Ibanez AZ42P1 Premium AZ Guitar, Rosewood Fretboard, Seymour Duncan Pickups, Black

Player's Perspective

Dressed in a sharp black tuxedo-style look, the AZ42P1 is a bit of a dark horse in the AZ lineup compared to the flashier, more hot-rodded-looking 2204s and 2402s. Featuring a gloss "piano" black finish, white binding, nickel-covered pickups, a beautiful rosewood fretboard and matching black headstock with pearl headstock inlay, this 24-fret variant evokes vibes of the vintage-style "Custom" set neck guitars of the 1950s. 

Aside from the classy appointments, the AZ42P1 follows in the footsteps of its other 24-fret brethren. It features the incredible-sounding Seymour Duncan Hyperion pickups, which can not only play anything from clean R&B to progressive rock and metal on their own, but pairs with the dyna-MIX switch for even more options, allowing you to approximate S-style, T-style, and other types of guitars pretty convincingly.

It also has the Gotoh 510-based T1502 tremolo, which features amazing tuning stability and ease of maintenance. Add that to the AZ standard feature set of a roasted maple neck, stainless steel frets, Gotoh MG-T thumbwheel locking tuners, and the Super All-Access Neck Joint offering unparalleled upper fret access, and you have an incredible guitar not just for the money, but period.

We think this may just be one of the best Superstrats the Ibanez Premium line has to offer!

Item Specifics

Rosewood provides a well-balanced solid tone with a focused mid range. The Gotoh® MG-T locking machine heads achieve incredible tuning stability, cutting down string-changing time. Heat-treatment increases the wood's stability, durability, water resistance and tolerance of temperature changes. The T1502 tremolo bridge features steel saddles and a die-cast zinc tremolo block for a quick response and improved articulation. The 10.5mm string spacing allows for easy picking across strings and its snap-in construction makes it easy to load a tremolo arm. The dyna-MIX 10 offers ten sound variations and can easily switch from humbucker and single coil modes with the mini switch. The Power Tap mode provides a realistic single coil sound despite its two humbucker pickup layout. Seymour Duncan® Hyperion™ Pickups feature a moderate output through Alnico-5 magnets to keep the clarity of the fundamental tone when using a distortion sound, and to deliver a clear pick attack. From treble to bass, the overall tonal balance is evenly adjusted and works well with various effect pedals.