Recommend me some pickups

[Bleak]

I've got a 2006 PRS CE24 (Mahogany body / Maple neck & top / Rosewood fretboard), and it's definitely time to swap out the pickups. Right now it's still got the stock HFS/Vintage Bass setup. I play mostly progressive music, but I do like my guitars to be able to get into metal territory on occasion.
To my ears, the HFS is way to woofy. I need to fix this more than anything. I never use the bridge pickup for cleans, so that's not an issue.
The Vintage Bass isn't bad, but I'd like something a little bit hotter -- my notes seem to sag a bit too much for my tastes. I use my neck pickup for more intricate leads, and all of my clean stuff, so it's got to be good in both realms.
I'd like to stay with Seymour Duncan Dimarzio, as I can get a neato little discount from a couple of friends. I don't want to go the active route, either. I can't stand them.

Anyways, thanks in advance

 

[Bleak]

Bumpsies. I could really use the help.

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

Hey man. In my personal opinion I'm starting to prefer the idea of playing a guitar that uses lower output humbuckers that are very responsive to your playing while you use your amp to drive your gain to the forefront. If you have a quality responsive amp this can bring out things in your playing & might even get you out of a rut if you feel the pickups have you in one. By this theory the best pick ups you could buy would be a Rio Grand BBQ & Texas hum set. They're slightly expensive, but you pay for the quality.

I would love to try some Suhr Doug Aldrich's. I assume that they're similar to the Rio Grande's, but I've never played them.

If you want a high gain mass produced pick up why not look into DiMarzio Evolutions? They're pretty high gain & pretty responsive pickups. They would also go great in your guitar. You have a sweet guitar, I wouldn't ruin it by putting souper high gain pups in it, but the EVO's are high gain passive pups. With that PRS you want the tone woods to carry your tone too. If you want higher gain Michael Romeo uses a Dimarzio X2N in the bridge & Tone Zone in the neck.

 

[streetknight]

Dimarzio D Sonic in the bridge and Air Norton in the neck. I have that setup in a guitar and it's wonderful.

If you change your mind about those two brands though you might wanna contact Brian Gushner at BG-pups.com. He has clips on his sight and he'll hand wind whatever you want. I had the Hellabucker and it was awesome 18k of output with an Alnico 5 magnet. Split really well too. The man knows his pups. I think they're around $75-$80 a piece.

 

[brockburst]

Download duncan clips. They are all on their website, download them, play them blind in a random playlist, mark which ones you like, and keep chugging along. Choices will come apparent....you may beat yourself up as you narrow to 2 necks or 2 bridges you like. When it really comes down to it you won't make a bad choice.

I play nearly the exact same stuff you do. Everyone would say JB in the Neck, 59 in the Bridge.

I wanted a neck pickup that was more responsive and had a more vintage lead feel, its aggressive yet versatile. To compliment that I wanted a hotter bridge pup...so I took one notch past the 59 and got a Custom 5. Because of guitar centers great return policy. I bought a JB/59 set too. Put one in one LP, one in the other of similar weights. Jazz, Custom 5 won.

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

Dimarzio D Sonic in the bridge and Air Norton in the neck. I have that setup in a guitar and it's wonderful.

I have this set up in my Petrucci BFR. Great set up, & a great blend for this guitar. Very MODERN sounding. I still think the EVO's would work better in the PRS he described though.

 

[Bleak]

Okay guys, thanks for the responses so far. I agree with what you guys are saying, I just don't have an extensive knowledge of pickups, and I can get a set for a little less than what one of those pickups would cost regularly.

As far as the overly hot thing, I totally agree. I can't stand the sound of something too hot; it gets mushy and uncharacteristic. I should've clarified by saying something a little more modern sounding that's *very* tight.
I'm also liking the recommendations so far. I have a few ideas on how some of the pickups mentioned above sound, but none with this wood combination.

I've got the D-Sonic/Air Norton combo in my Music Man JP 7 string. It's definitely nice sounding, though my main gripes are it's not terribly tight. Something tells me that's likely the basswood tone, though :/
I've got a JB/Jazz setup in my LTD M-1000. Pretty bright guitar, but it works out really well for that one -- it may be bright, but the JB is very tight, and the Jazz cleans up really well.
I've also got the JB/'59 in my LTD Ninja. It sounds pretty massive in there, and I do like it, but it's also a touch boomy for my tastes. It's nothing that bothers me too much, but it's not quite perfect yet. I like the sound of the '59, though.
And last, but least, I have a Dimarzio Evolution in my Highway One strat. I hate it. I may swap it into the PRS to see what it's like, but I've had a rough experience with the tone here in the strat.

So basically, my point is, I've tried a lot of these pickups, but not in this wood combination. So far you guys have helped out a good bit, and I definitely appreciate it. Hopefully this post can help you all narrow it down to something that would work really well

 

[Bleak]

Download duncan clips. They are all on their website, download them, play them blind in a random playlist, mark which ones you like, and keep chugging along. Choices will come apparent....you may beat yourself up as you narrow to 2 necks or 2 bridges you like. When it really comes down to it you won't make a bad choice.

I play nearly the exact same stuff you do. Everyone would say JB in the Neck, 59 in the Bridge.

I wanted a neck pickup that was more responsive and had a more vintage lead feel, its aggressive yet versatile. To compliment that I wanted a hotter bridge pup...so I took one notch past the 59 and got a Custom 5. Because of guitar centers great return policy. I bought a JB/59 set too. Put one in one LP, one in the other of similar weights. Jazz, Custom 5 won.

My apologies for the double post, but I just noticed you said JB in the neck, and 59 in the bridge. That's wayy different than anything I've ever heard. I always hear it being the opposite. Is there a notable difference in tone? i.e. does the bridge have a neck-like tonal quality and vice versa?

 

[streetknight]

And last, but least, I have a Dimarzio Evolution in my Highway One strat. I hate it. I may swap it into the PRS to see what it's like, but I've had a rough experience with the tone here in the strat.

Is the Evolution in the bridge posistion? I played one of the New Charvels the other day that had a Tone Zone in the bridge and Evolution in the neck, it was pretty sweet, but is an alder guitar.

 

[Bleak]

Is the Evolution in the bridge posistion? I played one of the New Charvels the other day that had a Tone Zone in the bridge and Evolution in the neck, it was pretty sweet, but is an alder guitar.

Nah, the Evo's in the bridge. It's routed for HSS

 

[Bleak]

I figured it's better to bump this thread than start a new one, but here's some developments.
I put the Evolution in the bridge position and switched the 5-way rotary of the PRS to a 3 way toggle. The evolution's a little bit of an improvement, but it's still not really getting me where I want tonally.
I'm open to more suggestions if anyone has them.