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I have 7 Ibanez guitars. 6 of them made in Indonesia, and 1 made in Japan. And I have to say that Ibanez is kicking booty with this model. At under 300 dollars, the AZ Essentials is the best bang for the buck out of the 7 models I have.Now I didn’t expect it as good as it is, but this guitar in Ivory finish arrived ready to play out of the box. The action was good out of the box, and the intonation was good as well. The frets had no sprout and the frets were relatively smooth. A beginner would be able to buy one of these guitars and take it to a lesson, and not have to pay for a setup prior to using it. Seriously, a pro set up would be 1/4 to 1/3 the price of the guitar. I went through my new guitar with a fine tooth comb. What I discovered is that some of the fasteners weren’t adequately tightened, and some of the frets were slightly uneven, which I have found to be true on every new guitar I’ve ever bought, from 300 dollars all the way to my Gibson Les Paul at 2200 dollars. The difference being that this AZ required very little effort to take the guitar from good to spectacular.

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Well let me just say that the first one I reviewed was so awesome that I decided to buy another one. The Vermillion color is brighter than what the pics on the website show. In actuality, it’s really like Fiesta Red on a Fender. There were no defects in the paint. And the figment of the parts and the finish were really high quality.Once again, playable right out of the box. I only needed to adjust the truss rod. The intonation was pretty good out of the box, and the nut slots were all properly cut, and the notes at the first fret were dead accurate, indicating that the nut slots weren’t too high. No buzz on the open strings, that would indicate that the slots were too deep.None of the frets buzzed at all. They could have been a little more polished, but that is something that I will take care of when I put the new strings on. There were no pokey frets along the sides of the fretboard.All the electronics work as they should. No static or gritty feel to them. The switching system works well and has two redundant positions, where the mini toggle doesn’t affect the sound, positions 2 and 4. And that is normal for this guitar.Thes are good, gigable guitars right out of the box. Even the factory strings are decent. You could arrive in town for a gig, without a guitar, pick up one of these and play a show with this guitar and not have to set it up.The only flaw I found was that a couple of tuning machines were mounted a little crooked. For $299.00, I’m not going to complain too much about it.

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I have been playing guitar for over 50 years. In that time I have had many guitars from Gibsons to Fenders and Prs. Now I'm not going to say that this Ibanez is better than those top end guitars but what I will say is that for the money you are not going to find this kind of value.I bought this as a backup to my Music Man Axis sub guitar. That guitar is another great value for the money. You don't have to spend a lot of money these days to get a quality guitar. Well now the AZ 31 has become my main axe. The sounds are so good and the frets being level and smooth. This makes the action and playability as good as any guitar that I have ever owned. The neck and bridge positions do sound like humbuckers and no noise or hum. I was totally blown away. Positions 2 and 4 sound just like a high quality Fender Strat. The middle position with the switch on sounds like a Tele. The vermillion red is just stunnin too. You have to try this one before they sell out again.

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I have a few Ibanez guitars, and I decided I needed a straight up 3 single coil strat copy, so I went straight for Ibanez. You just can’t beat these “budget” guitars from Ibanez! I put the word budget in quotation marks because this guitar really does play like a $1500 Fender. There’s nothing cheap or budget about it except it’s low price. I’ll lower the action but that’s it. No need to change pickups or tuners. I hate how these are branded as budget starter guitars. There’s no reason why you can’t take these and gig with them! I think some people just get caught up in brand names. I’ve played many expensive guitars over the years, but it’s simply not necessary to pay over $800 when Ibanez is making quality instruments like this. This guitar reminds me of my first “real” guitar which was a 1980’s Ibanez Blazer. I highly recommend zZounds and Ibanez!!

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This guitar is absolutely incredible. The craftsmanship is excellent. The playability is excellent. The tones? Pretty unreal on a $300 guitar. The pickups are incredible and I’ll definitely keep them. I’m usually just a bridge or neck pickup guy. Never really cared about other positions. Until I got this guitar. Position 2 and 4 are absolutely incredible. The glassiest , chiming tones imaginable. I went from 35 years of not caring about all the middle positions to, all I use are the middle positions on this guitar. So clean, crisp and just perfect. The toggle is useful but seems to just add a mid boost. The guitar came in great shape. I did a quick setup to my liking , put on my favorite strings and that was it. And I didn’t need to do either tbh. Im literally about to order the other version with humbucker and tremolo right now. Cannot believe this guitar is only $300. Definitely not a beginner guitar. But if this is your 1st guitar and you’re a beginner, you seriously lucked out. They didn’t have guitars this good for this price until recently. Us old folks never had it easy like you young bucks.

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Well I hoped I would get a guitar ready to play when it arrived, but unfortunately the low E string buzzes way too bad to ignore on 5 frets, I am not going to touch it myself, but now I have to spend more money to take it to a professional, I do not blame zZounds, I blame Ibanez for not having a pro set up on it, I guess if it was an AZ premium model they would have cared more, so happy birthday to me, sitting here waiting on my next paycheck to get it set up right, I know I only spent 300 something on it, but come on Ibanez, I love the guitar, but if the fret buzz is not resolved, I will never order a guitar again online, my first experience may be my last, in the past I always bought used at a guitar shop so I could try it out completely, so I will know soon if the neck is the issue and if so I will be sending it back! I really hope I do not have to, cuz I like the sounds very much, and I have never said that about any guitar without a humbuckers, thank you zZounds for doing your part in packaging, and price matching, and delivery, but shame on Ibanez for the crappy set up! A true disappointment! But I am gonna rate it as if the 5 frets we're smooth like all the rest of them! Because I pray they soon will be!!