No idea about the pickups, it's an old (1974) Japanese-made Les Paul that I bought for £75 locally. Great guitar, though. Recorded it using Amplitube 3 software. Was using 0.6mm Tortex picks (the orange ones!).
Well, I'm the wrong person to ask since any sort of economy picking completely blows my mind.
I think saying that PG's picking style is a bit slower than economy picking is pretty... unfair too, considering PG's probably known mostly for his insane picking. I think they're just as fast as one another, but you get a much different sound from them. Alternate/outside picking gives you the staccato sound that I like.
Really, though, I can't economy pick for crap. Or sweep for crap. Anything more than four strings = not good (although I can do an ascending 5 string sweep fairly well).
Here is Castle Dragon on my new (and better suited!) guitar.
I like heavier strings, generally. I'm using Hybrid Slinky strings on my 25.5" scale length guitar just now. I think heavier, tighter strings help with your picking, but I didn't play for a bit and my finger calluses went down so I couldn't go for straight Slinky strings.