Adjusted Truss Rod

I'll have to get you to check out my guit-fiddle. I don't have a long enough straight edge. It's funny - a couple of months ago I didn't know there was such a thing called "neck relief" and now I can't help thinking about whether mine is set correctly.  Maybe ignorance really is bliss.

Dan Erlewine has a great discussion on neck relief in his book the Guitar Player repair guide, a few takeaways, you don't necessarily need a straight edge, simple put a capo on the first fret and then fret then fretting at the 17th fret, simply use a feeler gauge to see how much room you have between the bottom of the string to the top of the 7th fret. It should range anywhere from almost dead flat to .012" (Fender Factory Spec). Some players, prefer alot of relief, I think BB King had something like .030", of course there are tradeoffs with any adjustment. Truss rod adjustments are easy to do, BUT do them slowly. I usually release tension on the strings then give it a quarter turn and then wait to give it time for the neck to respond, tune to pitch and then do it again, sometimes a very slow process but easier than replacing a broken truss rod. Also, anytime you change string guages (i.e. going to a heavier set from a light set) your guitar may require a truss rod adjustment, humidity, temperature, change in seasons, etc can also have an effect, I usually check mine every time I change the strings, but then again I am constantly tinkering with action, relief, pickup height etc.

I had an Ibanez hollow body and I put the SD 59 humbuckers in it, I loved those pickups, I traded it in for a Fender Princeton Reverb, I should have taken the pickups out because they were incredible. IMHO the best PAF humbuckers out there. I bought a great little MIM FSR strat, an HSS model and I put in a set of Rio Grande pickups, they were a bit on the expensive side but the guitar sounds great,

One way to change the tone of HBs (or any pickup for that matter) is to change the height, it can have a pretty big impact, for HB start with about 1/16 inch between bridge pickup and strings and 3/32 inch (when you depress the string at the last fret). The measurement for both bass and treble should be about the same. Mess around with the height, close you get more output, further away a bit more warmth, cheaper and easier than changing out a pickup. The only other HB that I liked as much as the Duncan 59 is the Gibson 57 classic and 57 classic plus (Bridge Pickup), I purchased a Les Paul thinking I would change them with the Duncan's and decided it was not worth it at all.

Yeah I noticed in their tone wizard that the type of wood seems to make all the difference.  My Ibanez has an alder body and rosewood fretboard and it will recommend the same pickups no matter what style of music I specify, from blues to heavy metal.  

I was also thinking of getting a new guitar but then I thought well, I've got a perfectly good Ibanez, why don't I just put some decent pickups in it and then I'll be able to use it for something other than metal lol.