New pickups for Ibanez RG2550E

[Alfi27]

Hello. I recently bought an Ibanez RG2550E, one of the best playing guitars I have ever tried! As with all my other guitars, I will exchange the pickups for Bare Knuckles to make the guitar "mine" (the Dimarzios are quite decent, but they ain't no Bare Knuckles!). The bridge-pickups sounds a little bit flubby, and is maybe the least tight pickup I have heard, while the neck is a little bit low output.
Mr Ben French at Bare Knuckle recommended me a set of Nailbombs (ceramic bridge) and a Trilogy Suite in the middle. However, there is a guy who sells a set of (used) Painkillers for a little bit over half the price of a new set...
The guitar will be used for Metallica, Racer X and similar (pretty technical stuff) and I bought the RG to be my metal/shred guitar. It is important that the bridge pickup is tight, raw and powerful, yet useful for leads even though I will use the neck mostly for them fast sweep/legato licks. The neck has to be smooth and fluid, yet articulate and not muddy. My amplifier of choice is the Mesa Boogie Mini Rectifier. I have a Gibson Les Paul Standard with a set of Cold Sweats, and I want something hotter for the RG.

[darkbluemurder]

I don't have practical experience with any of the pickups mentioned but I would say go for the used Painkiller set. The PK neck has been hailed as a great shredding lead pickup, and the PK bridge should tick most of the boxes you mentioned (most definitely tight, raw and powerful). Hopefully people having used or using these will chime in.

Cheers Stephan

[Alfi27]

Thank you for your answer. I am a little bit skeptical about the Painkiller. I have heard it has a "nasty upper mid spike", and in general has a "love or hate-tone", and also ceramic in both neck and bridge might decrease versatility. I also looked at the Aftermaths, but they might be too tight and maybe more pointed towards that extreme metal-music.

[Telerocker]

I would follow Ben's advice.