Ibanez RG Premium...
Bad To The Bone

Now we come to the differences:

• Ibanez RG870
  
  
  

  The RG870 is available in one finish: a nice, shiny Black(okay by me - it looks sinister).

  The RG870 has killer sound thanks to three Alnico magnet pickups: a very hot CAP VM2 humbucker at the bridge, a clean and bright but sweet sounding CAP VMS1 single-coil in the middle and a CAP VM1 humbucker at the neck that is deep and warm without being muddy. The CAP VM1 is hot without being distorted and has great harmonics.

  To help you shape your tone just the way you want it, the RG870 sports chrome master volume and tone control knobs and a 5-way pickup selector switch. The selector switch allows you to use the bridge pickup only, split the bridge pickup coils and combine the "inner" coil with the middle pickup, select the middle pickup only, split the coils of the neck pickup and combine its "inner" coil with the middle pickup or select the neck pickup only. The tonal variations you can get with this versatility are practically endless.

  When its all said and done, the RG870 is as bad to the bone as it looks.



• Ibanez RG920QM





The RG920QM begins its differences with the finishes. It's available in 5 finishes: Cobalt Blue Surge, Black Ice(my favorite), High Voltage Violet(a bit funky for my tastes), Liquid Inferno(looks like it's on fire) and Red Desert(I like this one, too. It looks kind of like the fire and shadow of the Balrog in the Lord of The Rings). In addition, they all have a Flamed Maple top. They all look great - it just depends on your taste.

The differences continue in the sonic department. The RG920QM sports a pair of Dimarzio ceramic magnet humbuckers: an IBZ-B in the bridge and an IBZ-N at the neck. These guys are good for some blistering sound, believe me. Again, to shape your tone, you get chrome master volume and tone controls and a 5-way pickup selector switch. The selector switch works differently than the switch in the RG870(since it has two pickups instead of three, it has to.) The 1^st position give you the bridge pickup alone, the 2^nd position still gives you the bridge pickup alone but "re-routes" the wiring so that the coils are wired in parallel rather than in series. If you don't know electronics this basically doubles the output of the pickup - definitely makes a screamer. The 3^rd position gives you both pickups combined, the 4^th position splits the coils in both pickups and gives you the "inner" coils of both pickups and the 5^th position gives you the neck pickup alone. Again, the tonal variations are practically endless.

The RG920QM is definitely in a class of its own.