Great guitar - needs a little finish work when you get it
"For the money, these Ibanez AZ standards are very very nice. Got a killer deal from Focus, which pushed me over the edge, so bought one. Impressions: pickups and tuners are quite nice; I was a bit worried about the house brand pickups, but these are just fine. The vibrato bridge is stiff -- a little setup helps make it usable, but this 6-pt style just isn't going to be as smooth as a 2-pt. The vibrato arm is sloppy in its threaded mount -- I'll try some teflon tape to snug it up. The roasted neck is *very* nice -- so very smooth, matte finish, not glossy or sticky at all. Paintwork and fit + finish overall is really quite good -- there are some minimal flaws, but for the price, totally acceptable. The frets are reasonably smooth on top, but the edges were not finished very well -- I will need to smooth these off to make it playable without slicing my fingers. Once that's done, this is going to be a very nice "S" type -- quite a bit nicer than a MIM one I bought from the Big F and returned; it had flaws everywhere. Biggest caution here: the bridge/vibrato is just not very smooth. If that's super important to you, consider what it'll cost to upgrade it. I may just deck it and call it a day."
