Ehhh... honestly, I'm a bit of a tonewood skeptic. I don't know. I will say one thing though - When I had a Distortion in my Charvel, I was borrowing Mr S's LPC to do some overdubs, and the tone between the two guitars was unbelievably close. He was also rocking a Distortion in that thing. So either my Charvel has very Les Paul-like attributes, or there's simply way more similarity in pickups than there is in wood type. I mean you couldn't really get two more opposite guitars in terms of materials and construction.
Conversely, my Jackson and my Charvel are identical spec - Alder-bodied 25.5" scale bolt-on superstrats with a Floyd - and they're
very different. The Charvel is a super articulate, responsive, harmonically rich guitar with lots of top end bite and tons of mids. The Jackson is like a sledgehammer, still really responsive but has a much fatter low-mid/low-end tone, and not as much cut.
I threw Bill Lawrence L500XL's in both of them over Christmas just because I fancied giving those a whirl again. The Aldrich went straight back in the Charvel immediately as the twang and single-coil-like clank of the Lawrence just overwhelmed the tone... but the Jackson still has the L500XL in there, sounds great in that guitar. Tightens up the low end and gives the guitar some character.
I know that's not a very helpful answer :lol: But that's just it man, you gotta try shit out, and hey if it doesn't work, no big deal, you just get a better picture of the guitars tone and can adjust from there. The Aldrich though, and the Distortion for that matter, are two pickups I've had in multiple guitars and they
never sound bad or don't suit the guitar. They're definitely fail-safes. If a guitar sounds bad with those pickups in, it's absolutely not a good guitar. But if it's already a great-sounding guitar, like my Charvel, the Aldrich will take it to another level.
Have you tried any of Andersons pickups? I preferred the HN3+ to the Aldrich. They are in the same vein, guitar wise Anderson and Suhr are competing for the exact same segment of the market.
You would also like EMGs Retroactive stuff. Those are souped up PAF type things.
I actually had a set of Rectroactives recently, I bought a 90's MIJ Jackson for absolute peanuts and instantly ripped all the guts out and started throwing different pickups in there. Bought a set of Super 77s from a mate of mine to throw in there, and my first reaction was they were just a wall of output. They're certainly beefier than 81's, but no real character or tone to them, just a super flat-across-the-board pickup. High output and smooth, but didn't find them very PAF-y at all (not that I care whether a pickup is PAF-y or not, but still... that's how they're always described and I just didn't *get* that from them personally)
Duncan all rounder would be the Custom as a good starting point. For a versatile metal pickup. The Distortions and the Black Winters are cool, but I think the Custom is probably a better general choice for most people.
Custom is very cool yeah, gotta agree there, it's definitely a very good all-rounder. Didn't work for me in my Charvel, but sounded great in the aforementioned Jackson. Can have a bit of a sterile top end and/or a boomy/chewy low end in the wrong guitar I think, so definitely one to try in a couple of guitars before you make your mind up.