Pickups for RGT320Q

[jbandy10]

I'm learning this is a very difficult guitar to match pickups with. It's got a maple core, mahogany wings, maple neck... Not exactly an easy fixer.

I looked at a lot of dimarzios. Most everything I think is either too high gain or too low gain for what I need. And the ones that have the amount of gain I want aren't really eq'd for the guitar.

I'm playing progressive metal by the way.

I need something in the 17k-20k range. I used to use emg's but I want something more natural but with the same compression. I considered D-activators, but I don't think they will be for me.

At this point I'm thinking maybe the Doug Aldrich pickups might actually be what I want. Although I may replace the neck with a breed.

I heard the breeds were good in this guitar, but I don't think the breed bridge will be able to handle the gain I'll be using.

[Zgicc]

Duncan - Jazz/JB
Dimarzio - Air Norton/Tone Zone

I'm sure others will suggest Bareknuckle but I have no experience with those...

[LowYaw]

I'm not sure how those Aldrich pickups would sound in split modes; it's half the fun with Ibanez guitars, I mean, good sounding split modes. You should start with the stock pickups - they're not that bad, btw, not at all - see what you don't like about them, precisely, and work from there.

[jbandy10]

I considered the AN/TZ combo but I already have a guitar with that combo. I'm don't really need another.

I'm afraid the Aldrich neck won't be hot enough for me. I was thinking of putting a liquifire in its place.

[LowYaw]

AN-TZ is a very versatile combo; and anyway, the same pickups in different guiatrs give you different tonal variations. SD's Jazz - JB is very versatile, too, and is worth considering. again, the vital point is understanding the areas in which stock pickups fail to deliver the goods )