Best Ibanez Guitar for Beginners: GIO or AZES?

If you’re looking for your first guitar, consider the Ibanez AZES and GIO series.

The AZES is more aimed at beginners: shorter scale, rounder fretboard, comfortable saddles, simple controls that still give many sounds.

GIO is the cheaper way to get started with Ibanez: more shapes, more aggressive looks, more pickup layouts, and more variations.

For a beginner, the better first guitar is the one that stays in tune, feels comfortable enough to practice on, gives the sounds the player actually wants, and does not create setup problems before the player understands what a setup is.

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Ibanez AZES

The AZES line was designed with the needs of beginners and intermediate players in mind.

The AZES31 is a prime example. It has a 25-inch scale, a 250mm fretboard radius, 22 medium frets, three single-coil-style Essentials pickups, and a fixed F106 bridge with Comfort round steel saddles.

The shorter scale matters because the frets sit a little closer together than on a normal 25.5-inch Ibanez. A new player does not magically become better because of that, but awkward first-position stretches can feel less painful. The rounder 250mm radius also makes basic chords feel more natural than a flat shred-style board.

A fixed bridge is also important for beginners. There is no tremolo to balance. No spring tension to understand. No floating bridge behavior. You tune it, play it, change strings, and get on with learning.

The dyna-MIX8 switching is more useful than it seems. A beginner gets normal bright single-coil sounds, but the Alter switch also gives thicker series combinations. That helps the guitar cover clean practice, indie, funk, blues, pop, and light rock without needing a pickup swap.

The The AZES40 adds an HSS pickup set and a T106 tremolo. That makes it more flexible for a player who wants clean neck sounds and a bridge humbucker for gain.

Ibanez AZES31: The Complete Beginner’s Choice

The AZES31 is the easiest Ibanez guitar to recommend to a beginner.

It’s not the loudest or flashiest guitar. But it solves the boring problems that matter when someone is trying to practice every day.

The neck is comfortable. The fixed bridge is simple. The controls give enough sounds to explore.

Choose AZES31 for:

• a first electric with no clear genre yet
• younger players or smaller hands who still want a full-size guitar
• players who care more about clean sounds and basic practice than heavy gain
• anyone who wants fewer tuning and bridge variables

The weak point is obvious. If the beginner already knows they want thick bridge-humbucker distortion, AZES31 may feel too polite. The series switching helps, but it is not the same thing as a dedicated humbucker guitar into gain.

Ibanez AZES40: One Guitar For Many Sounds

The AZES40 is the most versatile instrument in the AZES line.

The HSS pickup configuration gives a bridge humbucker for heavier rhythm and lead sounds, while the neck and middle pickups maintain a cleaner tone. For a beginner who listens to many styles, that matters more than having one extreme sound.

It is a good fit for the player who wants to try pop, blues, clean rhythm, classic rock, lead guitar, and some heavier gain.

The tremolo needs realistic expectations. It is for light pitch movement and expression. It is not a Floyd Rose. If the player keeps leaning on the bar, ignores string stretching, and never checks the nut or setup, tuning complaints can follow.

Choose AZES40 if you want AZES comfort but also want a bridge humbucker and a tremolo. Choose AZES31 if simplicity matters more than the tremolo.

Ibanez GIO

GIO covers more of the classic Ibanez guitar: RG-style bodies, sharper looks, humbuckers, HSH layouts, 24-fret necks, and lower prices. For a teenager who wants an Ibanez because it looks like a rock or metal guitar, that matters. The guitar has to make the player want to pick it up.

For example, I started on a GRG170DX, and for its price it was a great guitar. For a first instrument, you don’t necessarily need to choose something expensive. It’s enough that the guitar feels exciting, plays well enough, and points the player toward the music they actually want to learn.

A model like the GRG121SP is a good example of where GIO can be the smarter first choice. It has a fixed F106 bridge, two humbuckers, 24 frets, a 25.5-inch scale, and a flatter 400mm radius.

For a beginner aiming at distortion, palm-muted riffs, drop-D practice, and heavier sounds, that setup is easier to understand than an SSS guitar. The fixed bridge also avoids the tremolo issue. If the first guitar is mainly for rock and metal practice, a fixed-bridge HH GIO can make more sense than AZES versatility.

But GIO should be chosen based on a specific model, as not all guitars in this series are suitable for a beginner.

For example, the GRX70QA model. It has an HSH pickup layout and a T106 tremolo, with a 25.5-inch scale and 305mm radius. That gives more pickup variety. However, it also asks more from the setup. A beginner who does not yet understand action, nut friction, string stretching, or tremolo balance can blame the guitar when the real problem is adjustment.

GIO Or AZES: The Practical Answer

The best beginner Ibanez is not the one with the longest feature list. It is the one that makes practice easier, gives the player sounds they recognize, and does not create avoidable tuning or setup problems.

For most general beginners, that points to AZES. For a beginner who wants the rock or metal sound, GIO can be the better match.

GIO wins when the guitar has to be more aggressive-looking, or closer to the music you actually want to play. If you want to play Metallica, Slipknot, Polyphia, old-school shred, punk, or hard rock, choose the GIO.

A fixed-bridge with humbuckers is the most sensible GIO option for many rock and metal beginners. The bridge is simple. The pickups are direct. The look matches the music. There is less chance of buying a guitar with features the player does not need yet.

As for the model, it should meet a specific need:

• fixed bridge for simple tuning
• humbuckers for heavier gain
• 24 frets if the player wants the RG-style layout
• smaller miKro-style options if size is the main issue

Here’s the short answer:

Choose AZES if you want the simplest and most versatile Ibanez for beginners.

Choose a fixed-bridge GIO if you want rock or metal sounds and the budget is tighter. Be more careful with tremolo-equipped GIO models.

However, don’t forget that the first electric guitar is not only the guitar.

A beginner still needs something to play through: a cable, picks, a strap, a tuner, spare strings, and ideally enough money left for a setup if the guitar arrives rough. A slightly cheaper GIO plus a better amp and setup can be more useful than a more expensive AZES.

If the choice is between AZES and a GIO with the same budget, AZES usually looks stronger. If the choice is between an AZES without an amp and a GIO with a good amp for practice, the answer may change.

New Or Used?

New is safer for most beginners because returns and store support matter.

Used can be better value if someone experienced can check the guitar. A used guitar should be inspected for fret wear, neck relief, tuning stability, electronics noise, damaged nut slots, bridge condition, and whether the truss rod still works.

A beginner buying a used guitar is usually guessing. That does not mean used is bad. It means the price has to be good enough to cover the risk and possible setup work.

For a first electric, a clean new guitar is one of the least complicated paths. A used guitar can be a smart buy if it plays well and leaves money for the rest of the setup.

The First Guitar Problem Is Setup

A beginning guitarist rarely realizes that their guitar is tuned incorrectly.

They may hear fret buzz unplugged and think the guitar is broken. They may tune up, bend a string, and think the tuners are bad. They may raise the bridge too much, make the guitar hard to play, then decide their hands are the problem.

A good first Ibanez still needs basic setup.

A well-set-up GIO can be a better guitar than a badly adjusted AZES. Action that is too high makes chords painful. Nut slots that are too tight can make tuning unstable, especially on tremolo guitars. Old strings can make intonation and tuning feel worse than the guitar really is.

Here’s a checklist for beginners:

• the strings are not painfully high
• the open strings tune normally
• basic chords do not feel like a hand workout
• notes ring through the amp without obvious choking
• the guitar returns close to pitch after normal bends
• the output jack and controls do not crackle or cut out

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