Hi and welcome to the forum.
I do own both the Crunchlab (in a mahahony body, bolt on maple neck 7 string) and the Aftermath (in a 6 string maple neck through, mahahony body tuned to drop Bb) and both are great pickups.
For what you are looking for I would go with the Aftermath.
The CL is a little less tight (still very tight, but the AM is beyond tight), little less clear (though great string seperation), has more bass and has a more rock-esque midrange I would say. Not that it cannot do what you seek, but compared to the AM it is more of pickup for modern rock.
The CL does scream Petrucci, but his sound is very rock influenced, with a different grit, which is set more in the lower mids than the AM. That grit (and the dimarzio top end fizz) are the main things that set these two appart.
They voicing is just a hint too classic for what you want Iīd recon.
The AM on the other hand I feel is very, very modern metal (but can also be suprisingly versatile).
If I had to use just two words to describe the AM it would be "surgical" and "alive".
The bass and lower mids deliver punch and chug without overly big boom. It is very clear and precise and really in your face without being overwhelming. It will hit you in the face out of nowhere and be gone again before you know what happened.
The mids are very pronounced and will give you a nice cut with a higher mid focus. Again very clear and precise, donīt dare scoop them.
The highs are cutting yet rounded, giving you very good clarity and presence without being piercing.
Overall you get a sound that is clear as a single coil with the punch and cleanlyness under gain of a humbucker. If anything is out of controll here it is your fault alone, cause this thing does not $%&# around.
The voicing is beatiful. It is a middy sound while being modern metal. This is hard to describe as a lot of modern metal bands scoop the mids out, but this thing has the same clean distortion voicing but letīs you think: Why donīt they all sound like this?
The mids allow you to get an amazing guitar sound and cut, but with this voicing donīt get you the sort of grit you would find in classic rock or heavy metal if you donīt wanne get them. I think most modern metal players scoop the mids out to avoit this kind of grit.
But here the mids are...I guess I would say so clean that they fit the modern metal feel perfectly. Best of both worlds.
Also Misha does use Aftermaths^^
Cheers
Kiichi
