Ibanez AZES Essentials AZES31 vs Fender Strat | Which is better value for money? Guitar Shootout

Today, we’re comparing the Ibanez AZES31 against my Fender Stratocaster to see how well the affordable Ibanez stacks up against the real thing.

Ibanez AZES31 at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/524899?offid=...
At Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/KjW50A

Get the closest current new Strat to mine at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/525002?offid=...
Blue Strats at Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/75QgXr

I’ve been so impressed with the AZES line of guitars since they came out. The AZES31 is just a fantastic guitar for the $299/€299 it costs – its features and specifications, its range of usable tones, its looks, its playability and its hardtail bridge are all excellent, and it easily competes with any Squier I’ve played.

I currently don’t own a Squier Strat, so it was straight to a shootout with my 1993, made in Japan Fender Stratocaster. An early 90s Japanese Strat will set you back around three or four times the price of the AZES31 (I paid €900 for mine) and the Fender should be a higher quality instrument in terms of pure specs. Mine has an alder body, nitro-finished maple neck and a rosewood fingerboard, and a previous owner added Fender Custom Shop Texas Special pickups and an Emerson treble bleed kit to improve the tones. It’s a vintage-playing and feeling neck, though: 21 medium frets and a 7.25” fingerboard radius, with a 25.5” scale length.

The AZES31 is more modern feeling, and has been designed to be as comfortable as possible for students and learners. That means you get a maple neck with a 25” scale length, a jatoba fretboard, 22 medium frets and a 10” fingerboard radius. The AZES31’s poplar body is slightly smaller than that of a regular Strat, and the hardtail bridge should mean improved tuning stability. The other awesome thing about the AZES31 is its range of tones: you get the standard 5-way Strat switching system and also an Alter Switch for extra sounds galore.

So, all that said, let’s see how the two compare in the sound stakes! In this video, I play the gutiars in as many different styles as I can to find out just how they compare.

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:15 Intro and what we’re doing today
02:03 Ibanez AZES31 specs/info
05:42 Strat specs/info
08:16 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
09:02 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup/Alter Switch options
10:01 Poppy barre chords
10:16 Blues progression
10:39 Ringing open indie pop chords
11:05 Strummed cowboy chords
11:23 Country picked arpeggios
11:36 Picked indie pop arpeggios
11:54 Strummed indie chords
12:21 Funky rhythm barre chords
12:35 60s pop rhythm sound

Overdrive Sounds (Clean Channel w/Mooer Hustle Drive)
12:45 Southern rock picked arpeggios
13:06 Indie octave chords riff
13:31 Fat indie rock rhythm chords
13:59 Groovy classic rock riff
14:25 AC/DC inspired rock riff
14:43 Classic rock riff
14:59 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff
15:16 Classic rock riff

Lead Channel Sounds
15:32 Classic hard rock riff
15:50 Hard rock rhythm riff
16:16 Glam rock riff
16:31 Foo Fighters inspired modern rock riff
16:49 Alternative rock riff
17:13 Pop punk riff
17:39 Pop punk melodic lead sound
17:55 Punk rock power chords
18:08 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
18:23 Modern rock palm-muted power chords (Drop D)
18:48 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D)

Clean Channel w/Revv G3 Distortion Pedal (all in Drop D tuning)
19:20 Metal chugging riff
19:52 Hardcore punk riff
20:07 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff
20:21 Hard rock lead sound
20:36 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff

21:09 My thoughts
21:49 Rating the guitars on looks
23:09 Feel and build quality
24:09 Necks
25:06 Weights
25:57 Playability
26:48 Volume control placement
27:58 Sounds
29:38 Three reasons why you should buy the Ibanez AZES31
31:30 Three reasons why you should buy a Fender Stratocaster
32:58 Final conclusion and goodbye

My setup was as follows: I ran the guitars into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, using my Mooer Hustle Drive for the overdrive and 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:

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H&K Black Spirit 200 head: https://bit.ly/HKBS200rwm
Mooer Hustle Drive: https://thmn.to/thoprod/309285?offid=...
Revv G3: https://bit.ly/RevvG3RWM
Focusrite 4i4: https://bit.ly/Scarlett414RWM
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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#Ibanez #IbanezGuitars #Fender #FenderStratocaster #FenderGuitars


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