Essential 31

So ten days after it was sent to me for a re-string / set up, I have taken over the ownership of the Ibanez AZES31 (I would have preferred the red version over this one but that's purely a cosmetic preference). This was paid for after selling off some other miscellaneous stuff which I had lying around here at home. I managed to shave off nearly half of the asking price for this instrument through this financing & must remind myself it's still not the right time to buy gear in the midst of settling my chemo bills; still expecting at least four more to be in the mailbox soon. Really looking forward to finally declare I have nothing to do with treatment bills any more. Wonder when this day will come...

Anyway, would like to share with you why the previous owner decided to let it go:

• Does not feel like a Strat. Of course, it's not a Fender & it's not trying to be one / outperform one in any way. It's appealing mainly to the Ibanez campers to embrace something more traditional without moving over to the competitor's camp. If you have a good / preferred Strat to begin with, high chance you might not deem this worthy / embrace the subtle differences.
• No whammy bridge. That's right, it's a fixed bridge. If you want the whammy version, the AZES40 has that feature. I'm with fixed bridges these days & welcome this readily.
• No use for that extra switching. This is the signature feature of the AZ models; giving the player  extra tonal manifestations & pickup combos to make it 'unique'. Yes, some of us prefer an S-style guitar to remain as one in its strict manifestation. The extra options are not to our preference & we wonder why we paid for that to begin with

I'm not averse to these features & largely an Ibanez fan so these are acceptable details for me. A 3x single coil combo in an Ibanez is something I've not owned & that added to my OK list for owning this guitar.