Gonna get new pickups for my S-series, here are the choices, help me out guys.

[Xeromus]

I play a wide variety of styles but mostly modern progressive rock and such. Will be used for blues and jazz also but this is my straight up rock machine. Ibanez S-series, sing sing hum. I'm leaning toward a Distortion bridge, cool rails middle, and lil 59 neck. But here are the choices, and I could use suggestions from you guys that know these pickups better than I do.

Neck: Lil' 59 - Cool Rails - Hot Rails

Middle: Cool Rails - Hot rails

Bridge: Distortion, Custom 5, JB

I'm getting rid of the Dimarzios in it because I'm done with bumblebee tone. They sound way thin too, especially the singles. I've got my Tele for my single coil rippin'.

I'm concerned the hot rails may be too hot for the neck or middle. Neck I'm looking for a warm fat clean and distorted tone. Middle something versatile. Bridge, something pretty hot and crunchy. I love the JB, unreal sounding pickup, but it's super smooth and warm, just looking for something a little crunchier, but I can't deny how good that pickup sounds.

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Re: Gonna get new pickups for my S-series, here are the choices, help me out guys.

i dont think the distortion would be all that good for the jazzy stuff. so i say a JB
for neck i say a lil 59, and something more single coil like sound for middle to get a more variety of tones.
here are my ideas:

bridge: JB
middle:classic stack
neck: lil 59

but it's your guitar though

[Neeradj]

Re: Gonna get new pickups for my S-series, here are the choices, help me out guys.

I know how JBs can warm/darken up in mahogany bodied Ibanez guitars, I'm experiencing it myself. I like heavy slabs of mahogany, but they're really overdoing it

My point being, I wouldn't recommend it for that axe. I wouldn't recommend a Distortion either, I think it had more high end, but it might be way too hot for your liking. I think the C5 would cover your musical grounds best, but it does have more bass then the JB. I think it'll balance out though, it's warmer and more open then the Distortion. For the middle defenitely a Cool Rails and a Lil' '59 for the neck.

I hope this helps