gfs makes some 90s in humbucker size for under 40 usd. and for paf's, the bridge pickup can sound very dry and trebley. personally, they sting my ears... bridge p-90s can sound either bright, with lots of mids, or more balanced and fat, but with some bite. neck p-90s are heavenly, fat, and bluesy.
when i think of dry, i think of little lower mids, strong upper mids, but not nasal, toned down treble, and a bass that sticks to the background. in terms of wood to acheive this, ideally swamp ash, next alder, although its certainly possible with just about any wood. the effect of wood on tonality is overated.
the 2nd position of a swamp ash strat with a maple fretboard is the most well known 'dry sound'. you want either a single coil, or two single coils relatively close to eachother in parralel (this is why the 2nd position is much more 'dry' than the 1st or 3rd on a strat, phase cancellations of similar outputs being combined)
so i would suggest either a single coil with toned back mids, or mids centered in the upper frequencies, or a splittable humbucker, put in parralel. actually, i remember my tele w/ hotrails sounding rather 'dry', although maybe with too much upper mids... actually a pretty good clean pup if you lower it down (and by that i mean almost into the body 😆 ) then again its 80usd....
do to a guitar shop. also, allot of tonality has to do with the amp.
