Pickups for a Jim Root Tele

[Nolly]

How much of this 'c--ked-wah' sound is because of amp settings, and boost pedals with the tone knob maxed out?  (LOLing at how on a british forum, 'c--k' is censored hahahahahaha) I have two guitars with Juggernauts in them.  My Ibanez RG7421 sounds like an ibanez.  Typical focused and bright metal tones.  It is a little bit zingy and stringy on low open strings but overall, I don't hear it as having a narrow and overly focused frequency band.  To me, it just sounds like a REALLY good Ibanez.  The Godin Redline III has a more distinct tone but the guitar is distinct to begin with.

Hardware Modifications:
The Redline III was warm, phat, and dark with a hollow character to the mids.  Kind of the opposite of a c--ked wah.  When my LFR broke, I replaced it wish a Schaller and an after market 5/8 brass block. from Killer Guitar Components  The Schaller with the stock block had tight lows and a huge upper mid emphasis but with the 5/8 brass block, it became more balanced sounding.  Still brighter and more focused than the LFR, with fantastic sustain.

With the RG7421, the stock bridge caused it to be somewhat boomy and low mid focused.  Switching the nut to a TUSQ nut and swapping the bridge for a Hipshot FP steel replacement tightened up the lows and really emphasized the high mids and harmonics. 

I am quite shocked at how much a bridge can shape tone.  Personally, I'd say the Juggernaut does have a distinctive mid character but the pickup has a lot of its weight in the low mids.  They're pretty huge.  It has a purring top end with a nice bight, and the lows and sub lows roll off nicely to retain tightness. 

All that said, Nolly's recommendations are probably great.  The juggs are balanced, versatile, and awesome, but either you like the modern voicing or you don't.  It's a pretty divisive pickup haha.

I actually don't really understand the c--ked wah analogy with the Juggernauts! As you say, they have plenty of mids but spread nicely across the whole midrange, not overly focussed in one area, and with the resonant peak much higher up in the upper mids than an EMG81 or Ragnarok.

[corydull]

No worries! The blade pickups don't have spacing options since it is not necessary (there aren't individual pole-pieces to line up with the strings).
One consideration for your pickup swap is that with only one pot on your guitar, you might want to consider using a 250K pot (or 280K if you buy from BKP), to give the equivalent loading of two 500K pots as is standard for humbuckers. A single 500K pot would be equivalent to using a 1meg volume and tone setup, which makes results in a much peakier resonance in the pickups' high mids when the volume is on full, and a pronounced dulling of the tone as you roll it back. Some players have a preference for this more metallic sound, but nowadays I'm recommending using a 250K pot or 500 with a 500k resistor between live and ground (same loading as a 250K pot when wide open) if you're not specifically after that character.

Ok cool!
I checked my guitar before I left for vacation. It has a single 250K pot so I will probably just keep using that pot. I think I’m pretty sold on BH pickups and more than likely will go with the ceramic version. The Root tele is kinda dark so I think the ceramic will be a good fit.

I’ve tried Dimarzio and Duncan and EMG, so I believe I’m ready to give BKPs a shot.