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Every guitar has a story.

Ibanez

AZ

Ibanez made its name on the pointy one. The AZ is for the player who put it down.

NAMM, January 2018. The same show that brought back the RG550 also brought six guitars with a chunkier neck, a tremolo with no locking nut, and a name meant to cover everything from A to Z.

Introduced
2018
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

  1. 2017

    Top secret

    Tom Quayle is shown a prototype at NAMM, and Andy Timmons sees one in McKinney in mid-2017.

  2. 2018

    Six at NAMM

    Three Japan Prestige models and three Indonesia Premiums debut, with Quayle’s and Martin Miller’s signatures beside them.

  3. 2019

    Henson’s first

    Tim Henson’s THBB10 puts his single-coil idea on an AZ body.

  4. 2021

    Two new branches

    The single-cut AZS arrives in January, and Tomo Fujita’s AZ Essentials student line in September.

  5. 2022

    TOD10

    Henson’s second AZ signature is revealed on 1 December, with Fishman pickups and ebony.

  6. 2025

    AZ Standard

    An alder-and-flame-top AZ Standard line arrives at NAMM.

Side A

A1

Put the pointy one down

January 2018, Winter NAMM. Ibanez brought back the RG550, the pointy 1987 Wizard-neck shred machine, and at the same show introduced the guitar for people who had moved on from it.

Six of them, in the first non-signature AZ line. Three Prestige models from Japan: the AZ2204, the flame-top AZ2204F, and the 24-fret AZ2402. Three Premiums from Indonesia. The idea was a neck you could fret a chord on, and a tremolo that moved without a locking nut.

This wasn’t a sticker on an RG. It was an Ibanez built to do the job a deluxe Strat does.

A2

Everything from A to Z

The name is the brief. Ibanez said they called it the AZ because they believed it could do everything from A to Z. That’s a big claim for two letters.

The prototypes came first. Tom Quayle was shown a top-secret model at NAMM a year earlier, one that “turned out to be the new AZ series.” In mid-2017, in McKinney, Ibanez brought Andy Timmons “a brand new prototype of a guitar called AZ.” Two prototype stories, one catalog year. The guitar you could order is 2018.

A3

The conventional neck

The neck is the point. Ibanez calls the shape the AZ Oval C, and it’s roasted maple, which they call S-TECH. The wood is roasted in a vacuum with nitrogen, which darkens it and, Ibanez says, makes it more stable against water and temperature. One launch preview called Ibanez the first maker to use the process.

Then there are the numbers. The catalog puts the neck at 20.5 mm deep at the first fret and 22.5 at the twelfth. One reviewer put a Super Wizard beside it, at 17 and 19, and called the AZ the conventional neck. Coming from Ibanez, that’s practically a confession.

The board is roasted maple too, with 22 jumbo stainless frets on the HSS. The heel is rounded so your hand can get up there without fighting it.

A neck you could fret a chord on, and a tremolo that moved without a locking nut.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 6

    Guitars in the first non-signature AZ line, January 2018.

  • 9

    Sounds from a 5-way and one mini-toggle on the 22-fret HSS.

  • 20.5 mm

    Neck depth at the first fret. The Super Wizard it was measured against was 17.

  • $1,999

    An AZ2204 in its first full review, August 2018.

Side B

B1

No locking nut

The bridge is a Gotoh 510, rebuilt for Ibanez: two lockable posts, a push-in arm, titanium saddles. Gotoh Magnum Lock tuners hold the strings at the other end, and there’s a string tree on the top two. No locking nut. That’s the split from an RG and from a JEM.

The pickups were new too: Seymour Duncan Hyperions, worked out with Duncan’s Maricela “MJ” Juarez.

Then there’s the Alter switch. On the 22-fret HSS, Ibanez calls it dyna-MIX9: the usual 5-way plus one mini-toggle, nine sounds in all. The good ones are the ones a stock Strat can’t do. The two singles in series act like a humbucker, so you can stack that pair with the bridge, or split the bridge humbucker and use either coil on its own. The 24-fret HH has its own switch, and ten sounds. Don’t give the HSS the tenth.

B2

The family around it

The family grew. In January 2021 came the AZS, a single-cut, Tele-inspired, with the same Oval C. That September came the AZ Essentials, an Indonesia student guitar designed with Berklee’s Tomo Fujita, on a shorter 25-inch scale. In 2025 came an AZ Standard, alder with a flame top. The Japan AZ2204 is still on Ibanez’s site with the same bones it had in 2018.

The signatures came with it. Martin Miller had his MM1 on the debut stand. Quayle’s TQM1 launched beside the range and lasted until 2024. Tim Henson’s THBB10, in 2019, was an AZ body with neck and middle single-coils modeled on the ones in his Talman. His TOD10 kept the neck and moved to Fishman pickups. His nylon-string signature is a different guitar entirely, so the songs on it stay there.

Andy Timmons is the neat one. Before the AZ, the Ibanez that behaved like a deluxe Strat was an Andy Timmons model, an older guitar on a body that leans toward an RG. Then Ibanez built him one on the AZ. The ATZ100 is based on the Prestige, built so he could run three DiMarzio Cruisers instead of a humbucker and two singles.

The man whose guitar had been quietly doing the job got one built for it.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. Andy Timmons · 2019

    ATZ100 signature video

    Ibanez’s film of Timmons with his ATZ100, built on the Prestige AZ so he could run three DiMarzio Cruisers. His signature, not a stock AZ2204, but the same body and neck idea.

    Watch it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 2018

    Tom Quayle

    TQM1

    Shown a top-secret prototype at NAMM 2017, then offered a signature. Alder under monkeypod, HSS Hyperions, Alter switch. Gone in 2024.

  • 2018

    Martin Miller

    MM1

    On the debut stand with his own AZ, flamed maple on mahogany, 24 frets, two humbuckers. No album pinned on it.

  • 2019

    Andy Timmons

    ATZ100

    Saw an AZ prototype in mid-2017. His older AT models are not AZs; the ATZ100 is.

  • 2019

    Tim Henson

    THBB10, then TOD10

    Of Polyphia. Both signatures are AZ bodies with the Oval C neck. His nylon TOD10N is a different guitar, and so are its songs.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

A roasted Oval C, a non-locking Gotoh, and an Alter switch — Ibanez’s 2018 AZ, not an RG and not a JEM.

Body
Alder; double-cut, contoured. 22-fret HSS wears a pickguard. Japan.
Neck
Bolt-on one-piece roasted maple, AZ Oval C, S-TECH, oil finish. Super All Access heel.
Fingerboard
Roasted maple, black dots, 22 jumbo stainless, Prestige fret-edge treatment. Radius 305 mm (Ibanez). A review prints 12"/305 mm. Mix flagged. Luminlay side dots.
Scale
648 mm / 25.5". Ibanez prints both. Mix flagged.
Pickups
Seymour Duncan Hyperion HSS: single, single, humbucker. Passive/Alnico.
Hardware
Gotoh T1802, 10.5 mm spacing, titanium saddles, steel block; Gotoh Magnum Lock with H.A.P.; chrome. No locking nut.
Electronics
Volume, tone, 5-way, dyna-MIX9 Alter switch. Side jack.
Finish
Pearl White and Ice Blue Metallic on the current USA page. Not one color.
Nut
Oil-impregnated bone, 42 mm. No inch on the Ibanez table.
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current production typical = Japan AZ2204 Prestige (alder, HSS). ibanez.com/usa, fetched 13 October 2026, still prints the 2018 bones: Hyperion, T1802, roasted board, dyna-MIX9, hardshell case. AZ2204F was the flame-top at the debut. AZ2402 is the 24-fret HH, no guard, dyna-MIX10. AZ2204N / NW is the later Fortuna guitar: rosewood, T1702B. Premium (Indonesia), Standard, AZES, and the AZS single-cut are not this table. Mixed inch/mm flagged. Do not paste the AZES 25" scale, an ATZ nut of 40.5 mm or 40.2 mm, or a shop’s 1.65" onto this 42 mm. Do not average Burrluck’s calipers with the catalog.

Construction

The job was an Ibanez for the player who had put the pointy one down. A neck you could fret a chord on. A tremolo that would still move, without a locking nut. Not a Wizard. Not an Edge.

This plate starts in 2018. Winter NAMM. MusicRadar, 3 January 2018, already had the cards. Guitar.com, 18 January. Six guitars in the first non-signature line: Japan Prestige AZ2204, AZ2204F, and AZ2402; Indonesia Premium AZ224F, AZ242F, and AZ242BC (Chorder; Guitar.com). The RG550 came back at the same show. That return is the other plate (ibanez-rg550).

The prototypes are earlier. They are not the catalog year. Tom Quayle, 3 January 2018: at NAMM the year before, he was shown a top-secret model that “turned out to be the new AZ series.” Andy Timmons, on Ibanez’s video published 21 January 2019: mid-2017, in McKinney, they brought “a brand new prototype of a guitar called AZ.” Keep both. The guitar a shop could order is 2018.

The name is the brief. Guitar Interactive, 28 July 2018: they called it the AZ because they believed it could do everything from A to Z. Ibanez’s “Story of the AZ,” on the 2025 Japan news page, says the same thing. Not a sticker on an RG.

The body is alder, with a deep ribcage cut and a forearm contour (Burrluck; Ibanez). The 22-fret HSS wears a pickguard — Burrluck’s “Strat-meets-RG scratchplate”; Sweetwater’s Ice Blue copy says white pearloid. The 24-fret HH, the AZ2402, is direct-mount, no guard, electronics in the back, the neck a little deeper in the body so the treble cutaway can go deeper. Same bridge place. Different guitar. Ibanez calls the heel Super All Access. Burrluck, in 2018, described a rounded All Access heel and four recessed screws.

The neck is the point. AZ Oval C. S-TECH roasted maple, oil finish. Ibanez: the roast is for stability, durability, water resistance, and temperature. Burrluck: a patented torrefaction from Sendai Technologies that “decreases the density and improves the wood’s dimensional stability,” and darkens it. Gitarre & Bass, 31 December 2017: nitrogen in a vacuum chamber, and Ibanez as the first maker to use the process. Catalog numbers: 20.5 mm at the first fret, 22.5 mm at the twelfth, nut 42 mm, radius 305 mm. Burrluck’s ICM measured 41.84–42.38 mm at the nut, 20.5–21 mm at the first, 23–23.2 mm at the twelfth. One guitar. Don’t average it in. He set that next to a Super Wizard HP — 17 mm, then 19 mm, a 43 mm nut, a 430 mm board — and called the AZ the conventional neck. Guitar.com’s 2022 review prints the radius as 12"/305 mm. Same figure, two systems. Mix flagged.

The bridge is a Gotoh 510, rebuilt. Burrluck: two lockable posts, a knurled collar on a push-in arm, titanium saddles, a steel block without the deep string-anchor holes. Ibanez’s Prestige name is the T1802, spacing 10.5 mm. Magnum Lock tuners with height-adjustable posts — Burrluck’s number is the SG381 — and a string tree on the top two. No locking nut. That is the split from an RG and from a JEM (ibanez-jem). The JS (ibanez-js) is Satriani’s Radius. The Talman (ibanez-talman) is the 1994 offset. The Musician is a 1978 through-neck. None of them is this heel.

The pickups were new for the line. Seymour Duncan Hyperion, with Duncan’s Maricela “MJ” Juarez. Burrluck: the Prestige HSS set he opened was marked Custom Shop. Ibanez prints Alnico. Guitar.com’s 2022 review says alnico V. On that HSS, the bridge humbucker sat around 14.8k and the singles just over 10k. The same sentence puts a neck humbucker at about 9k. That reading is an HH beside it, or he didn’t say. Don’t hang 9k on this neck single.

The Alter switch is the other half. Ibanez calls it dyna-MIX9: a 5-way plus a mini-toggle, nine combinations, one of them the two singles in series so they act as a humbucker. Burrluck’s 2018 map still has the full bridge humbucker on both sides of the toggle. The sounds that aren’t on a stock Strat are the series pair, that pair plus the bridge, and either coil of the bridge on its own. The 2026 page still says dyna-MIX9. His ICM also had conductive paint, a 330 pF treble bleed, a 0.022 µF tone cap, and the jack on the rim by the strap button. One 2018 guitar, not a schematic I re-measured. The HH uses dyna-MIX10. Don’t give this HSS ten sounds.

Prestige and Premium were never the same instrument. Japan and alder against Indonesia and American basswood (Gitarre & Bass; Guitar.com). S-TECH on the Prestige; roasted maple on the Premium, without that treatment. Bone against Graph Tech. T1802 against a T1502. A hardshell case against a gig bag (MusicRadar’s 2018 cards). A current Premium, the AZ42P1, is still Indonesia, still basswood, still a T1502 and Hyperions. Sweetwater’s Prussian Blue page gives it a rosewood board and 24 frets. Same outline. Not this table.

The family moved. The table didn’t have to. Ibanez’s news page calls a later Prestige wave the second generation: the AZ2204B, and an ash AZ2202A. The page printed no date when fetched. Reverb files the black AZ2204B as 2020–2026. The AZ2204N and NW are the clean-tone turn. Ikebe: rosewood, Seymour Duncan Fortuna, a Gotoh T1702B. A 2025 Music Zoo listing prints Fortuna and a T1702B on a guitar it calls an AZ2204-PW. ibanez.com’s AZ2204 page still prints Hyperion and a T1802 for Pearl White and Ice Blue. Don’t merge them.

2021 adds two other instruments. The AZS, that January, is a single-cut, Tele-inspired, still the Oval C (Guitar.com, 19 January 2021; Ibanez’s AZS news). A Magic Touch mini at the neck, an Alnico II Pro Custom at the bridge, dyna-MIX5. Tremolo models use a T1802 on the top; the hardtails use a Gotoh F1803. Not this double-cut. In September the AZES — Essentials — is the Indonesia student guitar, with Berklee’s Tomo Fujita (Guitar.com, 1 September 2021; MusicRadar). Poplar, maple, jatoba, a 25" scale, a 250 mm radius, a T106, dyna-MIX, in shops that October. AZES31 is the hardtail with three ceramic singles. AZES40 is the vibrato HSS. Not a scale you average into 25.5".

2025, NAMM: an AZ Standard between them, the AZ22S1F and AZ24S1F. Ultimate Guitar, 12 January 2025: alder and a flame top, roasted maple, jatoba, Ibanez’s own Classic Custom pickups, dyna-MIX9, a T106, estimated street $549.99. Announcement money. Guitar World, 20 May 2026, counts newer Standard colors, more Premiums, and a first Iron Label hardtail in the family. Not this table.

Classic vs current: the 2018 AZ2204 — Japan, alder, roasted Oval C, 22 stainless frets, Hyperion HSS, dyna-MIX9, T1802, bone, a hardshell case — against the AZ2204 still on ibanez.com/usa in 2026. Same bones. Ash, Fortuna, Premium, Standard, Essentials, and the single-cut are the family around it.

Players

Do not hang a JEM on this plate. Do not hang a JS, an RG550, or a Talman. Do not hang Tim Henson’s nylon on it.

Martin Miller. On the NAMM stand with a guitar of his own. MusicRadar’s January 2018 card for the MM1: flamed maple on African mahogany, 24 frets, S-TECH, Hyperion HH, dyna-MIX10, T1802, bone, a hardshell case. Gitarre & Bass, January 2019: mahogany is what the MM1 has that the alder Quayle guitar doesn’t. A named signature from the first catalog. No album pinned on it here.

Tom Quayle. The other half of that debut. His 3 January 2018 post is the NAMM-2017 prototype, then the offer of a signature. The TQM1 launched beside the range (Guitar Interactive, 8 March 2018; Adorama). Adorama and Ibanez Wiki: FujiGen, Japan — that factory name is for this signature, not a claim about every AZ2204. Alder under monkeypod, HSS Hyperions, dyna-MIX9, T1802, 22 stainless frets. The wiki: a TQM neck for 2018–2022, then the AZ Oval C for 2023–2024; gone after 2023 outside Japan, and gone in 2024. The TQMS1 still on the USA site is the AZS single-cut, with a compound radius 228–305 mm. His later guitar. Not this body. Two prices, and they don’t match. Guitar Interactive’s March 2018 MSRP is £2,249 / $2,499. The wiki’s 2018 MSRP is $3,333.32, then a SMAP of $2,599.99 (2022–2023) and ¥350,000 before tax. Don’t average them.

Andy Timmons. The trap is the guitar he already had. Gitarre & Bass, May 2018: before the AZ, an Ibanez that behaved like a deluxe Strat was an Andy Timmons model. The AT10P is that older one. Axebition files a 2013 Indonesia guitar on an RG-leaning body, with a DiMarzio AT-1. Not an AZ. The ATZ100 is the AZ. Ibanez’s January 2019 video: based on the Prestige, built so he could run three DiMarzio Cruisers instead of a humbucker and two. Guitar Center: nut 40.5 mm, narrower than this table, and a Wilkinson-Gotoh VSVG, not a T1802. Guitar Interactive, October 2023: MSRP £2,299 / $2,799, and a 20-year mark that counts from the old AT line, not from 2018. The ATZ10P is the Indonesia Premium: a 40.2 mm nut, a Wilkinson WV6-SB, Cruisers plus an AT-1, dealer street $1,599.99. Different bridge. Different pickups.

Tim Henson. Three objects. Two of them are this outline. The THBB10 (2019–2022, Reverb; Ground Guitar) is the first signature: Indonesia Premium, AZ Oval C, American basswood, a Gotoh T1502, gold, the black one. Ground Guitar: DiMarzio Notorious, a mini-humbucker at the bridge, and the neck and middle singles modeled on the pickups in his Talman. The body is an AZ. The single-coil idea was not. ibanezrules prints that set as DiMarzio THBB, list $1,999.99, suggested price $1,499.99. The TOD10, revealed 1 December 2022, keeps the Oval C and moves to Fishman Fluence pickups, ebony, and a T1502. Announced at $1,499. Sweetwater now: $1,599.99. The TOD10N is not this guitar. Premier Guitar, 11 October 2022: a nylon, from the old SC500N, not the AZ-based signature. Guitar World: Playing God, and that nylon on Remember That You Will Die. Do not move the song onto a TOD10 or a THBB10.

Also known to play stays short. Ibanez Wiki’s AZS debut puts Lari Basilio’s LB1 and Josh Smith’s FLATV1 on the 2021 single-cut. Not this body. Tomo Fujita designed the AZES. A face in the launch film is not a track. Paul Gilbert is in that film. He is not an AZ player here.

Rarity

You can buy a new AZ tomorrow. Japan Prestige, Indonesia Premium, the 2025 Standard, and the AZES are in the catalog together. The AZS is the other outline, and it is a catalog guitar too.

Ibanez has not published an AZ total. None invented. A serial dates one guitar. It doesn’t count a year. That is why a first-year census is unknown.

What is actually thinner: a 2018 Prestige — AZ2204, the flame-top AZ2204F, the HH AZ2402 — still wearing the Hyperions and the T1802 it left with. The TQM1, a closed Japan run. The THBB10, 2019 through 2022. None of those is a numbered JEM. An AZ2204N with Fortunas is a different instrument from a first-year alder HSS.

Value

Informal estimate, 12 October 2026. Not an appraisal.

Asks and solds stay labeled. Prototypes are not comps. No invented medians. Period $1,999 / £1,779 / €1,944 (MusicRadar, 4 August 2018, on an AZ2204-ICM) and Gitarre & Bass’s 31 December 2017 preview — Prestige 24-fret €1,999, 22-fret Ice Blue €1,999, Transparent Aqua Blue €2,499, Premium 24-fret €1,199 — are 2017–18 money, not this street. The two TQM1 MSRPs are up in Players. Don’t paste either one onto an AZ2204.

New street. Alder AZ2204, Ice Blue Metallic: $2,199.99 (Sweetwater). The series page’s certified open-box is $1,979.99 — their tag, not a used hammer. Ash AZ2204, Tri Fade Burst and Transparent Gray Burst: $2,499.99 (Sweetwater). Different wood. Don’t average it into the alder. One new Hazy Rose on Reverb at $2,199.99. Named new asks at $1,753.81 on that same Reverb page are not a U.S. street price. Fortuna AZ2204NW: Sweetwater Pastel Pink $2,049.99, a lefty at $2,159. Not this pickup set. Premium AZ42P1, Prussian Blue: $1,399.99 (Sweetwater). AZES31 $349.99; AZES40 $369.99, the guitar alone (Sweetwater). Launch money, not this cart: Guitar World’s 1 September 2021 headline $299; Guitar.com £299; Audiofanzine €299 (AZES31) and €329 (AZES40). Standard $549.99 is Ultimate Guitar’s NAMM 2025 estimate, not a 2026 cart confirmed here. TOD10 $1,599.99 and ATZ10P $1,599.99 are other specs.

Used modern. Reverb, AZ2204 Prestige, all models, Good to Mint, 158 orders: $993–$1,469. Named 2025 solds, not a series to average: $1,200 excellent (4 December); $1,500 mint (12 September); $1,295 excellent (6 September); $1,360 mint (23 August); $1,100 very good (14 August); $1,100 excellent (9 August); $1,128 good (3 August). The black AZ2204B is its own guide, 2020–present, 55 orders: $1,006–$1,472 on one read, $989–$1,467 on an earlier read of the same widget. Named solds: $1,425 excellent (10 December 2025); $1,400 excellent (28 November); $1,250 excellent (25 November); $1,200 excellent (30 October); $1,957.99 mint (30 July 2025); $935 good (5 May 2025). Don’t average the two guides. Sweetwater’s advisor on a used ash Tri Fade says $1,625–$1,925, recommended $1,750, against that $2,499.99 new tag. Advisor, not a hammer. Musician’s Friend’s excellent Ice Blue at $1,599.99 is a store tag.

Vintage / collectible. This is not a vintage market. The guitar is eight years old and still in the catalog. The used tape above is the market. Flag: no clean TQM1 or 2018-only sold band isolated this pass. A first-year flame-top, a TQM1, and a THBB10 are thinner objects. They are not comps for a current alder AZ2204. No celebrity lot in the sources read here.

See also

  • fender-stratocaster — the contoured bolt-on and the non-locking trem this is answering; not this Alter switch
  • ibanez-rg550 — the 1987 Wizard and Edge this neck and this Gotoh are not
  • suhr-classic-s — the other 2018 Strat-layout bolt-on; a 60s C, not this Oval C

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.