Ibanez: RG821... foiled

Here's a look under at the Ibanez RG821 control cavity.

It must be a standard procedure now- to line a foil in addition to the shielding paint, we've seen that in another Premium model, the S970. This is by no means a superior treatment because shielding is effective even without the foil inclusion. More importantly, if your pickups are given the correct treatment in dealing with extraneous noise (eg: wax potting), this should be a secondary concern.

The standard of workmanship here is quite the extra you pay for- neater, less cluttered & very visually pleasing. 

The RG821 is a dual humbucking guitar but the pickup selector is a 5-way option.

Ibanez S970: Foiled

OK, let's take a look at what lurks under the Ibanez S970 cavity. We see a treble bleed capacitor for the volume pot, it's not a standard feature in Ibanez guitars so expect a difference if you roll your volume knob down. What does it do, really (if you are new to this)? It retains the top end if you choose to have your instrument volume at less than maximum levels. This means your tone won't mud-out, especially useful for the neck pickup applications. The other prim & proper treatment here is that additional shielding foil; we can clearly see adequate shielding (black) paint there so the foil inclusion was (to me) unexpected.

I'm wondering why Ibanez still chooses to equip the guitars above the standard tier offering with cheap, below par tone caps. ESP has Oranges in there, the rest of the manufacturers could learn a thing or two in this aspect.