Ibanez AZ427P2QM-TUB — AZ Premium Series Electric Guitar with Gig Bag

The Ibanez AZ427P2QM-TUB combines premium features and striking aesthetics in a player-friendly package. Boasting a quilted maple top over a chambered North American alder body, an S-TECH WOOD–treated roasted maple neck and fretboard, versatile Quantum HSS pickup configuration with coil-splitting, Gotoh T1502 tremolo and sealed MG-T tuners, and a captivating Twilight Blue Burst finish, it comes complete with a padded gig bag. This 2,000-word overview details every aspect—from tonewood selection and construction to electronics, hardware, ergonomic design, finish process, sustainability, care tips, performance scenarios, and the AZ Premium legacy—then presents a clear white-and-gray specifications table.

1 | Tonewood Selection & Body Construction

The AZ427P2QM-TUB’s body is crafted from select North American alder, prized for its balanced tonal profile—warm lows, clear mids, and articulate highs. Chambering routed into non-critical areas removes approximately 10% of the body wood, reducing weight for enhanced comfort and boosting acoustic resonance when played unplugged. Overlaying this foundation is a three-ply quilted maple veneer, chosen for its depth of figure and inherent brightness. Each body undergoes precise CNC routing to define ergonomic bevels—chest, forearm, and belly cuts—and to carve Core Chambers for resonance without sacrificing structural integrity. Hand-sanding smooths all contours, ensuring a seamless interface between player and instrument.

The combination of alder’s warmth and maple’s clarity yields a guitar with immediate sonic appeal. The chambered design allows the top wood to vibrate freely, imparting a lively acoustic character that translates into richer harmonics when amplified. Ergonomic body contours cradle the player’s form, enabling fatigue-free performances in both live and studio settings.

2 | Neck Craftsmanship & S-TECH WOOD Roasted Maple

Ibanez’s proprietary S-TECH WOOD thermal treatment process transforms the maple neck and fretboard, expelling moisture, relieving internal stresses, and increasing hardness. This results in a neck with exceptional dimensional stability that resists seasonal warp and reduces the need for frequent truss-rod adjustments. The roasted maple exhibits a smooth, vintage-like satin feel and a warm amber hue. The neck profile is an accessible “Oval C,” measuring 0.83 inches thick at the first fret and 0.93 inches at the twelfth, striking a balance between chordal comfort and lead-line agility.

The one-piece roasted maple fretboard features a compound radius from 10 inches at the nut to 14 inches near the body end. This design allows easy open chords and fretboard bends without fretting out. Jumbo stainless-steel frets are installed for durability, bright attack, and long-term stability. Hand-finished fret ends eliminate sharp tangs, ensuring smooth positional shifts.

3 | Frets & Fretboard Details

Precision is key on the AZ427P2QM-TUB. Each of the 22 jumbo stainless-steel frets is leveled, crowned, and polished by skilled luthiers, ensuring uniform fret height and smooth ends. The fretboard edges are chamfered to prevent discomfort during lateral movements, and glow-in-the-dark Luminlay side-dot markers enhance navigation under stage lighting. The roasted maple fretboard’s natural oils paired with satin finish create a slick playing surface that feels broken in from the first touch.

4 | Electronics — Quantum HSS Configuration

The guitar’s versatile tone palette comes from its Quantum HSS pickup layout: a high-output Quantum humbucker at the bridge for warm overdriven tones and two Quantum single-coils at neck and middle for glassy cleans and vintage quack. A push-pull tone control splits the bridge humbucker, yielding additional single-coil character. The 5-way blade switch seamlessly accesses all configurations, and shielded control and pickup cavities lined with conductive paint suppress electromagnetic interference and hum, ensuring studio-quality silence between notes.

Factory pickup heights are precisely adjusted to balance output across positions, providing dynamic response and tonal consistency. This configuration suits genres from funk to rock, metal to blues, enabling rapid transitions between sonic textures.

5 | Hardware — Gotoh Tremolo & Tuners

The AZ427P2QM-TUB features a Gotoh T1502 two-point tremolo bridge engineered for fluid vibrato action and stable return-to-pitch. Stainless-steel saddles and a hardened block maximize sustain and resilience. A pop-in tremolo arm allows quick customization of setup. Gotoh sealed MG-T locking tuning machines with a 16:1 gear ratio ensure precise tuning adjustments and eliminate slippage, while the Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut provides consistent string spacing, friction-free nut slots, and balanced harmonic transfer for improved tuning stability under aggressive performance.

Specifications