This might be simple inexperience ...
I have an Ibanez S from the early 90's that had their standard (V2, S1 & V3?) pickups .. which were "fine", but nothing striking.
I got an opportunity to change these for the "classic" DiM's that Ibanez use on their expensive instruments ... Air Norton, True Velvet (middle) and Tone Zone.
The sound/volume levels I have from these is quite different. On full guitar volume, clean settings to listening levels for practice/jamming, the bridge and the neck options 1 & 5 are very weak/quiet, and the central positions are all loud and heavily distorted with little apparent variation between the three. If I back off the volume by a third (or maybe a half) and then crank up the amplification to match, I get decent clean tones from 1 & 5, a clean but loud middle, and loud 2 & 4 just beginning to break up.
I have checked the wiring, and trust the tech who did the exchange ... and all seems as it should.
I have no idea what the outputs of the Ibanez-own pickups are, but they were apparently much closer matched. Should I be expecting the much wider differentiation with the DiM's? Also, if the middle True Velvet has a quoted Output of 130, compared to the 270 AN and the 375 TZ, might not I expect the middle 3 position be quieter?
I can learn to use the new combo just fine ... quite different to the previous ... but wondered if there might be a phase issue or the like for their to be such a dramatic change in character?