IBANEZ AZES ESSENTIAL
There are a lot of good reason to want a budget guitar besides NOT having any money. You may need a backup, you may want to have one to hot rod you may ...in this case want to try a Fender Strat style guitar because you have a Gibson or other 24 1/2 scale guitar with hummies and if it doesn't work out, no big deal.
The whole idea from Ibanez was a guitar that ticked all the boxes for the least money. Yes you can get a cheap Squier but you can never be sure it even close to playable out of the box. You may get very rough frets even fret sprout. Add to that when you walk on stage it is unlikely anyone knows you don't have one of the $2000.00 plus Ibanez guitars. There are 2 kinds of players the ones that care about that brand on the headstock and liars, lol. ...OK OK sorry but I could not resist it.
First things first ...$350.00 USD with a whammy, $300.00 USD without.
maple neck, jatoba fretboard, and poplar neck
All real tonewoods. Jatoba is in a lot of very high end luthier made guitars.
Poplar is used for most of a Gibson ES 335. Only the top and back are maple. It sounds great but has a boring wood grain. That is why it doesn't use it where you can see it. Big but ...WTF does it matter how it looks on a painted guitar as long as it sounds great.
PU's and electrics are totally pro sounding.
The hardware is basic but no less what was on a 50's Fender.
Often this stuff is OEM Gotoh but not branded. It will not 'need' replacing. Trust me...a lot of the best hardware looks cool maybe you get a bit more sustain from a bridge or faster tuning from the tuners. BUT! These tuners won't slip, in fact often less then high end ones do. The cheaper bridge puts more sound into the wood. The high end bridges 'become' the sound as they have too much mass.
It may be in Squier territory for price but in overall quality it is easily in the Fender MIM camp. Keep in mind this Ibanez is made in Indonesia and they produce PRS SE guitars and now have many brands that were formerly in Korea.
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