Ibanez AZES40 vs Fender HSS Strat | Which wins on tones and all-out versatility? Guitar Shootout

Today, we’re comparing the Ibanez AZES40 against the Fender Modern Player HSS Stratocaster to see how the affordable Ibanez stacks up against the ‘real’ Strat! Ibanez AZES40 at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/524947?offid=... At Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/an4dOb This is the closest current new Strat to the Modern Player at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/525027?offid=... Similar Strats at Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/xkRdJA Ibanez’s AZES guitars first came out in 2021, and they’re incredibly impressive on specs, performance and price. The $349/€329 AZES40 is packed full of great features, and a mind-blowing number of usable tones. These come thanks to its HSS pickup configuration and an Alter Switch, which gives you even more options and versatility. I wanted to test the AZES40 against a Squier HSS Strat, but I don’t own one of those, so I have the next best thing: a 2011 Fender Modern Player HSS Stratocaster! The Modern Player series was launched in 2011, and basically gave players the chance to own a guitar with a Fender logo on the headstock for Squier prices. The guitars were made in China, and they cost back then around d what new Squier Classic Vibes cost in 2022 – between €350 and €500 in Europe. The Modern Player range didn’t last long, but you can still get them at decent prices used… which is exactly where I got the Silverburst HSS Strat. In this video, I put the two guitars through their paces in a wide variety of musical genres, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal and more – let’s see which one comes out on top! Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits: 00:00 Hello! 00:17 Intro and what we’re doing today 02:17 Ibanez AZES40 specs/info 06:52 HSS Strat specs/info 10:04 Today’s rig and plan Clean Sounds 11:06 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup/Alter Switch options 12:10 Poppy barre chords 12:41 Blues progression 13:04 Ringing open indie pop chords 13:30 Country ballad picked arpeggios 13:43 Strummed country cowboy chords 14:02 Funky rhythm barre chords 14:16 Picked indie pop arpeggios 14:35 Strummed indie chords 15:02 60s pop rhythm sound Overdrive Sounds (Crunch Channel) 15:13 Upbeat indie rock barre chords 15:36 Indie rock rhythm sound 16:09 The Strokes inspired indie sounds 16:47 Indie octave chords riff 17:13 Indie rhythmic chords 17:42 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff 17:57 Airbourne inspired rock riff 18:19 Classic rock riff 18:37 Groovy classic rock riff 19:03 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff 19:19 Thick rock riff Lead Channel Sounds 19:35 Classic hard rock riff 19:53 Hard rock riff 20:10 Hard rock rhythm sound 20:36 Glam rock riff 20:51 Alternative rock riff 21:15 Pop punk riff 21:40 Pop punk melodic lead riff 21:56 Green Day inspired punk rock riff 22:23 Punk rock power chords 22:36 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning) 22:52 Modern rock palm-muted power chords (Drop D) Clean Channel w/Revv G3 Distortion Pedal (all in Drop D tuning) 23:17 Metal chugging riff 23:51 Hard rock lead sound 24:07 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff 24:21 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff 24:55 My thoughts 25:28 I’m a huge fan of the AZES range 26:14 Feel and build quality 27:31 Necks 28:07 Sounds discussion 30:33 Which guitar sounds better? 31:04 The competition: Squier 31:29 Check out the Ibanez AZES31 32:09 Which of these guitars should you buy? 32:56 Final conclusion and goodbye My setup was as follows: I ran the guitars into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, using my Revv G3 for the heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done. Here’s some links to those bits of gear: ----- H&K Black Spirit 200 head: https://bit.ly/HKBS200rwm Revv G3: https://bit.ly/RevvG3RWM Focusrite 4i4 (this is the newer equivalent of my 2i4, which they don’t make any more!): https://bit.ly/Scarlett414RWM ----- Enjoy! ----- Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe. #Ibanez #IbanezGuitars #FenderGuitars #IbanezAZES #Fender #Silverburst Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much! ‪@IbanezOfficial‬ ‪@fender‬