Ibanez Prestige

review
IBANEZ AZ PRESTIGE & PREMIUM SERIES IBANEZ AZ PRESTIGE & PREMIUM SERIES
94
Guitarist auGust 2018
7. The placement of the
jack nicely out of the
way of all the action
will give Ibanez’s new
breed of player plenty of
unobtrusive playability
8. The five-way lever
pickup selector switch,
two-way mini toggle
Alter switch open up a
lost world of sounds you
wouldn’t necessarily
associate with Ibanez
Scotch-Brite pad made them feel very satin-
smooth, especially those Prestige necks.
The modern/vintage vibe certainly
continues to the actual sound. None of the
guitars have an overly resonant response:
it’s quite firm but with oodles of zingy
sustaining ring that’s a noticeable contrast
to the woodier unplugged response of the
more traditional vintage-y bolt-ons we have
for comparison.
Getting your head around the sound
options takes a little practice. As we said, the
‘standard’ mode is with that two-way Alter
switch pointing down towards the tone
control and with the bridge humbuckers
measuring around 14.8k ohms (the neck
’bucker measures approximately 9k ohms),
the single coils just over 10k ohms, these
are far from vintage spec. The humbuckers
impart a thick but not overly dark voice;
the single coils, despite that overwound
reading, sound full but nicely contrasting
and well-balanced in context.
A little time spent with the HSS Prestige
reveals a beautiful hard rock platform that
retains quite a woody, percussive bolt-on
character while it certainly doesn’t wimp
out in bridge position. As ever the single
coils provide the more textural contrast and
through a clean Fender amp voice, with a
little volume reduction, produce more than
credible Stratty funk rhythm, Texas Blues
sizzle and a lot more.
Accessing the other four sounds, with
the two-way switch pointing up towards
the volume expands the core sounds
(and retains the go-to bridge humbucker
voice) with some reasonably complex
series links and, in this mode, the only true
single coil voice (the slug coil of the bridge
humbucker). Any switching system like
IBANEZ PREMIUM AZ242F-TSG £1,069 (inc soft shell case)
CONTACT Headstock Distribution PHONE [phone] WEB www.ibanez.com
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GIT435.rev_ibanez.indd 94 14/06/2018 19:32