Ibanez Prestige

review
IBANEZ AZ PRESTIGE & PREMIUM SERIES IBANEZ AZ PRESTIGE & PREMIUM SERIES
90
Guitarist auGust 2018
What You Need To Know
What’s the deal here?
The result of extensive four-year R&D,
the AZ range are coined “players’
player” guitars. Instead of entertaining
the whims of hoary ol’ rock stars,
Ibanez looked to the growing number
of internet guitar gods, not least Tom
Quayle and Martin Miller (both who
have their own signature models
based on the AZ platform), Marco
Sfogli, Feodor Desumov, Ignazio Di
Salvo, not to mention Andy Timmons
and Jan Cryka. Some of these might
be new names but with considerable
online presence and followers, Ibanez,
like Suhr and Chapman, recognise the
considerable sales potential of this
new breed of player.
They’re not that pointy..
Yup, part of the concept is for a
more pared down, less overtly
‘rock’, instrument that offers all the
up-to-the-minute design flourishes
– stainless steel frets, roasted maple
necks, non-locking but wide-travel
vibratos, etc – and enough sounds to
cover everything from jazz to shred.
What’s the difference between
Prestige and Premium? ?
Prestige are made in Japan; Premium
in Indonesia and along with slightly
down-spec’d parts (pickups,
electronics, vibrato) the Premiums
use basswood, as opposed to alder,
bodies and a slightly different roasting
method for the necks.
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2
3
B
y design, the AZ series is all about
function: a tool to do a job. That
said, both the body and neck adopt
a more vintage bolt-on guise that’s less
pointy, more classic than we’re used to
from Ibanez. The body contours here,
especially the rib-cage cut, is very deep
and although the edge radius is pretty tight
these are comfortable, familiar guitars.
The weights are good too – the Japanese-
made Prestige’s alder bodies slightly
weightier than the basswood (with a thin
figured maple or bocote topped three-ply
facing, see Spec Check) of the Indonesian-
made Premium models.
All the AZs, as you’d expect, are based
around the classic 648mm (25.5-inch)
bolt-on scale length. There are both
22- and 24-fret models in both Prestige
and Premium lines: the 22-fret models
have an HSS pickup configuration and
a Strat-meets-RG-style scratchplate;
the 24-fret models have dual direct-
mount humbuckers with no scratchplate
and rear-mounted electronics. Bridge
positions are the same on both 22/24-
fret platforms, the 24-fret neck therefore
sits slightly deeper into the body and as
a result the treble cutaway is slightly
deeper, too.
All use the same heavily rounded ‘All
Access’ body heel with four recessed
screws that sit into inset washers; the heel
area is slightly thinner in depth than the
rest of the body and both cutaways have
quite considerable scooping on the back,
not the front. High fret access is easy.
Roasted maple is becoming the neck
wood of choice for those serious about
their bolt-ons. The Prestige models
use something called S-Tech wood – a
patented torrefaction process created
by Sendai Technologies in Japan that
“decreases the density and improves
the wood’s dimensional stability. It also
gives the wood a more uniformly dark
appearance”. The Premium models use
roasted maple, which has a lighter colour
(and on the AZ224F a very vivid grain)
that’s still darker than untorrefied wood.
Material aside, the necks are spec’d with a
similar ‘oval C’ profile, a standard 305mm
(12-inch) Gibson-like radius and jumbo
stainless steel frets – those on the Prestige
models being very slightly wider and taller.
Nuts are oil-impregnated bone on the
Prestige models and Graph Tech Tusq XL
on the Premium models. Position markers
are black dots on the face which do lack
a little contrast on the darker Prestige
’boards but side dots are the modern must-
have glow-in-the-dark types. Oh, and that
headstock is far from pointy and employs
a ‘vintage’ logo. It all helps to move the AZ
away from Ibanez’s overly rock image.
Hardware too is very similar. Tuners are
Gotoh’s SG381 with both height adjustable
posts (HAP) and Magnum Locks. The
former allow you set the post heights to
maximize the string angle behind the nut
although Ibanez still uses a string tree
on the top two strings while the locking
element self-locks as you wind on the string
As well as different
woods and pickups
the Prestige models
clearly have an extra
level of detail, too
IBANEZ PRESTIGE AZ2204-ICM £1,779 (inc case)
CONTACT Headstock Distribution PHONE [phone] WEB www.ibanez.com
GIT435.rev_ibanez.indd 90 14/06/2018 19:31