I had just bought an Ibanez AZ2402.
With my own money, just to be clear.
At the time, I was working at 42 Gear Street as part of the event crew, so this was not a carefully planned home studio review. I was there doing video work, surrounded by guitar players, gear, cameras, cables, and all the usual 42 Gear Street chaos.
And somewhere in the middle of that, I had bought a guitar.
That guitar was the Ibanez AZ2402 in Pearl White Flat. Or as we quickly decided in the video, the Vlad color.
Because it is flat and white.
Very scientific.
The funny thing is that this could have easily become just a normal new guitar day video. Look at the guitar, talk about the specs, play a few sounds, say it feels great, and move on.
But because Tom Quayle was there with his own HSS Ibanez AZ-style guitar, the video became much more useful.
Instead of just asking whether the AZ2402 is good, the better question became:
What is the difference between an Ibanez AZ with two humbuckers and an Ibanez AZ with an HSS setup?
And that is where things got interesting.
Why This Comparison Made Sense
I bought the AZ2402 because it felt like the kind of guitar that could fill a lot of gaps for me.
My main guitar had been a Tele for years, and I love that world. I like the immediacy, the attack, the clarity, and the way a good Tele just sits in a mix.
But I also wanted something that could do more modern things.
More gain. More smooth lead sounds. More studio flexibility. More comfort. More of that “one guitar can cover a lot of ground” thing.
The Ibanez AZ2402 seemed like a good answer to that.
It has two humbuckers, but it does not feel like a basic HH rock guitar. With the alter switch and the dyna-MIX10 switching, you get a lot more sounds than you would expect from a normal dual-humbucker guitar.
But then Tom had his HSS AZ.
And that immediately made the comparison more interesting.
Because the AZ2402 is trying to cover single-coil-ish territory from a humbucker starting point. Tom’s guitar starts from a more traditional HSS world and adds extra series and parallel options from there.
Those are two very different ways of solving the same problem.
The AZ Does Not Feel Like an Old Ibanez
One thing I really like about the AZ range is that it does not feel like the Ibanez stereotype.
I like RGs. I like shred guitars. I like that world.
But when people think of Ibanez, they often think of very thin necks, flat fretboards, locking tremolos, pointy shapes, and guitars that basically ask you to play too many notes.
The AZ is not really that.
It still feels modern. It still feels like Ibanez. It still has excellent hardware and very precise build quality.
But it is more familiar.
The neck is not a super-thin Wizard-style neck. It has more meat to it. Still comfortable, still fast, but not quite as extreme.
That matters to me.
I do not want every guitar to feel like it was designed only for maximum speed. Sometimes I want a guitar that still lets me play fast, but also feels comfortable for chords, rhythm parts, cleaner stuff, and whatever else I end up recording that day.
That is one of the things Tom explained really well. The AZ neck is modern, but it is not trying to be the thinnest thing in the world.
For me, that makes it easier to live with.
HH vs HSS Is the Real Question
The biggest difference between these two guitars is obviously the pickup layout.
My AZ2402 has two Seymour Duncan Hyperion humbuckers.
Tom’s guitar has an HSS setup.
That sounds simple, but it changes the whole personality of the instrument.
The HH guitar has more thickness by default. The bridge humbucker gives you that proper rock and lead foundation, and the neck humbucker gives you smooth, rounder sounds. Then the switching system gives you thinner, more spanky options when you need them.
The HSS guitar works the other way around.
It has actual single coils in the neck and middle positions, so the more traditional Strat-style sounds are naturally more convincing. The position two and four sounds especially have that glassy, spanky thing that a split humbucker can imitate, but not always fully replace.
That is the main thing I learned from this comparison.
The HH AZ can do a lot.
But if you really care about classic single-coil sounds, the HSS version still has the advantage.
Why I Still Chose the HH AZ2402
So why did I buy the HH version?
Because for me, it made more sense.
I already had guitars that could do the more traditional single-coil thing. My Tele had been my main guitar for years, so I was not really trying to replace that.
What I wanted was something that felt familiar enough to be comfortable, but different enough to justify buying it.
The AZ2402 does that.
It gives me proper humbucker sounds. It gives me enough spank and thinner sounds to cover more ground than a normal HH guitar. And it feels like a guitar I could use in a lot of different situations.
That is the key.
I was not buying a Strat replacement.
I was buying a modern workhorse that still had some of the clarity and snap I like from single-coil guitars.
For that, the AZ2402 made sense.
The HSS Version Still Has Its Own Thing
Tom’s guitar definitely made me understand why someone would choose the HSS version instead.
There is something about real single coils that is hard to fake.
Especially in those in-between positions, the HSS guitar has a different kind of attack. It is more open, more glassy, and more naturally in that Strat-style world.
Tom also uses those sounds in a way that makes complete sense for his playing. When he talks about position four, fusion lines, and that slightly vintage single-coil character, you can immediately hear why the HSS layout matters to him.
That is not just spec-sheet talk.
It is connected to how he actually plays.
And that is probably the most useful way to think about this comparison.
The HH and HSS versions are not better or worse in a simple way.
They suit different players.
The Switching Is Useful, But It Is Not Magic
The AZ switching system is clever.
On the AZ2402, the dyna-MIX10 system gives you ten sounds from two humbuckers. On Tom’s guitar, the HSS setup gives you nine sounds.
That sounds like marketing, but it is actually useful.
You can get thinner sounds, bigger sounds, more Tele-ish sounds, more Strat-ish sounds, and some series/parallel combinations that make the guitar much more flexible than a normal pickup layout.
But it is not magic.
A split humbucker is still not the same as a real single coil.
And a guitar with single coils will still behave differently than a guitar with two humbuckers.
That is not a criticism. It is just reality.
The AZ2402 is impressively versatile, but I would not pretend it completely replaces a proper Strat or Tele. What it does really well is give you enough of those flavors in one guitar, while still keeping the stronger humbucker foundation.
That is why it works for me.
The Feel Is a Huge Part of It
Specs are easy to list, but the reason I bought the AZ2402 was not only the specs.
It was the feel.
The body is comfortable. The neck joint is smooth. The guitar sits well. The matte finish feels great. The neck feels modern without being too thin.
Everything about it feels like someone actually thought about how the guitar would feel in real playing situations.
Not just how it would look on a spec sheet.
The Gotoh T1802 bridge feels smooth. The stainless steel frets make the guitar easy to play. The Luminlay side dots are useful if you are on a dark stage. The roasted maple neck should help with stability.
It is a very practical guitar.
But not in a boring way.
That is a hard balance to get right.
The Finish Definitely Helped
I also have to admit that the finish was part of the decision.
Pearl White Flat is very much my thing.
I like understated guitars. I like matte finishes. I like guitars that look classy without being too flashy.
This one does exactly that.
Of course, the downside is that a flat white finish will probably collect fingerprints if you even think about touching it.
But I can live with that.
Or I can just never clean it, which apparently is also an option.
The point is that the guitar looked right to me immediately.
And that matters.
A guitar can be technically great, but if I do not like how it looks, I am probably not going to reach for it as much.
This one made me want to pick it up.
What Tom Quayle Added to the Conversation
The best part of doing this with Tom was that he could explain the design from a player’s point of view.
Not just “this guitar has this feature.”
More like:
This is why the neck feels this way.
This is why the HSS setup matters.
This is why the switching gives useful sounds.
This is why the AZ is not just another superstrat.
That is much more interesting.
Because honestly, spec lists only get you so far.
You can say “roasted maple neck,” “stainless steel frets,” “Gotoh bridge,” and “Seymour Duncan pickups,” and all of that is good.
But it becomes more useful when someone like Tom explains why those choices matter in actual playing.
Especially because he clearly uses his guitar as a real instrument, not just as a signature model that exists on a wall somewhere.
His guitar had been played a lot.
You could see it.
You could feel it.
And that says something.
What I Learned About the AZ2402
This comparison made me feel better about buying the AZ2402.
Not because Tom said it was good.
Although that does not hurt.
But because comparing it directly against the HSS version helped me understand what I actually wanted from the guitar.
I did not need the most authentic Strat-style single-coil sounds.
I did not need another Tele-style guitar.
I wanted a modern guitar that could handle a lot of different sounds, but still give me a strong humbucker base.
That is exactly what the AZ2402 does.
It gives me enough versatility without making me feel like I bought a guitar full of features I will never use.
Well, maybe I will still forget half of the switching combinations.
But that is a different problem.
Should You Choose an Ibanez AZ HH or HSS?
If you are trying to choose between an Ibanez AZ HH and HSS, I would think about what sound you need to be most convincing.
If you need real single-coil sounds, especially neck and in-between positions, I would look seriously at the HSS version.
If you play a lot of clean fusion lines, Strat-style rhythm parts, or anything where that single-coil attack really matters, the HSS layout makes a lot of sense.
But if you want a thicker modern guitar that can still cover thinner and spankier sounds when needed, the HH version is a great choice.
That is why I bought the AZ2402.
It is not the most vintage-correct option.
It is not trying to be.
It is a modern, comfortable, extremely flexible guitar that gives me sounds I did not already have in the same way.
For my use, that made more sense.
Final Thoughts
This was not a long-term review.
At the time of the video, I had just bought the Ibanez AZ2402. I was still getting to know it, still excited about it, and still figuring out whether I had made the right decision.
But sitting down with Tom Quayle and comparing the HH and HSS versions helped clarify things.
The AZ2402 made sense for me because it gave me a modern dual-humbucker guitar with enough switching flexibility to cover much more than a normal HH instrument.
Tom’s HSS guitar made sense for him because it gives him the real single-coil sounds and position-four character that fit his playing.
Same AZ platform.
Different priorities.
And that is probably the real strength of the Ibanez AZ range.
It is not one guitar trying to be everything for everyone.
It is a platform where you can choose the version that fits how you actually play.
For me, the Pearl White Flat AZ2402 was the right one.
Also, it is the Vlad color.
So obviously I had no choice.
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