Like Ren, I'm a Jem man too and I'm not a fan of active pickups. I agree that you don't get a huge amount of unique tone from the body of a Jem - then again I've played a lot of guitars and the whole tone from the body thing is way over rated IMO. It realy depends on the type of music you play. I just sold my Gibson Les Paul Goldtop becuase the action was too high at the lowest setting, the neck was a thick as a can of beens, the tone nice but the pickups were totally unsuitable for heavy high gain stuff. anyway, it was an investment that paid off in the end;-)
Fiddle with the tone knob, pickup height and amp settings and you can get any tone you want once you have good pickups - especially with all of the gear that's available today. I play a lot of fast lead and the reason I like the Ibanez Jem is the slim playable neck, 24 frets, weight and feel of the guitar for sitting and standing, Edge Pro trem with the tiger claw cavity (never goes out of tune and can take severe abuse) and the H-S-H pup configuration. I've had too many guitars that require touchy feely care and constant upkeep to be bothered going down that road again. The way I look at it is, the Jem is a workhorse that performs excellently. If I had to go for a guitar from a different manufacturer for lead I would go for a Jackson solist. I don't play live anymore so my Jem was a treat from me to me for recording purposes. The only guitar I would consider buying again is another Jem, probably one with Evo's as my 'Bad Horsie' Jem has Breeds ;-)