Re: JB versus Tone Zone
It took me a long time to understand and appreciate the JB. I had some wiring issues and dialed my amp in with lots of mids, and it just never seemed right. After some time, I came to appreciate it as a very tight, articulate, and hot pickup. Although the JB is a stock pickup on all kinds of guitars, I wouldn't consider it the kind of pickup that matches all kinds of guitars. To me it doesn't agree with as many tonewoods as the Tone Zone.
I actually posted an audio comparison of the JB and Tone Zone. They were both installed in strats, and the only variable was that the Tone Zone was in a darker sounding strat. As you can hear, the pickups are very similarly voiced and the difference in wood translates fairly. Ironically, some people still mistake it as kind of a dark pickup. It's really not. When you have a pickup with as much mids as the Tone Zone, it's not going to be that dark.
Depending on what you're going for, the JB or Tone Zone could be a great choice. First of all, the Tone Zone stays together very well under high gain. Given that and that it's kind of high-ouput and has a deep low end, it's used often as a metal pickup. The JB is also a great metal pickup, maybe even better for ultra high gain. It's very tight and focused. Both the JB and the Tone Zone sound kind of compressed. Both pickups have a little spikiness in the top end. The Tone Zone has more low mids and bass, dips a little around the high mids before the treble picks up. The JB has a little less low end and low mids but has a bit more in the upper mids and a similar high end. The difference is kind of a subtle shift as you can hear in the audio.
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10668612
I think the JB is more focused and the Tone Zone is a bit more versatile. The Tone Zone has more harmonic overtones, and perhaps not as plain as the JB, but it has a hint of graininess even though it's slightly more compressed than the JB. Either way you go you're going to have a wealth of mids.
Basswood is a balanced wood that combs away some of the harshness of the upper frequencies. Alder is also a fairly balanced wood but accentuates the midrange a little more. Putting either of those pickups in an alder body is going to give you a very rich, thick sounding guitar with the perfect cut.
I have a lot of strats, most of which have maple fret boards. A few of them have rosewood fret boards. I personally find rosewood to have a little top end sizzle that my maple strats don't have. For this reason, I think that it's possible for either of those pickups to translate that high end sizzle. If you have an amp that is on the bright end, you'll probably notice.
For great, complex mids and more openness then you have to consider the Seth Lover. It's more versatile than the JB and adapts better to different tonewoods. With a similar difference, the Dimarzio Breed offers a bit less compression, more complex mids, and a bit more openness than the Tone Zone. Both pickups sound pretty thick in a strat, but the Breed is slightly thicker.
There aren't a lot of great demos of the Breed, but a couple of youtube give you a pretty good idea of what they sound like for the average user. Here's driven and clean demos:
