I have a 90's Jackson RR5 which I believe is spec'd with an alder body, maple neck, and rosewood fretboard. A lot of what I've read suggests the guitar is equipped with Seymour Duncan TB-4 humbuckers in the bridge and neck position. Looking at mine, I don't believe that to be the case. I suspect is has a TB-4 in the bridge (due to the f spacing) and a jazz in the neck.



I do not care for the sound of these pickups. They sound muddy to me. I really want to replace them. I'm leaning toward DiMarzio. I want to install push-pull pots for coil tapping so the pickups need to be capable of that.

As for what the guitar will be used for... I play standard tuning and want a tighter and more balanced sound. My lead sounds thin in the upper register so I want to warm it up a bit, but I also don't want to lose the nuance of pick attack and harmonics. I want big chords to have clarity with distortion - basically what every rocking guitarist wants. A lot of really good guitarists seem to play DiMarzio, guys that I enjoy listening to. Should I just throw a Tone Zone in the bridge and a PAF Pro in the neck and see what happens?

Seymour Duncan makes several pickups that might work for you. they have a good website to poke around, I just spent about an hour there.

I like EMG myself 81 or 85 they both sound good  thats what i have in my rhoads edt jackson

Now that is a demo. That being said, that video seems to reinforce impressions I've already held about SD pickups: they are great for high gain applications. It would have been nice to know the type of guitar and amp being used. It sounded really good, but I'm a little more of a nuanced player. I would have liked to hear some clean tone demos.

I really like the EMG 81 bridge and EMG 60 neck.  I think they sound FANTASTIC!!

That's Keith Merrow doing the demo. He's playing one of his Signature Schecter KM-6 guitars (ash body, set maple neck, maple top, ebony fretboard), and he's more than likely playing through his 5150, Rhodes Colossus, or a Kemper profile of either of those amps.

Edit: The full signal chail is in the video description. KM-6 into a 5150 into a Two-Notes Torpedo, ect.....

As far as what you're looking for, bear in mind that neck thru guitars tend to be a bit darker than other types of construction, which is why a JB works so well in a bolt on, but sounds muddy in a neck thru.

As far as what pickups to try, you can try a magnet swap first. If you go here: http://www.addiction-fx.com/gallery1.htm, you can price them and order if you wish. Your JB has a similar, but not identical, wind on the bobbins to the Distortion. Also the JB has an A5 magnet, which gives a pickup a bigger bottom end, and in the case of the JB it's loose and flubby. The Distortion has a double thickness Ceramic 8, which makes things tight and bright across the board. So if you were to swap a standard C8 in there, you would be making what is called a JB+, which brings the JB closer to the Distortion side of things. If the top end turns out to be too shrill with the C8, you can also try an A8, which has the strong mids and tight low end like a C8, but has a smoother high end that many people describe as being similar to an A2 (think Gibson Burstbuckers).

ETA: you can also tighten the bottom end of the JB by either cutting off some of the excess length of the rooster screws or buying some shorter ones. Some people also report that Allen headed screws help too.

But if the magnet swapping doesn't suit you, I would throw a Seymour Duncan Custom in there, adjust the top end with the size of the tone cap (smaller to shave off highs, bigger for more brightness), and leave the Jazz alone, or maybe put a Phat Cat in the neck.

And EMG 81, 60, & 85 pickups sound sterile, IMHO.

I don't have as deep a knowledge as Gone_Shootin, but I have a Nazgul in the neck of my Schecter Blackjack. I really love the sound of it, however i've not heard the Sentient in the neck position. I bought the Sustainiac model, but after hearing the Nazgul I kinda wish I would have went with the Nazgul/Sentient combo.



*edit*

After watching the shootout video, I'm considering Black Winters for my Ibanez.

I am another fan of EMG for all things rock. Anything else I love single coils whether they be Fender style or Gibson P90's

Thank you for the compliment.

I haven't heard a Sentient or Nazgül in person, and the only demos I've heard are metal, so I have no idea if they're any good for other genres.

I do however have a Black Winter set. Sound wise, they're basically like a Distortion set with a more hi-fi top end (due to the extra magnets it has in it, the Distortion has a single double thick Ceramic 8, while the Black Winter has three double thick Ceramic 8 magnets, and the Black Winter is also wound with different wire). Meaning that there is more to the top end, almost as if they pick up an extended range of frequencies, and have a more present and crisp top end. This is good for some situations, but if you have a guitar that's already on the bright side, it'll just exacerbate the situation. Such as the case with my mahogany bodied Ibanez. I had the luck of it being made out of some extremely bright mahogany, so when I threw the BWs in there, it was shrill city.

I've also discovered that BWs have a tendency to bring out any quirks in a guitar's tone. This happened with my Gibson Explorer. The stock Gibson pickups sounded like crap, so I bought the BW set to try in there, and that's when I discovered that my Explorer has an overabundance of tubby sounding low mids.

I've had my Black Winter set in my Explorer, bolt-on Jackson King V, Les Paul, and the mahogany Ibanez. So far they have sounded best in the King V. I have considered putting them in my basswood Ibanez, because I think it would be a good fit with the basswood's subdued top end, but I like it so much with the Dimebucker in the bridge that I doubt I'll ever swap it out for anything else. But I have a Jackson neck thru King V with Basswood wings that I plan on throwing the BWs into. It should be a good fit since that guitar is naturally dark sounding.

That's an incredible amount of information. I'm not sure if I'm ready to tackle changing out the magnets on a pickup. It's probably an easy task, but I guess I'm just looking for a pickup with a different sound altogether. Seymour Duncan has always struck me as a pickup for metal like EMG pickups really driving up the gain in the amp. I have enough gain in my amp I don't think I necessarily need to rely on a pickup to do that for me.

I guess you've given me some things to consider namely that the guitar has a neck thru construction and how that is affecting sound. I didn't know that, but I think I can hear it. I don't want my highs to sound shrill, and I'm worried a SD will do that.

Not all Seymour Duncan pups have a really bright top end. The Custom I suggested does, because it has a C8 magnet in it. But you can try a Custom Custom, which is the same pickup, but with an A2 magnet, which tends to give pickups aa mellow top end, and a decent amount of mids. A2s can be a little flubby on the bottom end in some pickups, but doesn't seem to be a problem with the Custom Custom. The thing I like about the Custom line (which also includes the Custom 5), is that they are basically a beefed up PAF, or as SD describes it, a PAF on steroids. And they're moderate in output, so they won't push your amp too much.

But their pickup line runs the gamut. They have old school PAF types, moderate output stuff like the Custom line I mentioned, the Screamin' Demon, or the Perpetual Burn, and of course the high output stuff. They also do what they call a shop floor custom, which is halfway between a standard production pickup and a full-blown custom pickup. Stuff that falls into this category are things like different magnets, logo delete, different bobbin colors, different pole pieces, different screws, ect. And if you have questions, they're pretty good about answering emails, which can be found when you click contact us under the support tab.

Also, magnet swapping isn't as hard as it sounds. The main thing is to be careful about the wires, which are on one side of the pickup. This how-to shows you how to pull the bobbins off of the baseplate to accomplish this, but many people have simply used a very small screwdriver or punch the would fit in between the bobbin wires, and simply pushed the magnet out the other side far enough that they could grab it with their thumb and forefinger. Then all you have to do is carefully slide the other magnet in it's place.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/tinkering-with-pickups-102-the-humbucker-magnet-swap

Oh, and speaking of the Perpetual Burn, give this a listen. In this demo it's loaded in a Carvin Jason Becker Signature model, which IIRC, is a maple neck thru with an alder body, a maple top, and a maple fretboard. I can't remember all of the specs, but it's listed on Carvin's site. It seems to be a fairly versatile pickup. I'm planning on putting one in my USA Soloist (maple neck thru, alder body, maple top, and ebony fretboard) and USA King V (maple neck thru, alder wings ebony fretboard).





 

Some good info here. I have a RG550 20th with a basswood body. I may try a BW set next spring.



 

Dimarzio X2N Bridge & Super Distortion 2 Neck
or for a little less output....



Super Distortion 3 Bridge & PAF Pro Neck
Option 1 I have in a USA Jackson Soloist, 2 Dinky's and a RR Pro model....all but the USA is bolt on neck...I also have them in an Epiphone Dot..



For high output, they retain clarity and reproduce the frequency spectrum exceptionally well.



I will say the Super 2 needs to be set low but it will take the mud out of the neck spot. This pickup allows for pole adjustments.



The X2N can be set according to taste/desire. It is made for distortion. Set low or rolling the volume back a touch, it can be used for cleans; however at full volume, it will act as a mild overdrive. This pickup does not allow for pole adjustments.
Option 2 I have in a Gibson Studio Pro and Gibson Halcyon.



The Super 3 will tame off that mid-range 'honk' Gibson pickups are known for, they will sound 'modern', very 80's to current rock & metal.



Good, tight low end, clear and not shrill in the treble area.



The PAF pro's are excellent neck pickups. I actually even like them for rhythm playing (which is something I never used a neck pickup for). Creamy leads, awesome clean tone and great string separation.



The PAF pro, I like using the split coil option...get that 'jangly' sound...but it does noticeably cut the output.



Both pickups allows for pole adjustments.





I had the Tone Zone...years ago...it was worshiped when it was first introduced, but I didn't hear any real difference between that and the stock Jackson PU at the time (course it was when I had a crappy crate stealth tube amp and was only playing for about a year).





Before you rip them out...have you exhausted all adjustment options? Overall PU height and raising/lowering the individual poles?

Sometimes lowering the PU and raising the poles (screws) will clear them up and enhance the missing frequencies.