Yes, I have considered that. However, I’m having trouble finding a company that can get close to the quality parts of the Ibanez without going over it’s price.
I would personally split the money between guitar and amp.
You can probably get the Ibanez for $1500 street, while the Suhr will probably cost more like $2500+ street. Pretty big difference.
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Have you looked at Kiesel?
I’ve got nothing bad to say about the Japanese Ibanez production. However the Indonesian production is very, VERY inconsistent in QC to say the least.
Dang! was looking for a guitar making buddy ! lol
I found a old rotary washing line - it’s all aluminium tubes - so I’m going to try and make a guitar from it. My first attempt will be a pre-built neck with a part aluminum body for the bridge and body silhouette . I’m going to design it like the Yamaha SLG200s (which I used to have). The body silhouette - will be aluminium tubes bent into shape - just planning it now. If the first one is even slightly usable - I’ll make a second one - but build the neck myself - so I can have 36 frets!!
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That sounds awesome. Please post updates somewhere!
I played a Suhr Modern Satin today and it was perfect! Definitely considering it now.
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I will do that - I’m super excited about it really. First one is going to have just 1 pickup - but on a slider and rotator hinge I can physically move it to be neck or bridge pickup. Will be a few weeks before I get the first one finished! I realize how tricky designing a neck out for aluminium will be (fret radius and height adjust would be a pain), so first attempt will be a ebay neck 24fret for 24quid.
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I have a Dean MAB Armorflame. Bough the guitar in my teenage years because I think it would be awesome do shred (before that I only played Les Pauls, and still have one). But as times goes by I realized that it was an awesome guitar to play a lot of stuff. Give it a try!
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Nothing wrong with following your heart, but you can get a really nice superstratish type guitar for around $600 to $1000. Suhr makes great guitars, and high-end Ibanez are nice, but more modestly priced guitars ghost-built by the big factories in South Korea and Indonesia and sold under various brand names are so good that it’s really hard to justify paying more unless it’s for political or moral reasons. The most important thing for tonal variation is the pickups, and you can get that dimension covered with aftermarket pickups even on a cheapo starter-pack guitar. The most important thing for playability is setup, and tolerances on most mass-produced guitars these days are good enough that pretty much anything you buy can be set up to play like a beast.
Further on pickups, 5-way switches and toggle switches are inexpensive, and any 4-conductor humbuckers can be wired for the same switching options as the AZ2402 with a small amount of internet homework and just a tiny amount of soldering ability. Sweetwater praises the pickups as “balanced sounding” but also gives the bottom line that they’re “moderate output” Alnico V passive humbuckers. Places like Guitarfetish and others sell perfectly decent Alnico V humbuckers in vintage, medium, or hot output levels for about $35 each. If you prefer, “industry standard” aftermarket humbucker models from Seymour Duncan or DiMarzio are about $80 each.
And regarding bridge, the page below says the bridge on the AZ2402 is the T1802, which is a variant of the T1502 with titanium saddles, and the T1502 itself is based on a design similar to the Gotoh 510T.
There are several variants of the Gotoh 510 (see below).
https://g-gotoh.com/international/product-category/tremolo-510-series
The Suhr page below about replacement arms summarizes the 510 variants Suhr uses (a 2-post solid saddle version, a 2-post bent-saddle version, and a 6-screw bent-saddle version). I imagine the bridge used by Suhr that’s closest to the bridge on the Ibanez AZ2402 is the 2-post solid-saddle 510: the Gotoh 510TS-FE1.
https://www.suhr.com/shop/gotoh-510-tremolo-arm/
The Gotoh 510TS-FE1 can be hard to track down as an aftermarket purchase, but one option is the authorized dealer in Japan below that deals internationally:
I’ve seen claims that with a small amount of dremeling to the guitar’s tremolo rout, the 510TS-FE1 can be used as a drop-in replacement to the 2-point bridge on an American Standard Strat. Personally, I’d be tempted to find a cheap guitar I liked with a 6-hole vintage style bridge and drill my own post-holes to install an aftermarket 510 as a flat-mount (the AZ2402 is recessed). DIY routing for a recessed install of the 510 should be do-able, but would be tricker. (Slightly revising from the info below, I’d diy install a Gotoh 510TS-BS1 instead of the 510TS-FE1).
Looking more closely, the shape of the Titanium saddles on the T1802 more closely resemble the brass solid saddles on the Gotoh 510TS-BS1 than the steel solid saddles on the 510TS-FE1. The dimension sheets indicate that the 510TS-BS1 and 510TS-FE1 are dimensionally identical, just with different saddles. Note that in both cases, the “TS” in the name is indicating a steel block; they’re also available in slightly cheaper zinc-block versions indicated with “T” instead of “TS” (the T1802 on the AZ2402 comes with a steel block). Gotoh also makes “six-screw” versions of the 510 bridges, but you’re expressing interest in 2-point.
Short version: nothing wrong with the AZ2402, but you can get way more bang-for-the-buck by buying a decent cheaper guitar, installing a nearly identical Gotoh bridge and hot-rodding the pickups to your liking for less than half the street price of the AZ2402. If you can find a decent price on a used American Standard Strat, you shouldn’t even need to drill new post holes for the 510 (though still a bit of dremeling on the tremolo rout).
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Thanks for the reply, this gives me a lot to think about. A local store has a Suhr Modern Satin for an amazing price so I’m going to seriously consider it. However, if that falls through your option is also interesting.
A Suhr is probably more of a conversation starter, in case that matters to you. Probably holds value for resale better than other options as well.
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If you’ve been practicing for six years, you’re probably pretty(very) good, but if you’ve been playing a Spyder, you probably don’t have a great understanding of tone, no fault of your own.
Electric guitars are typically made of one of three kinds of wood (and their variants). Basswood, Alder, and Mahogony.
Most Gibsons/Epiphones are Mahogany. It is deep sound with a sparkle on top. To my ears it has a “U” shaped EQ and usually sounds the most resonant unplugged.
Most Fenders are Alder. Alder has lots of mids, favoring the treble side.
Most Superstrats (Ibanez) are Basswood, although I’ve been seeing more Alder superstrats lately and the Ibanez catalog also has more alder models. Basswood is very balanced, Suhr has stated that he prefers this wood.
Before buying a 2K+ guitar, make sure you knokw what kind of wood it is. These differences are very noticable when playing through good amplifiers.
When you buy a guitar, I think you should base the decision on what kinds of music/tones you like the most. There are no hard and fast rules, but shredders usually prefer basswood, although I’m seeing an increase in Alder (this may come down to increasing cost of Basswood.)
I think it would be much more fun to have three $700 guitars than one $2000 guitar.
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That’s good point about tone. I have worked in studios and I’ve been lucky enough to use my friend’s nicer equipment, but I will still do some research. The Suhr I played is made out of African Okoume which is similar to mahogany, but very very light.
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There seems to be consensus online that the acoustic sound of a guitar will be influenced by the mechanical properties of the wood the body and neck are made from, but the question of whether or not they have any significant effect on the electrical signal passed to an amplifier is incredibly divisive. Subjective opinions about this are muddied by the fact that when guitarists practice or try out guitars, they’re usually in a scenario where they don’t hear the amplified tone by itself, instead they hear the amplified tone and the acoustic tone simultaneously.
The video below is just one of many examples where people have demonstrated that guitar bodies made from seemingly drastically inferior materials can result in a tone that’s good enough that it would probably fool plenty of listeners in a blind test:
Personally, I think that selecting guitars that feel comfortable (including weight/balance), and tweaking your tone knobs and/or eq to get a tone you like (maybe experimenting with some different pickups if you want to) is a better recipe for guitar joy than fussing about the ostensible tonal effects of different woods.
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I agree with this somewhat. The style and construction of the bridge probably makes a bigger difference than the wood, although the wood still makes a difference.
If you’ve ever changed a sustain block on a Floyd Rose, you will know that it can make a huge difference. I have a guitar with a Floyd Rose Special (which came with a lightweight sustain block). The guitar acoustically sounded very tinny and trebly. I replaced it with a brass sustain block which made the tone more resonant and fundamental, but the notes lost harmonic content. I then replaced it with an OFR block and everything was “just right”. It has harmonic content, the notes sound alive, but they also have to bass/heft and sound complete.
Everything in the guitar construction contributes in some way, I’d say that the body wood is probably 30-40% of the equation. One of the reasons I like the FR trems is the abilty to change the sustain block.
Ever played a Parker Fly? Some of the most resonant guitars made and they aren’t even wood!
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Parkers are made of wood with an outer layer of carbon fibre so that they can make the heel join as thin as possible and make a guitar that isn’t as susceptible to temperature changes.
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You mean Swamp Ash. It’s a bit like alder, pretty light: some of the first Fender guitars were made of it until Leo Fender decided otherwise: red alder pretty much grew in Fender’s backyard on the West Coast while swamp ash grew in the south-east of the USA. The big difference between the two is that swamp ash has some figuring and visible veins, so you can actually have interesting looking translucent/clear finishes on it, much unlike alder and basswood. Both alder and basswood are woods that range from very bland looking to downright ugly. Swamp ash doesn’t mark as easily as basswood too as a bonus.
I wish I could try an Aristides for the same reason, but that’s not exactly cheap. 
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This is definitely a thing for certain brands. If you (for instance) buy a used Martin, you can pretty much sell it for what you paid for it (assuming you don’t completely trash it), even if you play it for a decade.
Kiesels are great guitars (I owned two Carvins), but you’re not gonna get much for them if you ever want to sell.
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So much good information here; there’s a lot to tone and but it can also be very simple. I’ve been on similar journeys and made many mistakes. The hard thing to know is what “Your Preferred” tone is. Only you can answer that. Usually the answer isn’t one or the other, it’s a few different tones and there will never be one guitar that’ll do it all, it may come close but not exactly.
A stratocaster will always sound like a stratocaster, similarly a tele and an LP. To me these are the three primary sounds, Strats signature tones would be SRV and Dire Straits. Tele tones could be B.Paisley like Nashville hot country pickers. LP’s cover a lot of classic rock tones. These are the three primary tones If you ask me.
Humbuckers are awesome for many things, but for me there the third, forth options in my list.
Personally I’m clearly in the YJM camp currently, so to me my primary arsenal would be two stratocaster, one YJM signature, and the other a strat with Lindy Frailin Vintage Hots pickups. Both maple neck, alder body, 6 screw vintage trim, RW saddles and springs, additionally some decent no load pots and I’m good to go.
Due to my bias I’d say try a Fender YJM signature stratocaster, the new SD Fury pickups are beasts under high gain, the neck pickup is particularly magnificent under high gain. The neck is scalloped, the neck is finished in nitro, the neck is machine bolt mounted with a brass nut and vintage tuners. It’s all in the neck for me. Bloody perfect. There’s no going back from scalloped once you’ve tasted it.
Scalloped guitars allow you to play with higher action, and higher action is where the tone is.
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