Upgrading pickups

[SeanKV]

Got two guitars that are due for some upgrades. Everyone here is full of brains and useful know-how so I figured a query or two was in order!

#1 is my Adrian Smith SDX. The pickups aren't exactly irritating me at the moment, but I've been considering upgrading the two single-coils. They're a little bit "quieter" than the bridge pup, so I was wondering if anyone's fitted YJM Furys in one of these? Did they fit? I think YJMs are supposed to be a bit taller than normal singles or something?

#2, an almost 20 year old Jap KV2 bolt-on, needs to have the wiring looked at for various reasons so I figured it's time for the pickup upgrade I've been intending for a while now. Everything else I've got just sounds better these days, especially through the new Marshall. Poplar body, maple neck, rosewood board. Thinking about either a Duncan Distortion bridge/Jazz neck combo, or a Black Winter bridge/Sentient neck combo. Like the Distortion in my KVT, and a previous guitar had a Jazz in the neck that I had no arguments with, but the Black Winter and Sentient seem like they might be serious. So, given the guitar's setup and make, does either combo make more sense? I.E. does a poplar body make one of these just sound like ass? Or should I say to hell with it and try the BW/S combo? Or is there something similar I should consider instead?

[AdRock]

For what its worth. I had the Distortion & Jazz in my ESP and my Dinky. A buddy of mine borrowed them and my rig for a few gigs so I got to hear them from the audience point of view. Whenever he switched from the neck to the bridge the difference was not a good one. At least not to me. Whether used on a clean or distortion channel, going from the Jazz to the Distortion really showed how different the 2 pickups are. All the warmth and fatness in the tone just disappeared. I replaced both the Distortions with JB's. At the next gig the difference night and day. The JB and the Jazz go together much much better.

[hairy-dude]

Big fan of the Jazz neck pickup, it's my favorite full sized neck humbucker (I go for Cool Rails for single coil sized humbuckers). My favorite bridge humbucker is the Duncan Full Shred. I find it goes well with the jazz, it suits what I want to do. I had SH1's in a couple of guitars for a long while, but always found them to be boomy and muddy, but I swapped them for the Jazz models, and never regretted it.

I cannot comment on the Duncan Distortion or Black Winter/Sentient models, I've never used them.

I had a JB in one guitar for about two weeks to replace a Duncan Custom SH5 (also a good bridge pickup, which goes well with the Jazz). The JB just didn't do it for me, seemed a little weak and lifeless, and it got replaced with a Full Shred pretty quickly.

[Axewielder]

The Fury isn't a hot pickup so it may not suit your needs.