Would a Custom 5 work for these tones?

I don't think the Custom or Hybrid would be too middy for those sounds. I think they would work fine. The Custom 5 has almost no mids. I heard mids in those clips.
 
Most of those sound pretty thick in the mids. The last two are different.

For the first three, if it were me, I'd recommend either a Slash set, or Custom Custom with an A2P neck. (The intro of #1 sounds like a single coil, like a Tele or Strat bridge to me.)
For the fourth one, I'd use either lower power a Jazz bridge or could use Custom 5, with either a Jazz neck or P90-type neck, but the amp is a huge factor on the sound of #4, more than the pickups IME.
For the last one, I'd use a Distortion set.

But if a Custom is too middy for you, that really throws off what might be needed for you. Those first three are pretty thick in the mids and not really tight on the bottom and are soft on the top end. Perhaps a Whole Lotta Humbucker set might be better. Or a Jazz set. (don't go by the name - I go by the sound they make)

Also if a 498T sounds thin to you, I gotta wonder what amp/cab set up you have because all the 498s I have experience with were pretty thick. My stock Les Paul Standard or my SG could do almost all those clips with a 498T as is. Maybe playing around with pickup height and screw height, but I could get there with a stock Gibson.
 
Thanks guys. I don’t dislike mids or the Custom, the Custom is probably my favourite pickup.

I always found that the 498t was good when wanted a thinner, scratchy sound like for punk, grunge, garage rock, etc. But for the stuff I was playing, I needed more chunk.

I’ve got a Mesa Nomad 2x12, and a bunch of stuff on Amplitube. The only dirt pedals I have are two varieties of Big Muff. I guess maybe I’ve got so used to dialling in certain tones that I need to put some tweaking time in, rather than change pickups? I recently bought a cheap EQ pedal, I haven’t cracked that open yet.
 
Thin is how I'd describe the 490t. The 498t is pretty thick. Did you possibly mistake the two?
 
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gsammo79 said:
Thin is how I'd describe the 490t. The 498t is pretty thick. Did you possibly mistake the two?
Click to expand...

It is possible, I’ve found it a little difficult to pinpoint exactly what was in my doublecut. It may also be that I haven’t played that guitar for a while (mostly my stock EVH striped series, or my LP studio with Custom and 59 tuned down a tone), so it’s possible that I’m hearing it compared to those two guitars, especially the studio set up for stoner rock, and I’m comparing the 498t to that rather than on its own merits. I guess maybe the sonic equivalent of turning a light on when your eyes have adjusted to a dim room?
 
So, this video perfectly captures my experience of the 498t- not enough “chunk” in the palm-muted bits, single-note lines don’t have much body, not enough low-end in the barre chords, “tinny mush” overtones on the ringing high string notes under distortion.
I’m pretty sure Jerry Cantrell used to use JBs in his G&Ls and Gibsons back in the day, and (rightly or wrongly) I have it in my head that a JB in that guitar would make it sound much more like Jerry’s AIC tones without changing anything else.

To me, the 498t seems much better for lower-gain, classic (pre-80s) rock sounds.
 
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CaptainWhizz said:
So, this video perfectly captures my experience of the 498t- not enough “chunk” in the palm-muted bits, single-note lines don’t have much body, not enough low-end in the barre chords, “tinny mush” overtones on the ringing high string notes under distortion.
I’m pretty sure Jerry Cantrell used to use JBs in his G&Ls and Gibsons back in the day, and (rightly or wrongly) I have it in my head that a JB in that guitar would make it sound much more like Jerry’s AIC tones without changing anything else.

To me, the 498t seems much better for lower-gain, classic (pre-80s) rock sounds.
Click to expand...

I hear where you're coming from.

The JB *might* leave you with the same bottom end issue the 498t did. That was my experience with the JB, but I had one guitar and needed a pickup that wasnt *JB* hot. Then again, give it a shot and see if you like it, man.
 
Thank you. Sometimes I think I’m being an idiot, sometimes I think I’m bad at identifying the boundaries between bass/ middle or middle/ treble frequencies.
But I like being able to pick up a different guitars for a different style of music, some just inspire me to play different genres, and I like the tones to correspond with minor amp tweaking.
 
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