IBANEZ AZ224F

Has Ibanez perfected the contemporary double-cut?

- Michael Astley-Brown

Look, we could open this review by banging on about how Ibanez is synonymous with shred gods Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Paul Gilbert, but we all know there’s more to the Japanese guitar giant than pointy headstocks. Over its six-decade history, the company has found favour with guitarists of all stripes – the jazz-friendly Artcore, the indie delight that is the Talman – but the AZ series marks its most laser-focused attempt to create the ultimate ‘players’ player’ guitar, courtesy of four years’ R&D and input from six-string savants such as Tom Quayle, Martin Miller and Andy Timmons. But can one guitar be all things to all players?

The AZ224F clocks in at the more affordable end of the line-up, with an Indonesian build and basswood (rather than the upper-end Prestige’s alder) body, but still delivers the core of what makes the AZ range such a winning prospect: in short, everything. We’re talking a roasted maple neck and fretboard, complete with hard-wearing stainless-steel frets, glow-in-the-dark side dots and a non-stick Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut; Gotoh Magnum Lock machineheads, with height-adjustable posts for optimum string angle behind the nut; a Gotoh-designed vibrato, with a lockable tremolo arm that doesn’t flop around; an included hybrid hardcase/gigbag… oh, and a set of newly designed Seymour Duncan Hyperion pickups with nine (!) selectable positions.