IN-DEPTH SPECIFICATIONS

Both guitars employ the AZ’s Oval “C” neck, built from roasted maple, and a fretboard from the same wood. The frets are jumbo stainless steel, and the bodies are made from American basswood. The neck joins the body in what Ibane z calls a “Super All Access” joint, which maximizes the area of connection between the neck and the body while still feeling ergonomic and playable.

This is a best-of-both-worlds concept: maximum sustain and harmonic richness in the tone without slowing a shredder down. The Polyphia Signatures do indeed feel easy to play. I suspect that the fast necks and join ts help, aided by the ample amount of maple included in each build. Maple is the w ood of choice for Fender designs like the Strat and Tele, so here we can expect that the tonewood contributes to articulate instruments that bring out detail in fast pla ying.

Hardware is also high-quality across the board. A good graphite nut, combined with Gotoh locking tuners and tremolo bridge. The guitars held tuning well, even after heavy action on the whammy bar. There are some aesthetic differences between each – whether you’re more inclined to love the SLM10’s transparent red matte finish or the THBB10’s abalone block inlays, becomes a matter of taste.

The most substantive differences between the SLM10 and THBB10 came from the pickup selection. Tim Henson has his own Notorious signature pups with DiMarzio – two single coils and a miniature humbucker. The middle and neck feel akin to classic Fender single-coils. Apparently, they are slightly smoother than usual to balance the inherent brightness of the guitar itself. Overall they definitely have that satisfyingly Stratty sound to them, and remain clear and articulate when reproducing dense chords or arpeggios. His Notorious minibucker is moderately loud, whereas Scott LePage’s signature DiMarzio IGNO bridge humbucker is anything but moderate.

This was probably my favourite pickup of the lot – wild and woolly, it’s roaring midrange had it noticeably louder than the DiMar zio True Velvets in the neck and middle position. Despite this, the SLM10 still felt balanced – it was this extra dash of aggression that had it edging the THBB10 tonally in my personal estimation.

BEST IN THE HANDS OF

While they do nod to some vin tage looks and sounds, these are ultimately modern guitars for modern players. Within the broad ambit of contemporary rock, however, we’re looking at some versatile instruments.

The single coil tones on each would be eminently suitable for indie and pop guitar, as well as more niche genres like post-rock and math-rock. I'd also have no hesitation leaning into brutal riffs with these guitars, especially through the SLM10s IGNO pup.

As a guitarist who primarily w orks in a studio setting, I can absolutely see the musical r ange that these instruments offer and what they can contribute to styles that aren’t obviously part of Polyphia’s sound.