franklin but I’ve been playing a while and have owned some nice guitars over the years. The prestige Ibanez guitars are on another level. Bottom line. Japan quality is something special in my opinion.
I hate when people say an affordable or cheap guitar, is a beginner guitar. I would argue that giving a beginner a piece of trash to learn on is the dumbest idea ever. Let’s give a new player a piece of crap guitar with fret issues, warped neck, bad nut, tuning instability due to cheap tuners and a crap tremolo, oh and fret sprout! The best beginner guitar is a good guitar. The AZES40 is an amazing guitar for anyone, new or not. So is the prestige and the premium. We should stop telling new players not to buy the best guitar they can afford right away. The AZES40 is a great choice because it’s affordable, and it’s really good. It’s not a “beginner “ guitar. If you ask me, the prestige is a n excellent “beginner” guitar. If you can afford it.
As a teacher I’d slightly disagree. ONLY because I think that you need to work your way up to appreciating the things that make an expensive guitar worth it. I’m so thankful that I didn’t start with a guitar with locking tuners and perfect tuning stability because I learned how to string a guitar the harder way and learned to tune my guitar better because of it. And now I appreciate tuning stability and easier restrings.
Yes, my first guitar was trash. Cheapo thing, sky high action, soft wood that caused all the screws to strip out, bridge broke, everything was terrible. Really made it so much more difficult to learn guitar.
A beginner guitar is good and versatile, if you recommend highly specialists guitars to a beginner, the ones with high 4 digit price tags then you are doing it wrong imho. Nobody will recommend a bad guitar to a beginner.
I agree, but you also don’t need to spend much over $500 to get a guitar that won’t try to fight you when playing. These days there are some cheap guitars that play great, maybe with a quick setup. Like 10 years ago you’d need to spend substantially more to get a “good” guitar, but not these days. Id say a beginner shouldn’t spend over $1000 because the differences over that price point are negligible for a beginner (unless they can afford it and they know they’re gonna stick with the instrument). So buy a guitar that’s good and won’t fight you when you’re learning, but don’t worry about buying the top 1% of performance for $2000+. Id also recommend something like the AZ for its versatility. No beginner is going to have 4+ guitars to cover all of their bases in terms of tone. With a guitar like the AZ with the 10 tones you can nail any tone you want for the most part. Get the best guitar you can afford, to a certain extent.
Ibanez needs to give its AZ premium series better finishes! I want to get an AZ premium but I absolutely hate the finish options, so both my wallet and eyes are voting for the AZES40!
Awesome playing! How thin is the body finish on the prestige? Will it relic naturally over time like nitro? Also, is the neck too chunky for shred? Tossing up between this and a charvel dk24 with the 12-16 radius. Love your work mate!
Thank you! The neck is not too chunky for shred for me. But if you like thin necks then yes. I like this neck better than the Charvel but you should try them both! And it’s funny because I expected the prestige to get beat up by now and it isn’t which is crazy to me! It SHOULD relic but so far it’s the strongest satin paint I’ve ever played hahah
I would love to get your opinions (as someone who does studio work and gigs as well) on an AZES with the Headrush MX5. I really want to get the Headrush as I don't really need stage volume when I play, but I also don't have money falling out my ears for a Kemper 🤣 Keen to hear your thoughts and opinions on it.
I think that’s a great plan. As your tastes change you can experiment with other pickups and make other small changes to the AZES (such as string trees, nut and tuners) and if you decide you want to play a big room and need an amp you can spend that money later. Also, there are a lot of free impulse responses online that will really make the MX5 shine more! That really is all you need to get started making big noise!
It has a 25" long neck compared with the 25,5" of the GRX. So it falls between the Strat and the Les Paul. After having changed the string trees, there is no more tuning instability. It has become (AZES40) a great guitar for home use for sure. The colourful choice of tones makes it unbelievably fun.
Why do you keep asking the questions that you can easily fix yourself? I think the playing showcased exactly how it all sounds and what is possible in them, no?? I can tell you that it has a gotoh trem, low action and Hyperion pickups but that doesn’t mean anything.
@@jimmyfranklin Actually someone down below said the fret ends didn't seem like they were beveled (much like my experience with the Ibz AX-120). To me, the frets are the most important - can you get the action down without buzzing? Everything else can be easily changed.
I had the chance to try AZ premium (HSS same finish as your friend's) and AZ Prestige HSS. In my opinion they are very close. 1- Neck finish: absolute win for Prestige; amazing neck finish feels like a well played neck while its more sticky (satin finish) on Premium. 2-Neck dimensions: feels thicker on Prestige. More Fender like on Premium 3-Frets: In my opinion are better rounded on Premium! very smooth while on Prestige with its prestige fret end treatment feels like they almost have no bevelling! 4- Sound: feels rounder on Prestige but is not very different. 5- weight: Prestige is heavier *which one to buy? any of those (prestige/Premium) which you can find second hand with lower price ;)
@@chl3224 Exactly. You cannot go wrong with the Premium. The only think I dont like about my Premium (I may actually sell it because of that) is its neck finish. Feels bit sticky (satin urethane like) and I got sweaty hands. I dont know if yours fell same? Finish on Prestige is like an oil finish which feels better in my hands. I like unfinished guitar necks!
