Fresher

The recent entry featuring death & decay of internal parts were from this guitar; my Ibanez RG3XXV. You can refer to those episodes here: CLICK 1, CLICK 2

Here's how the innards look like after an entire make-over. No Orange Drop cap in there but a Panasonic Gum Drop (arrow) this time. 

A quick bobbin facelift to match the body finish 😁

Last & certainly not least, thanks to Master Beez for overseeing this revival.

Ibanez RG331M: Gum dropped

The first Panasonic Gum Drop capacitor I bought (initially mentioned here: CLICK) went into my Ibanez RG331M. As seen above, the installation was expertly handled by Master Beez, who had it on board, together with a new push-pull coil split switch, in no later than 6min.

I also gave my RG331M a fresh set of Dean Markley HELIX .009s & it felt great, as usual.

When it comes to objective comparisons between brand names, performance is marginal when the products in question are manifesting identical ingredients. Such is the case of Panasonic's capacitor featured here compared to its Sprague's Orange Drop counterpart. There would be more audible differences if this comparison was about switching from a PIO or ceramic capacitor to a poly unit. No love lost, though, the Gum Drop is an impressive performer, on par with what the Orange Drop has to offer.

Gum it

I've been consistently using the Orange Drop capacitor in many of my guitars for a simple reason- it works well. This here, is a Panasonic capacitor, known to the soldering dweebs as the 'Gum Drop'. Whatever it's called, I'm looking forward to drop one into one of my guitars soon. Hopefully before the Lunar New Year creeps in.