Ibanez AZES Essentials AZES40 | A great value HSS Strat with top tonal versatility | Review & Demo

This is my in-depth look at the Ibanez AZES40, a new(ish!) and rather affordable HSS Fender Stratocaster-influenced guitar in the Ibanez AZES (AZ Essentials) family.
At Thomann: bit.ly/AZES40rwm
At Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/an4dOb
Designed by Ibanez in cooperation with iconic guitarist and teacher Tomo Fujita, the AZES range aims to deliver the tone, versatility and playability of the brand’s AZ series to students and players on a budget - and the €329/$349 AZES40 totally succeeds in that mission!
The Strat-like AZES40 is built to be easy to play. It has a poplar body with a maple neck and a jatoba fingerboard. The guitar’s medium frets, 25” scale length and 250mm (10”) fingerboard radius have been chosen to make everything as comfortable for beginners and students as possible.
Being an HSS Strat-type, the AZES40 is incredibly versatile tonally too. You have two Ibanez Essentials single coil pickups and an Ibanez Accord humbucker at your disposal, plus an Alter Switch, which gives you even more tonal options - watch on to hear them all in action!
In the video, I play the AZES40 in as many different styles as I can - from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal and more - to find out just how well this budget axe performs, and to see if it stands up to its natural competitors in the affordable HSS world: the Squier Strat and the Yamaha Pacifica!
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Hello!
00:13 Introduction to the AZES40
01:09 Specs and info
04:34 The neck
05:28 Today’s rig and plan
Clean Sounds
06:24 Clean tone reference chords on all pickups/Alter Switch options
07:03 Poppy barre chords
07:18 Blues progression
07:31 Ringing open indie pop chords
07:46 Country ballad arpeggios
07:59 Country lead sound
08:06 Ambient indie arpeggios
08:25 60s rock rhythm tone
08:36 Funky barre chords
08:50 Funky rhythm tone and vibrato test
09:11 Droning indie chords
09:26 Tone control test
10:20 Strummed folk chords
Crunch Sounds (Clean Channel w/Greer Lightspeed)
10:38 Groovy classic rock riff
11:05 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
11:23 Airbourne inspired classic rock riff
11:36 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff
11:52 Classic rock riff
12:09 Indie octave chords riff
12:33 Indie rock rhythm sound
12:50 Edgy indie rock chords
13:04 Indie open string riff on all pickups
13:36 Indie rock barre chords
14:01 Volume control roll-off test
14:47 Fat indie rhythm chords
15:04 Indie rock octave chords
Lead Channel Sounds
15:33 Classic hard rock riff
15:50 Hard rock riff
16:07 Glam rock riff
16:24 Alternative rock riff
16:38 Pop punk riff
16:51 Pop punk melodic lead riff
17:07 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
17:21 Less Than Jake inspired punk riff
17:32 Punk rock power chords
17:46 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
18:02 Modern rock palm-muted power chords (Drop D tuning)
18:27 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D tuning)
Clean Channel w/Revv G3 Distortion Pedal (all in Drop D tuning)
18:43 Metal chugging riff
18:58 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
19:10 Hardcore punk riff
19:25 Thrash metal riff
19:36 My thoughts
20:29 First impressions out of the box
20:48 Weight
21:10 Setup and the vibrato bridge
21:55 Build quality and hardware
23:09 Playability and neck
23:43 Sounds and versatility
26:03 What’s the competition for the AZES40?
27:51 My conclusions on this guitar
29:47 Thanks and goodbye
Check out the AZES31 too, it’s awesome: bit.ly/IbanezAZES31rwm
My setup was as follows: I ran the AZES40 into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, using my Greer Lightspeed for the overdrive and my Revv G3 for the heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.
Here’s some links to those bits of gear:
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H&K Black Spirit 200 head: bit.ly/HKBS200rwm
Greer Lightspeed: bit.ly/GreerLightspeedRWM
Revv G3: bit.ly/RevvG3RWM
Focusrite 4i4 (this is the newer equivalent of my 2i4, which they don’t make any more!): bit.ly/Scarlett414RWM
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Enjoy!
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Backing music from the KZbin Audio Library: Duck In The Alley - TrackTribe.
#Ibanez #IbanezGuitars #IbanezAZES
Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!
‪@IbanezOfficial‬

[@RichWordsMusic]

First. And here's those timestamps for you people on phones: 00:00 Hello! 00:13 Introduction to the AZES40 01:09 Specs and info 04:34 The neck 05:28 Today’s rig and plan Clean Sounds 06:24 Clean tone reference chords on all pickups/Alter Switch options 07:03 Poppy barre chords 07:18 Blues progression 07:31 Ringing open indie pop chords 07:46 Country ballad arpeggios 07:59 Country lead sound 08:06 Ambient indie arpeggios 08:25 60s rock rhythm tone 08:36 Funky barre chords 08:50 Funky rhythm tone and vibrato test 09:11 Droning indie chords 09:26 Tone control test 10:20 Strummed folk chords Crunch Sounds (Clean Channel w/Greer Lightspeed) 10:38 Groovy classic rock riff 11:05 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff 11:23 Airbourne inspired classic rock riff 11:36 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff 11:52 Classic rock riff 12:09 Indie octave chords riff 12:33 Indie rock rhythm sound 12:50 Edgy indie rock chords 13:04 Indie open string riff on all pickups 13:36 Indie rock barre chords 14:01 Volume control roll-off test 14:47 Fat indie rhythm chords 15:04 Indie rock octave chords Lead Channel Sounds 15:33 Classic hard rock riff 15:50 Hard rock riff 16:07 Glam rock riff 16:24 Alternative rock riff 16:38 Pop punk riff 16:51 Pop punk melodic lead riff 17:07 Green Day inspired punk rock riff 17:21 Less Than Jake inspired punk riff 17:32 Punk rock power chords 17:46 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning) 18:02 Modern rock palm-muted power chords (Drop D tuning) 18:27 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D tuning) Clean Channel w/Revv G3 Distortion Pedal (all in Drop D tuning) 18:43 Metal chugging riff 18:58 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang 19:10 Hardcore punk riff 19:25 Thrash metal riff 19:36 My thoughts 20:29 First impressions out of the box 20:48 Weight 21:10 Setup and the vibrato bridge 21:55 Build quality and hardware 23:09 Playability and neck 23:43 Sounds and versatility 26:03 What’s the competition for the AZES40? 27:51 My conclusions on this guitar 29:47 Thanks and goodbye

[@DMSProduktions]

Great!

[@DaveMorrisonMusic]

You're so fluid and cogent in your explanation of the electronics. That's not an easy thing to do. You must really prepare for these videos. You deserve a much wider audience. Great demo too. Lots of representative tones and the playing styles that go well with them.

[@RichWordsMusic]

Thanks Dave, I do try my best to make the speaking bits flow as well as possible. It can take a while with something as complex as this guitar's switching system! I'm glad you enjoyed the video, and yes, maybe one day more people will stumble across this little channel.

[@musikmark1]

Great review Rich, what a time to be a guitar player, we never had it better! the guitar sounds and looks sweet ! even like the headstock, rock on.

[@RichWordsMusic]

You're right Mark, they've got basically everything right with this one! And I think the AZES31 might be even better (that's got three single coils and a hardtail bridge, so it stays in tune a little better!). So many great choices for us as players, though. I wish guitars like this had existed back when I'd first started, bet you do too :)

[@tokk3n-hj4xg]

Great review. I'm getting mine this Friday.

[@RichWordsMusic]

Awesome! Happy new guitar day and I hope you're enjoying it 😎 The AZES guitars are great choices.

[@xxKillaJilla]

This review helped me land my purchase of my first electric guitar ever! I even bought that mint green one. Having fun on my journey :) Thank you!

[@RichWordsMusic]

Really happy to hear that! And glad you're enjoying the AZES40 :) What a great choice for your first guitar! Enjoy :)

[@grbta1124]

Great job thanks!

[@RichWordsMusic]

Thanks so much!

[@LucasFowler]

These look mega cool, especially for the money. Looking forward to trying one out :)

[@RichWordsMusic]

Oh yeah, would love to see you put one of these through its paces... or the hardtail AZES31 version!

[@outermarker5801]

Rapidly settling on pulling the trigger on this guitar. Keep coming back to it's sheer versatility in pretty accurately reproducing authentic single and humbucker vibes. Plus I like Ibanez generally even though this thing will never touch my 90s MIJ bass for construction.

[@RichWordsMusic]

Yeah, it's a great guitar - hope you get to try one for yourself soon and maybe pull the trigger! It really can do pretty much anything, although you're right, it won't feel as good as your MIJ :) Cheers and rock on!

[@leoniseleduc5893]

Well. Done!

[@DMSProduktions]

All of those sounds are useable! It's a wonder FENDER doesn't do that sort of wiring with their SSS & HSS models! Nice 1 dude! \m/

[@RichWordsMusic]

Yeah, I know... I feel like Fender have the same issue as Gibson where people will complain if they innovate too much ;) I think this guitar has a MASSIVE range of usable tones though. Can't decide if I prefer this one or the SSS one though... will have to do a direct comparison video!

[@DMSProduktions]

@@RichWordsMusic Sounds LIKE a plan!

[@RichWordsMusic]

@@DMSProduktions So many plans, so little time!

[@Hiro.the.God.]

Anyone else love this mint green? I had to buy it, I think it looks great.

[@RichWordsMusic]

Oh yeah, I love it - such a classy color! Hope you're enjoying yours :)

[@squirelova1815]

The way you Demonstrated the Alter switch, I believe, is the PROPER way to do it since that probably is the way it was logically designed to be used and especially Live and "on the fly" by fast switching too.

[@davidvest7170]

Great review, and I agree the appearance of that particular one is awesome. Almost seems that if they are going to split these models between SSS/HSS and trem/fixed bridge, I'd expect fixed/HSS and trem/SSS--but they went the other way. Might be me just being selfish, as I feel a fixed/HSS would cover more genres and offer more stability. These seem a great value and worth checking out in any config. Thanks for the video!

[@RichWordsMusic]

Thanks David, I'm happy you enjoyed the video! And I actually agree with you there 100% - I'm going to do an A/B comparison vid with the AZES31 and the AZES40 soon, and I already know one of my main conclusions will be that it would also be awesome to have an HSS hardtail version! Maybe they feel that configuration would make it a bit less of a Strat-type experience? I'm not sure. In fact, I will ask my Ibanez contacts before I make the vid, see if they have an official line on it. Cheers :)

[@davidvest7170]

@@RichWordsMusic Thanks so much for the reply and the thoughts. Would love seeing more videos on this line from you! If you do get to talk to an Ibanez rep, one small thing I don't like on their guitars is how close to and forward of the bridge they put the volume knob. To me, interferes with palm muting the higher strings. But I guess that's more a Strat thing than just Ibanez.

[@RichWordsMusic]

@@davidvest7170 No problem, and there are indeed more to come! I will ask the Ibanez guy whether that was a consideration, but I feel like that is indeed part of the Strat-type design (this happens to me too, by the way!), the idea being you can reach the volume knob any time instantly. I know a few players who swap the volume and tone knobs over for that reason, or just take out the volume pot entirely! Cheers :)

[@SUPREMACY398]

GUITAR AND TONE AND PLAYING BROUGHT SMILE ON MY FACE,,, SPECIALLY THOSE PUNK HARD ROCK POWER CHORDS,,, GREENDAYISH,

[@RichWordsMusic]

Cheers, glad you enjoyed it! I grew up playing punk rock and am a massive Green Day fan, so I am happy you hear them in that riff!

[@WarrenPostma]

This really does look like a lot of fun for the money.

[@RichWordsMusic]

Oh, it really is! I really think these Ibanez AZES guitars are great competition for the likes of Squier.

[@markstacey2906]

Sounded great but you are a wicked player...Great skill...I'm about 10 days off from owning a Ibanez 12 string...Can't wait...Many thanks again for sharing 👍

[@RichWordsMusic]

Cheers Mark, really happy you like my playing! Rock that 12-string... I would love to own one of those too one day! Just don't know yet what I'd play on it ;)

[@markstacey2906]

@@RichWordsMusic Me too...But I've always liked the sound of open tunings on them...I'm not a serious musician just a sofa doodler with no skills ...Great channel many thanks...

[@RichWordsMusic]

@@markstacey2906 Now that is something I have never even thought of! Definitely something to try out. And hey, the main thing is you have fun making music. Technically I'm not a great player at all - solid rhythm chops, but no noodling or lead skills whatsoever! I just play what I like and let the others do the shredding ;) Rock on!

[@accentontheoff]

What would you recommend for a 50W amp to go with this guitar. And what would you recommend if I have twice the budget - looking for something with a Fender style tremolo. Thanks for the video!

[@Elksniffer1]

I like this more than a Stirling cutlass that I got a year ago.

[@RichWordsMusic]

I tried a Cutlass once and liked it, but I think for the money these AZES models are really hard to beat. So many great sounds in them, and they look and feel fantastic. I'm really impressed!

[@quiksilver78]

Don't make a big production Don't make up an elaborate story... I'm the party star I'm popular I got my own car I'm popular HAHA Cool shirt, Rich! Does Ibanez have a wiring schematic available somewhere? I wouldn't mind giving that wiring a try on my HSS CV Strat!

[@RichWordsMusic]

It's a special day indeed when someone recognizes the Nada Surf shirt! One of my absolute favorites and criminally underrated in the wider world. Clearly we share the same exquisite taste ;) I will drop a sneaky email to Ibanez too and see if they are able to share the wiring diagram.

[@PooNinja]

Very cool, Ibanez necks are sooo nice. Beautiful guitar even if they forgot the lo pro edge on that one. For new players just block the trem👍🏽

[@RichWordsMusic]

Oh yeah, they're just super comfy and easy to play. I would block the trem as a new player too I guess, even though it's fun to waggle. I love that the SSS version has a hardtail bridge though... can't decide which one I like best! I guess a direct video comparison is incoming ;)

[@PooNinja]

@@RichWordsMusic just skip ahead and get a Pia 🤣

[@RichWordsMusic]

@@PooNinja Ha ha, you're probably right, but my wallet says no ;)

[@PooNinja]

@@RichWordsMusic my wallet won’t even speak to me anymore. 🤣

[@RichWordsMusic]

@@PooNinja Ha ha, I think my wallet is close to that with me too!

[@650thunderbird5]

👍🏻👍🏻

[@RichWordsMusic]

My thanks as ever!

[@as089685]

Hello, excuse me, If I often listen to the songs like Coldplay, Onerepublic, Radiohead, Green Day, The Killers, MGMT, and only "sometime" listen to songs like Bon Jovi or Guns N' Roses, then would you recommend me AZES31 or AZES40? Thank you so much !!

[@RichWordsMusic]

Hey there, good question! For me, I'd say the AZES31 is best... the only reason I'd pick the AZES40 instead would be if you really wanted the vibrato. But otherwise, the 42 is great for all that stuff! Hope this helps 😊

[@as089685]

​@@RichWordsMusic Thank you very much for your suggestions

[@reyntalao6]

how do you keep that tremolo on place?

[@RichWordsMusic]

I only use it very rarely and gently ;)

[@khumgangte9246]

This or Ibanez GRG121 SP?

[@RichWordsMusic]

Good question! I've had both and if I was going to buy one... I'd buy the GRG121SP in Metal Blue Chameleon :) Mainly for the hardtail bridge, but the roasted maple next on the GRG121SP is next level too! Also, the coil split options on the GRG121SP make it way more versatile than you might expect.

[@alnon6304]

i ve got one. But from Classico to eléctrico , no easy at all.

[@RichWordsMusic]

Oh yes, that's a big jump! But, these AZES guitars are a nice choice because they're easy to play as electrics go. Good luck on your journey, and thanks for watching :)

[@23skidoo46]

but, can it control my TV too? haha

[@RichWordsMusic]

Ha ha, probably there's a secret setting on the Alter Switch for that somewhere ;)