HowieJams
Well-known member
If you have been following my journey to this guitar, it started when I was responding to another Forum Member's thread about which HSS Stratocaster type of guitar to buy, he wanted a SuperStrat, but with traditional tones.
My recommendation was a Fender American Ultra II HSS Stratocaster, I own it and love it.
As other members chimed in about Charvels and other such 24 fret guitars, I started thinking maybe I want a 24 fret SuperStrat type of guitar, not a shredder guitat, vut definitely 24 frets.
I didn't want a very thin neck, I tend to like medium size necks, like Gibson 50s or 60s style necks.
I ended up choosing the Ibanez AZ2402 Prestige model in Peal White.
The guitar arrived on Wednesday and I waited 24 hours while it acclimated to room temp.
On Thursday I finally opened it and it was a beauty, but wait, there is a chip through the wood.
I called Sweetwater and they have more arriving later this month, so they will contact me and I will choose the one I want, weight and fretboard figuring of my choice.
I asked if I could hold on to this one until the new one arrives and they said no problem.
So now I get to play it, finally!
Out of the box the action needed to be tweaked a bit, after that it felt great.
What now, it has 10-46s on it, on a 24 fret SuperStrat guitar?
I only use 9-42s, I was surpised, but even more surprising was how good it feels with 10-46s.
Don't get me wrong, I am going to switch the new one to 9-42s, but all of my other guitars I had to get the 10-46s off immediately, even my 24.75" scale Gibsons.
The neck profile must be amazing for this to be this good with 10-46s, it is a 12" radius and feels like a D shape with decent shoulders, very comfy, it feels fairly beefy to me, a lot like my Fender American Ultra II HSS Strat neck.
Tones - This really surprised me in a good way.
It has 10 different tones thanks to a 5 way blade switch and a two way toggle.
Out of those 10 tones I love 6 of them, the other 4 I will never use.
With the toggle switch down I like Positions 1,2,4,5 and with the toggle up I like positions 2 & 4.
In the videos I explain what those tones are.
The single coil tones (Positions 2 and 4) are amazing, different, but as nice as both of my Fenders.
The humbucker tones (Postitions 1 & 5) also amazing, right there with my Gibsons.
Today I am posting two videos, one to a backing track and one of just the guitar by itself.
I am using my Soldano Astro 20 since it has 4 different ranges of tones from clean, to blues, to crunch, to solo high gain.
Over the next few days I have a bunch of more videos and shorts I will load on to YouTube of this guitar and amp, they will be 3 minute videos of each specific tone.
I don't think I will add them here, just keep on eye out for them if you are interested.
I think the other vids are better than these, but I had to pick two to load now.
Early to say, but I tihnk this could be my main guitar, it does everything.
Now for the bad...
The Gotoh Style Locking Tuners suck compared to all of my other locking tuners that use a thumbscrew on the back, but I will get used to them.
On my first jam to a backing track it snapped the High E string down by the bridge in a not very aggressive bend, either the 10g stock strings suck or more likely it is a sharp spot on the saddle.
Now I am a bit gunshy, I rarely break strings.
Here are the videos
My recommendation was a Fender American Ultra II HSS Stratocaster, I own it and love it.
As other members chimed in about Charvels and other such 24 fret guitars, I started thinking maybe I want a 24 fret SuperStrat type of guitar, not a shredder guitat, vut definitely 24 frets.
I didn't want a very thin neck, I tend to like medium size necks, like Gibson 50s or 60s style necks.
I ended up choosing the Ibanez AZ2402 Prestige model in Peal White.
The guitar arrived on Wednesday and I waited 24 hours while it acclimated to room temp.
On Thursday I finally opened it and it was a beauty, but wait, there is a chip through the wood.
I called Sweetwater and they have more arriving later this month, so they will contact me and I will choose the one I want, weight and fretboard figuring of my choice.
I asked if I could hold on to this one until the new one arrives and they said no problem.
So now I get to play it, finally!
Out of the box the action needed to be tweaked a bit, after that it felt great.
What now, it has 10-46s on it, on a 24 fret SuperStrat guitar?
I only use 9-42s, I was surpised, but even more surprising was how good it feels with 10-46s.
Don't get me wrong, I am going to switch the new one to 9-42s, but all of my other guitars I had to get the 10-46s off immediately, even my 24.75" scale Gibsons.
The neck profile must be amazing for this to be this good with 10-46s, it is a 12" radius and feels like a D shape with decent shoulders, very comfy, it feels fairly beefy to me, a lot like my Fender American Ultra II HSS Strat neck.
Tones - This really surprised me in a good way.
It has 10 different tones thanks to a 5 way blade switch and a two way toggle.
Out of those 10 tones I love 6 of them, the other 4 I will never use.
With the toggle switch down I like Positions 1,2,4,5 and with the toggle up I like positions 2 & 4.
In the videos I explain what those tones are.
The single coil tones (Positions 2 and 4) are amazing, different, but as nice as both of my Fenders.
The humbucker tones (Postitions 1 & 5) also amazing, right there with my Gibsons.
Today I am posting two videos, one to a backing track and one of just the guitar by itself.
I am using my Soldano Astro 20 since it has 4 different ranges of tones from clean, to blues, to crunch, to solo high gain.
Over the next few days I have a bunch of more videos and shorts I will load on to YouTube of this guitar and amp, they will be 3 minute videos of each specific tone.
I don't think I will add them here, just keep on eye out for them if you are interested.
I think the other vids are better than these, but I had to pick two to load now.
Early to say, but I tihnk this could be my main guitar, it does everything.
Now for the bad...
The Gotoh Style Locking Tuners suck compared to all of my other locking tuners that use a thumbscrew on the back, but I will get used to them.
On my first jam to a backing track it snapped the High E string down by the bridge in a not very aggressive bend, either the 10g stock strings suck or more likely it is a sharp spot on the saddle.
Now I am a bit gunshy, I rarely break strings.
Here are the videos
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