[LonePhantom]

Well, did I get a complete surprise for Christmas! My wife proved once again why she may be the best wife ever.

When the new AZ Essentials were announced last year I was talking about how I'd love to try one. Anyway, she stored that in her memory banks, and bought an AZES 31 for Christmas.

I was sent on a clue hunt around the house on Christmas morning, starting with a bunch of fake presents that weren't anything, followed by five clue cards to go around the house and find. I the end she presented me with this.

She had it stashed under the bed in the spare bedroom for months, hoping I wouldn't find it.

I would have picked a tremolo model myself if I were to have bought one, but then I realised I have enough guitars with Fender type and Floyd Rose type bridges, so a hard tail being added to my arsenal is actually pretty cool.

The fretboard is a little dry, and the frets are dying for a polish, but the guitar plays bloody well. I'm stoked with it!

I'm not so sure about the "humbucker" mode, as the stock pickups doing that in the "bridge" position are a little too thick and rounded tonally, so I'm wondering if some tinkering with the circuit, or a better set of single coils may help a little. I'll play around with what I have on hand and see how it goes.

 

[3bolt79]

Awesome! I am glad you finally got one. I had to seek mine awhile back to help a family member out. I sold the Vermillion and the Ivory, along with another 8 guitars. I will re-lace it. And, the bridge on the AZES40 sucks big time. The Hardtail is where it’s at.

‘’You might try a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt strings on it. They sound tighter than ordinary strings. It might improve the HB mode for you. It certainly did for me. Just be sure not to tune the basses up too high. They will snap if you over tune them.

Give that critter a level and crown and it will be like playing on glass. Really smooth.

‘’Congrats and HNGD!

 

[3bolt79]

By the way, what gauge strings are you going to use? Due to the shorter scale, 9-42 were a little too floppy. I went with 10-46. Also, there is a sweet spot for where the middle and bridge pickups sound best in series.

 

[Michael_LIS]

Very nice, congrats !

 

[jtmroll]

Well, did I get a complete surprise for Christmas! My wife proved once again why she may be the best wife ever.

When the new AZ Essentials were announced last year I was talking about how I'd love to try one. Anyway, she stored that in her memory banks, and bought an AZES 31 for Christmas.

I was sent on a clue hunt around the house on Christmas morning, starting with a bunch of fake presents that weren't anything, followed by five clue cards to go around the house and find. I the end she presented me with this. View attachment 22161
She had it stashed under the bed in the spare bedroom for months, hoping I wouldn't find it.

I would have picked a tremolo model myself if I were to have bought one, but then I realised I have enough guitars with Fender type and Floyd Rose type bridges, so a hard tail being added to my arsenal is actually pretty cool.

The fretboard is a little dry, and the frets are dying for a polish, but the guitar plays bloody well. I'm stoked with it!

I'm not so sure about the "humbucker" mode, as the stock pickups doing that in the "bridge" position are a little too thick and rounded tonally, so I'm wondering if some tinkering with the circuit, or a better set of single coils may help a little. I'll play around with what I have on hand and see how it goes.

Awesome. Nice looking guitar.

 

[FireEagle]

Nice!! What an awesome wife! Pretty cool she made you hunt it down too... Nice to have a hardtail at times!

 

[Mr_Scotia]

I wish i got a guitar for Christmas

 

[LonePhantom]

Awesome! I am glad you finally got one. I had to seek mine awhile back to help a family member out. I sold the Vermillion and the Ivory, along with another 8 guitars. I will re-lace it. And, the bridge on the AZES40 sucks big time. The Hardtail is where it’s at.

‘’You might try a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt strings on it. They sound tighter than ordinary strings. It might improve the HB mode for you. It certainly did for me. Just be sure not to tune the basses up too high. They will snap if you over tune them.

Give that critter a level and crown and it will be like playing on glass. Really smooth.

‘’Congrats and HNGD!

Cheers Scott, yeah I'm really excited. I do really love the Cobalt strings too, but they're just too expensive here now. They were reasonably priced when they first came out, but they've more than doubled now, and with the way my budget has been affected in recent months due to some unfortunate frustrations, I'll just be sticking with regular EB Slinkies for now.

I don't have the skills to crown, but I can polish them up fine. They seem pretty level at least, from my playing so far. Just trying to work out how much truss rod adjustment I need to make. It does seem to slightly buzz around the lower frets, even with a bunch of loosening of the truss rod. I think I have it at a slight back bow now, and it's pretty good, and the stock saddle height feels comfortable for playing higher up with acceptable buzz.

By the way, what gauge strings are you going to use? Due to the shorter scale, 9-42 were a little too floppy. I went with 10-46. Also, there is a sweet spot for where the middle and bridge pickups sound best in series.

The guitar comes stock with 10-46, so they're still on there. I'll likely switch to 10-52 and tune to drop Db, since I've been writing in that tuning lately.

Nice!! What an awesome wife! Pretty cool she made you hunt it down too... Nice to have a hardtail at times!

She is pretty bloody amazing, one of my friends called her a unicorn when I first met her.

She "kidnapped" me about 7 months into our relationship. Made me think we were going to her house to prepare for a friends surprise birthday party. When we started driving out of town I freaked out (I don't deal well with surprises). She asked me to open the glove box, where a bunch of clue/riddle cards were located. We ended up going off to have a special lunch, and then she surprised me again with tickets to see one of my favourite bands.

I was kinda freaking out again on Christmas morning, with all the riddles, but yeah, it was extremely awesome.

A complete change to my previous relationship, my ex-wife is still causing me (and my wife now) constant challenges and issues, over seven years after separating, with regards to my boys, specifically my eldest, who unfortunately due to his ADHD and now recent autism diagnosis has drank her cool aid.

I wish i got a guitar for Christmas

Hahaha, yeah, it's the first guitar I've gotten for Christmas since 1991, when I got my first guitar from my parents.

 

[3bolt79]

I think your AZES might have a two way truss rod. If it does, loosen it until the nut seems to be spinning and doing nothing. Then just keep on turning to the point the nut engages.

 

[LonePhantom]

I think your AZES might have a two way truss rod. If it does, loosen it until the nut seems to be spinning and doing nothing. Then just keep on turning to the point the nut engages.

Interesting, it doesn't say anything specific about the truss rod on the Ibanez site, but if it is a dual action truss rod then that's pretty cool!

 

[FireEagle]

She is pretty bloody amazing, one of my friends called her a unicorn when I first met her.

She "kidnapped" me about 7 months into our relationship. Made me think we were going to her house to prepare for a friends surprise birthday party. When we started driving out of town I freaked out (I don't deal well with surprises). She asked me to open the glove box, where a bunch of clue/riddle cards were located. We ended up going off to have a special lunch, and then she surprised me again with tickets to see one of my favourite bands.

I was kinda freaking out again on Christmas morning, with all the riddles, but yeah, it was extremely awesome.

A complete change to my previous relationship, my ex-wife is still causing me (and my wife now) constant challenges and issues, over seven years after separating, with regards to my boys, specifically my eldest, who unfortunately due to his ADHD and now recent autism diagnosis has drank her cool aid.

Thats awesome... A true partner! I'm lucky to have a very awesome supportive wife as well, always encouraging me to buy a guitar... or questioning me as to why I'm selling one!

Thats too bad about the ex-wife issues. I'm not a fan of putting a label on a kid, because then it can become their self identity and somewhat of a crutch. I think we all have varying levels of ADHD and Autism, but learn how to deal with them and carry on as a productive human being. Best of luck with your son!

Enjoy the new guitar too! It's cool if you grab for a non-existent tremolo bar every now and then...

 

[LonePhantom]

Thats awesome... A true partner! I'm lucky to have a very awesome supportive wife as well, always encouraging me to buy a guitar... or questioning me as to why I'm selling one!

Thats too bad about the ex-wife issues. I'm not a fan of putting a label on a kid, because then it can become their self identity and somewhat of a crutch. I think we all have varying levels of ADHD and Autism, but learn how to deal with them and carry on as a productive human being. Best of luck with your son!

Enjoy the new guitar too! It's cool if you grab for a non-existent tremolo bar every now and then...

Yeah I seriously cannot believe it still, after all these years. And she will never allow me to sell a guitar, I tried in the past to help us!

It's far worse than what I'm providing too, so much messed up, but at least my younger son is good with us, and can kinda see through the BS.

My eldest is actually relieved to have the autism diagnosis now, as it is helping explain to him why things have been so hard. High school (junior high for you guys in the USA) has been extremely challenging for him, and he's had mega anxiety, can't make friends, get involved in school work, etc. Now that he's getting some specialised help he actually got a few reasonable grades in the last semester of year 8. Hopefully we can now keep him encouraged to stay in school and start to achieve great things, as he is quite intelligent. The fear is now that he is almost 15, he can drop out if he wants to. We've just got to keep him motivated to get back on top of his education.

And haha, so far I haven't grabbed for the non-existent whammy bar, my PGM301 has helped with that, as I've been playing it a bit lately.