Bought a '59 Jimmy Page Les Paul...

I'm playing through a Laney VC15 amp. All tube, 15 watts, voiced towards classic rock, great sounding, one 10" speaker. If you're not familiar with Laney, which I'm you sure you are, they are close to Marshall in sound being British.

I think I still want something hotter than the Alnico II pro, on SD:s site they recommend it with a higher output pickup to get alternative tones from bridge and neck pickup. So I still want the option to get higher output tones, however, Slash seem to manage fine with it...

Reading everything about different magnets and string pull affecting sustain just makes the decision harder. And of course there are other pickup manufacturers out there, but already having the '59 in the neck it feels like a SD is a better fit.

Using the tone wizard on their site their only recommendations are the JB or the Custom 5. I'm quite surprised the Pearly Gates are recommended with maple and ebony fingerboards. Doesn't the guitar Pearly gates have a rosewood fingerboard? I think I'm going to search some youtube-clips...

My Kramer Standard Pro came with a pair of Duncans in it. According to the specs it has a JB1 at the bridge and a Pearly Gates at the neck. I'm taking their word since the only way to tell them apart would be to pull them out. The outside of both just say "Seymour Duncan". It is a mahogony body with a set mahogony neck. It has a maple cap and a rosewood board. I seem to like them OK in this guitar. It is a double cut and despite being a Gibson product has a very PRS look. It is a lot lighter than a Les Paul.

I try not to pay too much attention to the tone wizard stuff. It's a guide not scripture. I have an ash strat that sounds more like the lightest of the alder bodied strats than the alder ones sound alike. I find mohagany to be less consistant from piece to piece than any other woods where a light ash body or bass wood seem to respond a certain way, mohagany can throw you lots of surprises. I'd try the neck pickup in the bridge to get a better idea of what a more traditional wind will sound like. - although the bridge pickups has longer legs right? that would be pretty easy to do. mounting the JB to the body instead of the ring would also change the sound. A couple of thoughts, I wouldn't blame you for avoiding.
I'm assuming the Vt15 is based more on the AC15 vox with top boost just from looking at the specs and style of it (and the name) that would certainly explain why your getting a thin sound. The vox is a very jangly amp that breaks up a little later than other brit amps. The 10" jensen is also a more "vintage" sounding speaker usually associated with clean fender tones than crunch. All things considered I am more apt to think the Alnico II's are what you are looking for being smoother yet having early break up, even something with Alnico III's maybe. I tend to think an overwound alnico 5 in the bridge though a vox is going to result in harsh highs in whatever combination you choose - I couldn't know for sure but my experience would say weaker magnet, cooler winding in the bridge would give you a better traditional sound. Remember, Page was playing a tele bridge through a champ - weaker mag, cooler winding - similar amp and speaker.

So an update almost two years later for those interested. Always appreciated if someone comes here from a google search anyway even though it's an old thread (felt like yesterday I bought this guitar).

So two weekends ago I just browsed the local sell/buy music gear page and saw a 20 year old Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates bridge pickup for sale. It had a sticker on the back that said PGB-"J". After some google detective work it turns out it is the custom hand-wound version of the Pearly Gates. I got it for the price of what non-custom pickups cost second-hand so it was a good deal.

Popped it in last weekend and when I got home today I had the chance to turn the volume up for the first time... IT IS MARVELOUS! This guitar was designed for PAF:s, it's so obvious. Away with the JB and all the 80's tones and in with the Pearly Gates and the glorious 70's rock god tones.

I measured the resistance to 8,64 kohm, so it's slightly hotter than today's PG pickups which are 8,35 kohm. Actually it's closer to the output of a whole lotta humbucker but with an Alnico II.

Now the middle position also sounds a lot better. I'm not saying the JB is a bad pickup and I understand why people like it, but it was just wrong with this guitar. A '59 reissue should of course have PAF:s in it. I have another guitar for the hotter stuff.

This is how it sounds like now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ino1NGrKE7E&feature=youtu.be

Couldn't be bothered about the playing in this video though, so just some noodling.