RG20th Pickup Replacement - Need Some Advice

[JeffWiredBeck24]

I've been doing some heavy research into DiMarzio lately, and I know some players here have put DiMarzios on their guitar(s). I have an Ibanez RG550RXX and, after reading the descriptions of just about every humbucker on their site, I have come to some ideas.

-Tone Zone in Bridge/Air Norton in Neck
-Steve's Special in Bridge/Air Norton in Neck

Now I have some questions. I play mostly Progressive, some Fusion, and some heavier Prog/Metal (Vai, Dream Theater, Satch, etc.) and Blues (but I have a Strat for that). I also want to be able to get good cleans out of them too. So, how are these pickup combinations for what I'm doing? Which one should I pick? Also, should keep the stock single-coil on the RG or switch it out for a Blue Velvet/FS-1? I do use the single-coil (mostly combined with the humbuckers) from time to time.

Any help in appreciated, thanks.

[Yousef]

I think that for more versatility you should go with the Tone Zone/Air Norton duo. Ever thought about Evo pickups ? Those are quite versatile too, and will help a lot with the Proggy kinda stuff and with the Vai and Satch stuff. The Tone Zone will give you great bassy clean tones, not sure about the Air Norton though, but I heard it is great for a clean jazzy kinda sound in the neck position.
Ever thought about wiring the neck and humbucker in a 5 way and leaving out the single coil ? You can get single coil like sounds out of that config. If you are to go for a single coil, I would tell you to check out the Area 58 or the Area 61, those give great single coil sounds with virtually no hum. You could go with the J custom single coil ( Blue Velvet ), because that would probably go well with the Norton and Zone.

[JeffWiredBeck24]

^Thanks a lot for the advice, very detailed. I'll probably try out Tone Zone/Blue Velvet/Air Norton. Thanks again.

[Dee]

I guess you don't like the stock pickups? I think they are nice.

[JeffWiredBeck24]

Originally Posted by Dee

I guess you don't like the stock pickups? I think they are nice.

It's not that I hate them, I just think the DiMarzio's will be better for me. The stock bridge pickup isn't bad, but I don't really like the neck pickup, and I use it a significant amount of the time. I hate being a one-tone kind of player.

[jb4674]

Why is it that 90% of the threads in this section have the same question? Does anyone ever search the threads first to see if there have been similar questions posted before, rather than wasting space on the server posting the same questions over and over again?

Jimmy