Interesting. What amp are you playing through?
I have some observations and ideas but I don't know if they are directly applicable.
I noticed with my guitars, that the acoustic tone of the guitar really influences how the pickup sounds.
For instance, I have an Ibanez RG7421 with a maple neck, rosewood board, and basswood body. The Juggernaut 7s in this guitar have a lot of focus on the upper mids and they sound very articulate. The pickups are phat and round in the low mids but somehow the richness, nuance, and complexity of the tone exists in the mids, upper mids, and treble, while the round bass is sort of vanilla or just kind of there.
I have a Godin Redline III with a LFR. It is a maple neck, rosewood board, but it has a soft maple body with poplar wings. The tone of the guitar is very similar to a balanced sounding Fender Strat. Imagine a darker version of a strat, or an otherwise somewhat bright guitar with a nice core in the low mids. The Juggernaut 6 set I have sounds rounded and gutteral with somewhat of a hollow character to the mids. The low mids just pound like a sledgehammer and there is more of a growl and complexity in this frequency range. White there is a satisfying bite in the treble, the rolled off high mids make the guitar sound creamy and very smooth, even when the pickup is extremely articulate and turns aggressive when I dig in.
My Gibson Les Paul has an A-Bomb in the bridge. Acoustically, the instrument almost reminds me of an acoustic guitar. It is resonant with nice highs, present mids, and a huge, resonant, and very open sounding low end. With the A-Bomb, this guitar sounds very articulate, warm, hairy, pissed off, and it just roars. There is a huge amount of complexity in the mids and low mids while the high end more shimmers. I can't help but think that in a basswood body instrument with a natural focus on the high mids, that this pickup would quickly become honky and strident.
My Godin LG is a mahogany bolt on neck and rosewood board instrument with a solid and heavy mahogany body. Acoustically it has a weird twang in the highs but it has a tonne of sound focused on the low mids which makes the guitar sound boomy. Even acoustically, the lows are tubby sounding with less weight in the mids and a natural dip in the high mids where the treble then starts to 'stick out'.
I took a chance and put a Rebel Yell in this guitar. In a Les Paul, it lacked output somewhat, and was very bright with a focus on the upper mids. In the Rebel Yell it sounds enormous. The contributions from the guitar just provide the reinforcement in the lows while the pickups contribute the upper mids and the wonderful harmonic sheen. The result is an articulate pickup that this huge, wide chainsaw grind to the sound.
The interaction between pickups, wood, and construction create a sound which is then shaped by an amp. The trick is to find pieces that just work well together. In your case, trying the A-Bomb will either work or not work. I'm very curious as to what the outcome will be.
