I'll be honest and say that I haven't been overly impressed with any BKPs that I've had in my guitars, except for the Coldsweats that I have in my mahogany/maple PRS CE22. Those sound incredible.
The reason I say I've not been impressed with others is that I also have Coldsweats in my basswood ibanez and they sound completely different. Clearly woods matter, and so I was wondering if I put the same pickups in my custom 24, is the solid rosewood neck going to make a difference in the Coldsweats tone compared to how they are in my CE22?
I have them HFS and VB in there at the minute and they're a bit bright and brittle for me. I like really thick and aggressive tone for rhythm, not flubby. For lead thick and smooth, not bright but not dull.
The guitar contributes a lot acoustically to the overall tone you hear coming from an amplifier. I had a ridiculously bassy / muddy guitar and the cure for that was a Rebel Yell bridge. That pickup was in my Les Paul and was cranked way high with the screws turned quite far down. It still sounded overly middy and almost thin in the lows in that axe.
Put it in a phat sounding axe and viola, HUGE sound with a massive / clear bottom and lots of bite on top.
Thick and Aggressive = Juggerset in a Superstrat. This is a more smooth tone with bite in the harmonics / highs and a nice, rounded treble. Low mids pound and the pickup rolls off the bass right before the woofy frequencies start. Great in a brighter but balanced sounding axe. (Which makes them perhaps not such a good idea for a PRS SC, depending on the tone of that guitar)
A-Bomb is great in a balanced but warm sounding axe like a Les Paul and perhaps a PRS SC. This is a different sort of aggression, with lots of grit, bad attitude, and misbehavior. It is a warm sounding pickup with a nice treble response but less harmonic bite than a Rebel Yell. Definitely brighter and more rolled off in the lows than the A-Bomb.
RE: the Ibanez: What are the pot values in that guitar? If they're like 250k - or worse yet, 50k a la actives - you will get some high frequency roll off. What did the RG sound like acoustically? Was it super bassy? The A-Bomb is a bright but balanced sounding pickup and it wouldn't have much for lows in a similarly bright guitar. It has happened here before where someone installed passives in a guitar equipped for actives. The result was a ball of mud tone like you describe.
So, I think you should play your guitars unplugged and compare the tone. I'm going to upload, yet again, a recording I did comparing some of my guitars unplugged. This should provide some valuable context for you. Compare the sound of all these instruments with yours and this should help you pick pickups.
Guitar 1) Warm / Dark / Bassy with a bump in the low treble. Darkest / dullest guitar.
Guitar 2) Warm and balanced. More mid focused. I'm guessing this will be closest to the PRS SC
Guitar 3) Bright and Balanced with some lows.
Guitar 4) Overly Bright.
