Ibanez AZES40-PPK

The AZES feels so well designed, even compared to other Ibanezes I've tried. The 10-way pickup switching system is clever and genuinely useful. The body is slightly smaller than a regular Stratocaster, and feels balanced and light. It has split shaft tuners, which is a minor detail, but very welcome. The neck and neck joint feel ergonomic to my tastes. There's no pointless extra features here, and yet every little detail adds up.

Overall this is an instrument that really tries to get out of your way, while holding on to the strat DNA.

Build quality is what you'd expect from an Ibanez made in Indonesia, i.e. very good. No problems so far after 1.5 years of use. No doubt the proper AZ series that cost a thousand euros more are better in some way, but even if I could afford an AZ I don't think I'd have any reason to upgrade, as this is a guitar that does what I need it to do.

Nitpicks:
- the string trees bend the strings sharply, I recommend replacing them for lower friction
- tremolo arm is wobbly - on my Squier strat you can drop a spring down the screw hole to stabilize it, this is not possible here as the hole goes right through the trem block...
- I like the stratocaster style of jack plate more than the edge mounted type
- coil splitting the bridge humbucker doesn't quite give me the tones I want from a bridge single coil (duh)