I've been wanting to swap out the 70's DiMarzios I installed in my 70's Ibanez Artist way back then (during my initial infatuation with Al DiMeola's RTF distortion - he endorsed the pickups if I recall).I still appreciate Al's playing but long ago grew out of that heavily-saturated tone and replaced it with that "just on the edge of breakup" sweet spot so many players chase today. I'll stick the DiMarzios in a Les Paul for special situations. The original Ibanez humbuckers were too dull for my taste (in retrospect I wonder if they're Alnico 2's or comparable?). I still want some bite along with more clarity from the 335-style Artist.These alnico-5's are open like the DiMarzios (they were cream, these are black, there was a time I really cared about things like that, now it's more about sound.Immediately I noticed the crisp cleans that stayed that way at levels where the DiMarzios began to crunch. I tend to experiment with pole piece screws (I know some people think that's bogus, but I know what I hear). With these set generally on the close side, there's noticeably more gain coming into the amp. Manipulating the amp gain let's me get close to that elusive breakup spot.My default tone is the neck pickup and I usually roll back quite a bit of volume and a touch of tone tp get a warm jazz tone that's very workable for quieter chordal backup. Cranking the volume gives me enough definition for solo lines and louder chord textures.The bridge pickup is quite hot and bright. When I do use it, I like to roll off the tone, boost the mids on the amp and get a nice western swing/takeoff tone.Bottom Line: I'm going to keep these in my Ibanez and see if I stay excited about them.