Neck pickup for Ibanez RGD2120

[fclund]

So I have decided to go with an Aftermath in the bridge position. Originally I wanted the same for the neck position, but started wondering whether this was in fact the optimal for me. The neck pickup will mainly be used for leads. I tend to like a sound for the neck pickup that is a bit less gainy and more warm and round. I have used the DiMarzio Evolution in some of my guitars, which I really liked. Is there any BN pickup that would fit the neck position better than Aftermath? The wood on the guitar is:

neck: maple/walnut
fingerboard: rosewood
body: basswood

[Toe-Knee]

I was quite fond of the aftermath in the neck. I found it matched perfectly well with the bridge. I imagine the cold sweat will work very well as would most of the vintage hot or contemporary line.

Do you have any reference tones?

[Kiichi]

While in the guitar I had it in I did not found the AM bridge to work (while it was an amazing PU, with that amount of mids in a LP it did not work as it could in at least a fender scale) I too really dug the AM neck. Currently I am giving it a run in my Ibby S with RY brige and IT middle. While it does not really match the other two PUs in terms of tone as it is too modern for them in my mind, it does again sound amazing.

A nice fluid, modern lead tone. Smooth yet cutting, full, etc. Really nothing like the brige AM but still fitting it in a complementing way.

While I have heard it do a lot different tones, the one I got out of it, more in the LP than in the Ibby, was a Awake Dream Theater tone. That early Petrucci get nailed with my amp setup, which admittadly is on the classic side. With a more modern amp than the Orange TT it really does modern leads wonderfully. Most people recommend the CS neck for that style, but in my mind the AM is a strong, strong contender and overlooked far too often.

[fclund]

Thanks for your answers. It's hard to define the reference sound other than I like the warm, less gainy, perhaps even bluesy sound for the neck - Kinda Malmsteen-ish I guess :) But I might just go with the Aftarmath and take it from there. I haven't been able to find any good videos on YouTube displaying the AM as neck pickup for soloing.

[fhn_lopes]

If you say bluesy sound I'd say Abraxas or Emerald neck are very good choices IMO. But keep in mind that the AM is very modern sounding and those are more vintage hot, with that woody tone.
Malmsteen's tone comes from single coils, hard to compare to any humbucker, but did you consider a humbucker sized P90?? MQ is a great one for the neck position.

[fclund]

The Emerald actually does seem to sound like something that would suit my needs! I will try to dig deeper into that one :)