dimarzio pickups are tight. my brother got a js1200 last year, with a joe in the neck and a fred in the bridge. he plays through a spider II right now, too. it sounds really good on the insane channel with the stuff he plays (same idea. satch and vai mostly). i liked the sound so much i got the same pickups and put them in my ibanez s470. also sounds super-cool. i'm sure the evos and paf pros and many other dimarzio pickups are all going to sound similar, so i wouldn't worry about the specifics too much. i'd recommend them any day.
as for EMGs... you know, when you distort your guitar to the point we're talking about here, the wood isn't going to matter all that much anyway. active pickups have really nice cleans, i think, and plenty of dynamics. they're clearly different than passive pickups, but i don't think it's necessairly in a bad way. tone is totally subjective, though, so whatever