Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is the 2026 Ibanez AZ Standard AZ22S2 in Mint Green: the new, affordable $549/€489 HSS workhorse many of us guitar players have been waiting for!
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At Thomann: thmn.to/thoprod/640599?offid=1&affid=1250
At Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/NGeYe2
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In 2025, Ibanez really shook up the electric guitar world with the release of their AZ Standard series: these China-made, double cutaway workhorses are available in HH and HSS pickup configurations, and in terms of value for money, they’re some of the very best guitars out there today.
And, for 2026, Ibanez has made them even cheaper – the new models forego flamed maple tops, thus saving us, the buyers, around $50/€50. Otherwise, we get new colors alongside everything we loved from the original AZ Standards.
And there’s a lot to love! The AZ22S2 has an alder body, and it’s covered here in a beautiful Mint Green finish (you can also get it in Black). The 25.5” scale neck is roasted maple, with a jatoba fingerboard and 22 jumbo stainless steel frets. You get Ibanez’s T106 vibrato bridge and locking tuners to keep things stable.
For the sounds, you get an HSS set of Ibanez Classic Custom pickups. Thanks to the dyna-MIX9 switching system with Alter Switch, though, you get nine different pickup switching combinations, from the full-fat bridge humbucker to a mix of classic biting and quacky biting single coil Stratocaster tones.
Being an Ibanez, and knowing the 2025 run of these guitars, we know we can expect a top level fit and finish too, so this looks like an awful lot of guitar for the money. So, just how good is the 2026 AZ Standard? Is it set to become the next go-to Super Strat for under $1000?
That’s what we’re about to find out! In the video, I put the guitar through its paces in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal, and more – let’s see how it handles it! Let me know your thoughts on the AZ Standard in the comments. (And don’t forget, if you want a double humbucker-equipped version, there’s one of those too: the AZ24S2!)
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Introduction and what we’re doing today
01:49 Specs and info
03:10 All those pickup selection options explained
06:20 Today’s rig and plan
07:06 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings
07:54 Clean tone samples (folk, country, pop, indie, blues, funk, etc.)
10:14 Tone control test
11:16 Indie and alt rock tones
13:57 Volume control roll off test
14:23 Classic rock tones (AC/DC, Hendrix, Airbourne, etc.)
15:57 Hard rock tones
17:10 Alternative rock tones
17:52 Punk rock tones
18:45 Progressive and modern rock tones
19:52 Metal/chugging/heavy distortion tones (Drop D tuning)
21:06 My thoughts
22:15 First impressions
22:38 Weight
22:49 Playability and neck
23:15 Build quality, hardware and setup
24:07 Sounds and pickups
31:22 What other similar guitars are out there?
25:52 My conclusions on the AZ22S2 and why you should buy it
My setup was as follows: I ran the guitar into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed, Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker and Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Zoom H6 Recorder. No post-processing on the sounds was done.
---
Get all this gear at Thomann: thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
Get all this gear at Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0
---
Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.
#Ibanez #IbanezAZ #AZStandard #IbanezAZStandard #RichWordsMusic
*Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!*
@IbanezOfficial
@IbanezGermany
This is the 2026 Ibanez AZ Standard AZ22S2 in Mint Green: the new, affordable $549/€489 HSS workhorse many of us guitar players have been waiting for!
-----
At Thomann: thmn.to/thoprod/640599?offid=1&affid=1250
At Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/NGeYe2
-----
In 2025, Ibanez really shook up the electric guitar world with the release of their AZ Standard series: these China-made, double cutaway workhorses are available in HH and HSS pickup configurations, and in terms of value for money, they’re some of the very best guitars out there today.
And, for 2026, Ibanez has made them even cheaper – the new models forego flamed maple tops, thus saving us, the buyers, around $50/€50. Otherwise, we get new colors alongside everything we loved from the original AZ Standards.
And there’s a lot to love! The AZ22S2 has an alder body, and it’s covered here in a beautiful Mint Green finish (you can also get it in Black). The 25.5” scale neck is roasted maple, with a jatoba fingerboard and 22 jumbo stainless steel frets. You get Ibanez’s T106 vibrato bridge and locking tuners to keep things stable.
For the sounds, you get an HSS set of Ibanez Classic Custom pickups. Thanks to the dyna-MIX9 switching system with Alter Switch, though, you get nine different pickup switching combinations, from the full-fat bridge humbucker to a mix of classic biting and quacky biting single coil Stratocaster tones.
Being an Ibanez, and knowing the 2025 run of these guitars, we know we can expect a top level fit and finish too, so this looks like an awful lot of guitar for the money. So, just how good is the 2026 AZ Standard? Is it set to become the next go-to Super Strat for under $1000?
That’s what we’re about to find out! In the video, I put the guitar through its paces in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal, and more – let’s see how it handles it! Let me know your thoughts on the AZ Standard in the comments. (And don’t forget, if you want a double humbucker-equipped version, there’s one of those too: the AZ24S2!)
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Introduction and what we’re doing today
01:49 Specs and info
03:10 All those pickup selection options explained
06:20 Today’s rig and plan
07:06 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings
07:54 Clean tone samples (folk, country, pop, indie, blues, funk, etc.)
10:14 Tone control test
11:16 Indie and alt rock tones
13:57 Volume control roll off test
14:23 Classic rock tones (AC/DC, Hendrix, Airbourne, etc.)
15:57 Hard rock tones
17:10 Alternative rock tones
17:52 Punk rock tones
18:45 Progressive and modern rock tones
19:52 Metal/chugging/heavy distortion tones (Drop D tuning)
21:06 My thoughts
22:15 First impressions
22:38 Weight
22:49 Playability and neck
23:15 Build quality, hardware and setup
24:07 Sounds and pickups
31:22 What other similar guitars are out there?
25:52 My conclusions on the AZ22S2 and why you should buy it
My setup was as follows: I ran the guitar into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed, Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker and Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Zoom H6 Recorder. No post-processing on the sounds was done.
---
Get all this gear at Thomann: thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
Get all this gear at Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0
---
Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.
#Ibanez #IbanezAZ #AZStandard #IbanezAZStandard #RichWordsMusic
*Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!*
@IbanezOfficial
@IbanezGermany
