I'll try to keep this as brief as possible, I'm looking for a new set of pickups for my Mayones Regius, 24 fret, 25.4" scale, 6-string guitar. It came with Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz pickups, which I don't like. The JB is bright without being open, and has a very rounded, focused high-end that feels almost "blunt." It reminds me of everything that I don't like about a Vintage 30 speaker. The Jazz neck was actually OK for me.
I'm most used to Gibson Les Pauls, and I would like this Regius to be a sort of modernized Les Paul , with the crispness and snap that comes from a longer scale length, better upper fret access, flatter fretboard, etc. I like Gibson Burstbuckers and Custombuckers (I have a nice R9) but I would like the Regius to be more modern, tighter in the bass, and have higher output. Clean sounds are very important to me, and I would like to have usable coil splitting. I usually tune the guitar a 1/2 step down but no more, so I don't need the extended low range that some modern players want. I play mostly 80s, 90s, and 2000s alternative rock, and the heaviest that I get would be Katatonia, Alice in Chains, Porcupine Tree, some Opeth, etc. Otherwise I'm usually in Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Piliots, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd territory.
One caveat is that with a Les Paul I pretty much always have the Neck tone on 10 and Bridge tone on 5-6, and the Regius has a single shared tone control, so I'm having a hard time finding a set that balances out the way I want it to.
Tim here recommended the True Grit or Emeralds, and I tried the True Grits. After some tweaking they were quite good! I was surprised at how much I liked the split coil bridge, it sounded very Tele-like. However, I felt that I was always wanting to roll my tone knob down halfway going to the bridge, or all the way up going to the neck. I felt like the bridge could be a little warmer and the neck could have possibly had a little more highs.
Because I found good prices on used ones, I bought an Emerald neck and Alnico Naillbomb bridge, and have been trying that combo for a couple of months. Individually both are quite good, but I don't think that they mix all that well. Personally the Emerald neck seems too warm for me (though it's quite nice), and the Nailbomb is perhaps a little bright. Both pickups are also probably hotter than I really need, especially the Nailbomb, so I definitely don't want anything with more output than these.
Thoughts? I'm thinking of putting the True Grits back in again. Also of trying a Holydiver set, since I hear that the neck is pretty bright and the bridge is warm and full, which might solve my problem of always wanting to turn my tone knob down when I go to the bridge (this is a problem I have with every non-Les Paul, actually). Other ideas might be some combination of Black Dog, VHII, or Abraxas, though I've heard that the Abraxas can be very loose in the lows and I'm put off of the EQ curve of the VHII and Emerald bridge on the website (both have less bass, more mids, and even more highs).
Thanks!
Quick edit: in case it wasn't clear, I really want this guitar to be more suited for the Katatonia, Opeth, Alice in Chains, Porcupine Tree stuff. I have more vintage style guitars for PAF sounds, I just don't need it to do extreme modern metal or djent, etc.
