Well for petrucci tones, the Ceramic Nailbomb nails it perfectly. But judging by your other influences, a ceramic may not be your thing. Certainly an alnico Nailbomb like you said, would fit the bill perfectly, but I say get a Rebel Yell. it's perfect for the styles you play. very versatile. He's a description below which I've took from another post of mine:
I've just been recommended the Rebel Yell/VHII. When I asked Tim about playing mostly Instrumental music, with Prog Metal, he recommended me the Rebel Yell/VHII (or the Nailbomb in the bridge if I need more output). I spoke to Nolly regarding the Rebel Yell vs. Nailbomb. This is what he said:
"Funnily enough the Rebel Yell is very closely related to the Nailbomb in design, and there is certainly a "family resemblance". The RY is brighter, more upper mid focussed and tighter than the Nailbomb, and also has a cleaner edge to the notes where the Nailbomb is more saturated and grinding. The Rebel Yell/VHII combination is my main pickup choice for the progressive metal I play with my band. I basically wanted a bridge pickup that had the low end control of a ceramic pickup, but without the associated glassy/hard treble. The Rebel Yell does a great job of that, plus also has an excellent dynamic response that works very nicely for the lower-gain lead and rhythm tones I sometimes use.
So I came to the decision that regarding output, it isn't really worth the extra benefits that the Rebel Yell provides. For Instrumental music, the 'upper-mid focus' and the 'cleaner edge' to the notes, really sounds appealing to really get that solo sound to really be heard. If your still worrying about output, just look at the DC of the Aftermath, and that's meant to be the most 'metal' pick of the BKP range.
And for the music you play, there is a lot of Instrumentation required to your playing, as you probably know from listening to Dream Theater.
For the Single Coils, get the Trilogy Suites :)
