521's innards.

Come, let me show you what's under the Ibanez RG521 control cavity.

After the makeover by Beez, this is how things look like. Some observations:

• Despite being made in Japan, the default pots from the factory are the Alpha brand. I was expecting Gotohs.
• The volume pot features a treble bleed cap which was retained.
• Ibanez's 5-way selector is now the PCB type (as indicated). I have no idea if this was the standard change for Japanese models but I'm about to find out soon.

I had Beez swap out the default tone cap with an Orange Drop as clearly seen there. Also, there was no leftover saw dust/ buffing compound in the cavity so it speaks a lot about the production ethics over at the Japanese end of things. 

Gibson: SG Standard (2)

These are the default pickups in my Gibson SG Standard- the 490R & 496T. As you can see, they had been removed from the instrument. Gibson fans might like them for their rounded, creamy tones (especially the neck pickup) but they are not my kind of pickups.

Once again, the Gibson pots & PCB. If your Gibson is a post-2010 model & isn't one to recreate a vintage original specification, it will be fitted with one of this. It makes perfect manufacturing sense in the production line when things would get a little speedier with a ready PCB inserted into the guitar body & final non-solder pickup wires attachment, but if you choose to mod your electronics selectively, you have to forgo the entire assembly. Bummer.