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Hey what's up bros! A bit overdue, here're my reviews of the Duncans I recently bought:
Duncan Distortion [bridge] - A kick ass p/u for any kind of rock. It's really hot, and you can hear your signal being pushed harder and hotter through your amp. My caveat with it was that while it was a much hotter pickup, it didn't really make my tone crunchier, which is what I thought was looking for. So, instead of returning it, I moved it to the middle position, which will take us to the next review:
Duncan Distortion [middle/neck] - Hooooooooooooooooly ****. Those were the first words out of my mouth when I moved my selector to the middle positions. This pickup sounds out of ****ing control in the neck. Great for nailing older/vintagey kinda tones, like old school metal and 80s hardcore, etc. Fantastic for rhythm work as well due to the unparalled clarity this pickup offers. Keep in mind that the Duncan Distortion I bought is intended for the bridge and not the neck, so take this particular review with a grain of salt.
Duncan Invader [bridge] - Awesome, awesome pickup for punk, metal, hardcore; our kind of ****. I see exactly why Senor Ramos uses this *****. It ****ing roars, rocks, and rips; killer lead tone. To sum it up:The Invader gives you CRUNCH and power

The Distortion gives you CLARITY and POWER.
I knew there'd be some sort of tradeoff and I had to find out for myself what it was. The Invader isn't muddy **** as alot of people claim it to be, however you DO lose a bit of clarity when you play actual chords as opposed to power chords. Not so much with mid-high register triads but with lower register triads, 7ths, 9ths, 11ths etc you'll have to tweak your settings and/or voicings to really hear all the notes sing. But where you lose a little bit of clarity [and power compared to the Distortion], the Invader ****ing delivers with crunch and a burning tone when you're playing leads.

When I switch to the Distortion (which is in the middle/neck position) it's actually LOUDER than the Invader, which confirms my suspicions that its a hotter pickup in regards to raw volume and power. This past sunday I'm practicing with my new band [Last Semester] and I find myself turning up my amp as the current mix [bass, drums, 2 guitars, no singer as he was in O-town] was just too thick for the Invader. I didn't have to do that when the Distortion was in the bridge. IMHO, the Distortion just naturally CUTS through the mix better than the Invader does. But almost everything in life is a tradeoff when you really think about it.All in all, I'm happy with my purchases. I might end up selling the Invader and getting Twin Distortions, but for now I'm very happy with my tones. This will definately hold me over until the most righteous EC-1000 is off of ****ing backorder. Short of buying EMGs, I know for a fact that my guitar is loaded with quite possibly a couple of the hottest pickups, passive or active, that are currently available.
-Astheskyfalls
P.S. If any reps from happen to read this, it'd be nice if you guys made a custom/hybrid sort of pickup that blends the qualities of the Distortion and Invader Pickups. That'd be the ultimate pickup for harder music.

So that leaves me with a question...which one do I get...I want clarity and a ton of power....why cant they just make a Duncan Distourtion/Invader hybrid pickup?

I have nothing, but good things to say about each of the pickups talked about here. I however believe which you like better depends on what amp you are using. I personally have fell in love with Duncan Distortion/Full Shred combo, in my S5470. I am playing through Mesa Boogie Stiletto and it is loves the Duncan Distortion.

If you want something between the Distortion and Invader, the closest thing is probably the PATB-2 Parallel Axis Distortion. It's hotter than the Distortion, very compressed. But articulate with a slightly sweeter solo tone. It also has thicker, growlier lower mids/bass, awesome for huge riffs. But still articulate enough for speed metal.

It's not commonly recommended for fixed bridges, as many feel the Parallel Axis pickups, which are primarily advertised for thickening up floating vibrato bridge guitars, get too thick there.

To me, the PATB-2 sounds like a mix of the best elements of the Invader, Distortion and JB. Awesome for riffs, rhythm and lead. Without the downsides of any of them. Brighter than the Invader, less biting than the Distortion, less risk of piercing upper mids than the JB. But enough of all of their qualities to approach them with a bit of amp EQ tweaking.

As far as the Distortion being hotter than the Invader... The further you get from the bridge, the hotter and thicker the pickup sounds, that's why most guitars have brighter, lower output neck pickups. On the other hand, the Invader has the coil further from the strings, relying on larger polepieces and more magnets to bring the magnetic field close enough. I've seen some convincing arguments that makes it lower output than it might be, and that swapping out it's screws for ones from a DiMarzio Super Distortion makes it effectively hotter and broader frequency response.

Note the JB, Distortion and Invader all share the same wind, with slightly increased amount of wire from model to model. Biggest difference is the magnet. A5, thick ceramic, thick ceramic with ceramic boosters. The PATB-2 is a Distortion with different coil architecture, with a lot of extra wire fit due to coil shape/size differences.

Hope all this rambling was helpful!

you know, you could take a distortion, push out the slugs and replace them with the big invader screws. problem is, getting the pickup height right would be a problem on account of the big screw heads on 1 coil.
on an LP, you could turn the pickup ring around and that should balance it out enoughbtw, the distortion will sound louder because it's further away from the bridge; the neck and middle slots are naturally louder.

Nice review. I love both pups. Especially, the Distortion split and the Invader in parallel, neck and bridge respectively.