Pickup advice for an Ibanez RGA121

[baz47]

Hey everyone, I got an Ibanez RGA121 NTF (mahogany body with a maple cap and maple/rosewood neck), it came with SD Blackouts and I just don't like actives pickups. I play through a Line6 POD HD500, I like modellers as much as I like tube amps.

I mainly play progressive metal in drop B (think Corelia, Periphery, Intervals... and other prog metalcore bands), so i'm looking for a high-output set that handles distortion as well as cleans.

For the bridge pickup, i'd like it tight, warm and full-sounding with a fast response and nice definition for complex chords and riffage.
For the neck, liquid notes and great voicing are what i'm searching. I often use the neck pickup splitted for cleans.

I tried the Black Hawk set in a friend's RGA121, i love how versatile, clear and brutal they are and how easily they get into a mix but I want my pickups to have a different grind/voicing.

I did some research  that led me to these pickups set, but my mind isn't really settled :

Juggernaut neck / bridge
Cold Sweat neck / Painkiller bridge
VHII neck / Holy Diver bridge

If you guys have recommandations, let me know ! :)

[darrenw5094]

Painkiller was my first choice. Not sure how the Jugg would sound in a low tunning like that.

[Sarkasis]

If you want it to sound warm and full, and tight with a fast response, you're sort of pulling in two different directions. The Aftermath will have chord clarity and is as tight and fast as they come, but I don't know that I'd call it warm exactly. Nice and angry, but it's too metallic to sound "warm." The Painkiller is brighter and colder than the Aftermath if anything, so I'm not sure that's where you want to go either.

The Holydiver is great, it's thicker than the other options you're looking at. Whether it's tight enough is up to personal preference. I think the obvious choices for you are between the Holydiver and Juggernaut.