Help me choose some Bareknuckle pickups for my SG Standard ‘61 Reissue

[Daddy D-Rock]

Hey all,

I’m currently in the process of trying to find some pickups for my Gibson SG Standard ‘61 Reissue

TLDR —
I want a low-mid output Neck Pickup that is full, and clear without being wimpy, muddy — while maintaining some upper bite, sparkle
&
I want a ballsy mid-high output Bridge Pickup that can do high gain (not death metal), while maintaining note clarity — without harshness, squealing or becoming too compressed

Candidates:
— Neck: The Mule, Stormy Monday, Riff Raff
— Bridge: Nailbomb Ceramic, Cold Sweat, Miracle Man

Additional info —
I keep this guitar tuned to half-step down or half-step drop D.

The guitar comes stock with ‘61 Burstbuckers.
They are pretty good, but could be better.
Overall, I find them a bit scooped, and compressed.
The also squeal like a banshee with a lot of gain.
Looking for something fuller, balanced, more open and less microphonic.
The guitar already has a good amount of mids, high-mids, so I probably don’t need anything that accentuates those too much.


So now I’ve started looking at —
Neck: The Mule, Stormy Monday, Riff Raff
Bridge: Nailbomb Ceramic, Cold Sweat, Miracle Man


I don’t do extreme gain metal tones or anything like that, but I do need a bridge pickup with some balls.

I want a full, but articulate neck pickup for cleans, but not too wimpy — so I can do some Big Muffy woofy leads.

Here are the tonal improvements I’m trying to make:

The Neck Pickup —
The current neck pickup is kinda boomy and muddy, but has a good bite to it.
Lowering the pickup helped with the boominess, but it still sounds muddy and compressed. But I do like the slight top end sparkle it imparts.
Turning down the volume on this pickup does help, but it’s still muddy in the low-mids overall.

The Bridge Pickup —
I’m much happier with the bridge pickup, but it could also be better.
With med-high overdrive, it starts to get compressed and a bit mushy. Has a good amount of high-mid bite too. I would prefer just a little less of that— Something slightly smoother.
I have to be careful with the presence and treble controls on my amp or things quickly get too spikey.
Decent note clarity, and string separation overall, but I suspect I could find something even better.
The worst part is how much it squeals and feeds back under medium-high amounts of gain. It’s really annoying.
It’s also a bit lacking in the lows (as most SG’s are), so I’d like something with some balls and low-mid girth to make up for this, while remaining tight — not flabby or loose.

Thanks in advance for the insights!

 

[Wailing]

I have a Vanquish Legend (similarish to an SG) which I have a pair of Riff Raffs on which I think would suit your requirements

 

[Daddy D-Rock]

I've grown to really favor the low-output of these pickups, as I think it offers a lot of clarity and punch when playing with high-gain.
My extensive reading and research has led me to the:

- Stormy Monday Neck
- The Mule Bridge

I like that they're about the same output levels of the current pickups --
I'm looking to maintain that with whatever I choose. Nothing too hot.

I know a lot of people recommend the Mule, Riff Raff combo in an SG,
but I worry the Mule will be too bassy in the Neck and the Riff Raff will be too bright in the Bridge.
A suspect the SM/Mule combo might yield more balanced results.

I play with a good amount of gain on the Bridge (high overdrive, Big Muff -- Grunge, Emo, Coheed, Alice in Chains tones, etc.),
But like full (not muddy), sparkly cleans on the neck -- with some PAF warmth (think James Iha clean Smashing Pumpkins tones).

Any thoughts, advice?


Thanks!