I've got a jb in two mahagony guitars, both sound good. You might want to try a full shred. Just got a charvel with it and am really liking it, but it is a alder body.
I just put a set on my Kramer stagemaster and honestly, didn't notice a real difference. I would just save your money and try some foam or other tricks to see if it makes a difference before buying a set.
I swapped out a Suhr Aldrich for a JB in my Kiesel DC6, ash body, maple neck and liked it better. Definitely felt like the JB had more output, more aggressive sound. Have you thought about the Duncan distortion or Dimarzio super distortion? Those might be what you are looking for.
MF has some on sale with promo code. The Electro Harmonix strings are $4 a pack. I have used them before and thought they were good. Also look at SIT strings, GHS boomers, they also have the promo deal going.
Yes, I think you are right as mine is 25.5 scale. I had a Ibanez rg652 that was similar to mine, ash body, maple neck and the stock tone zone worked good with that combination.
I have a aldrich pickup in a Kiesel guitar that I just got. To me, it has plenty of output like the JB but sounds thin in my guitar. The Kiesel is swamp ash body, maple neck, so the aldrich might not work well with that combo. Thinking of putting a tone zone in to replace it. I also have the jb...
I thought the 57 had more output but was less compressed than the 81. I have the 57/66 set in a couple of my guitars and have tried the 81/85 set but liked the 57/66 better. For me, the 81 was too compressed/tight. I have the 81x/60x set in a guitar now and like it much better but still feel...
If he loves that amp, why not just get another one? I see GC has like three of them in the used section for $300. If he is looking for something different, he should go out and try different amps to see what he likes or go on youtube and watch some demos of amps he is interested in. You also...