$349 vs $2199 IBANEZ (DO YOU HEAR A DIFFERENCE??)

Guitars of the Day! Doing a quick shootout between a $349 entry-level Ibanez AZES 40 (AZ Essentials) and a $2199 Ibanez Prestige RG5121ET, made in Japan with Fishman Fluences and an Evertune bridge. Surprisingly, the AZ Essentials definitely holds its own for me... probably because the neck, fingerboard, and scale length doesn't feel like an Ibanez.

➤ Gear Used
» Ibanez AZES Essentials
» Ibanez Prestige RG5121ET
» Hughes & Kettner TriAmp MK3

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[agufish]

Obviously the biggest difference is in the feel and build quality, but honestly I kind of prefer the neck of the $349 AZES lol

[rhysbooth]

I hear a very clear difference the more expensive one makes my wallet scream

[Edwade]

HUNT YOU DOWN WITHOUT MERCY!!! Love that song, keep up the amazing work Hunter

[RGGOTI]

The last one is a little more balanced, but there isn’t a 1800 dollar difference.

[James.]

I heard Ibanez is going to announce a RG470 with an edge bridge and direct mount pickups for under $500. Now THAT'S something I want to check out

[Sixfootdig]

Here come the people with the magic ear for tone explaining all the massive differences they think they hear while listening over a phone speaker

[TomboyCEO]

I have a $120 used Ibanez bass that is all dinged up cosmetically but it sounds great, I love it dearly.

[ashleyjackson]

All the pro level build and knowledge has trickled down onto the whole range of guitars .

[coletaylor]

Man I couldn’t justify that much of a difference. You can definitely hear the tone difference but at 349 that does have nice sound that I would pin in at that price range and not feel guilty about the cost.

[bobcat]

Need a longer demo of both to be sure !

[lem]

Yess all nightmare long love it, i have a gio which was my first guitar back from 2017 and a rgmdx I bought off a friend for a steal and still prefer my gio since it just feels so great to play

[Nate-vkgu]

I’ve always said you don’t pay big money to sound good you can get that pretty cheap it’s how the guitar feels in your hands how the frets are shaped how long the guitar will last and many other things that make a HUGE difference in the price vs quality.

[ChaosAttractor]

The expensive one looks easier to play. It all boils down to how much do you want to work/setup/mod/upgrade/pay to get a guitar that you WANT to play. To have a guitar that’s easy for you to play. A guitar you can’t wait to play everyday.

[IDGAF_PLUS]

Man I bought one of their Mikro basses for $160 just to dink around on and the thing was the most playable out of the box guitar of any type I have ever owned.

[oyepvokadub]

ibanez means quality. what do you expect?

[fillycheesesteak]

The expensive one looks nice but they sound so similar it’s crazy

[erichkaanikin]

Of course humbuckers sound louder than single coils! But these do have more details than the cheapy single coils. And you can swap them out for stacked humbuckers without major routing, if at all.

[TheGtrman]

The difference is the cheapo G&B pickups vs the Fluence set that costs almost as much as the cheaper guitar, and barely that because of how much gain you use. Split the difference, buy the cheaper one, throw in some Fishman open cores, a graph tech nut, locking tuners, and a gotoh bridge and enjoy enjoy your <$1000 sleeper build that does everything the $2200 guitar does.

[conoroneill]

This guitar is worth an 1800 dollar difference for recording reasons! The more expensive guitar has clearer transients, less mud, and a more defined space in the frequency spectrum. These are extremely valuable assets when it comes to production which is why it is a profesional level price.

[fragtagninja]

The second one has more mids and a tighter bottom end.