1) Just my opinion and I cannot be sure -- by the very fact that he chose to save the electronics means he thinks or perceives the mango wood to be bad sounding. Usually, if you need to sell a guitar and you are trying to maximize the value specially if its good sounding, you include the pickups even if its at a loss for the reason that it becomes more difficult to sell a guitar unloaded.
2) This is my beef with local luthiers who keep on experimenting -- they just cannot stick to tried and tested wood for Guitar. Maybe, nagpapa astig sila or maybe they really don't have the supply and are experimenting. And here is where they get stuck -- isa o dalawang lang ang experiment and then may conclusion na sila. Actually, dapat gumawa siya at least ng isang batch ng 100 na gitara na gawa sa mango. So, if I were you, stick to what the major manufacturers use because they have a larger R&D budget than either us or the local luthiers to know any better. There is and continues to be a valid reason why Gibson uses Mahogany up to this day and why Fender still uses ash and alder.
3) If I were you, I would go around trying out other Ibanez Iceman guitars (both used and mint) regardless where they are made. You might be surprised to find out different tonalities despite the use of the same species of wood.
Heheheh...
About no. 1
1) Our local luthier only makes the wood works of the guitar. Machine heads, bridge, nut, and truss rod lang yung kasama sa package. Bale, we go to another person para magpa wire ng electronics kasi di marunong yung luthier. Good thing is I know how to wire guitars. The reason daw my friend pulled the pickups off kasi he has another custom na sumunod sa iceman and since it's also wood works lang din (after he completed his iceman), he pulled off the electronics of the iceman and transferred it there sa new custom. Pero I would still agree a bit that maybe the tonewood of the body doesn't sound that good.
2) I would agree on this. But if I were the luthier, I'll experiment different tone woods myself for my own good. Ang ibig kong sabihin, not in the way na you'll experiment it at the expense of the customer not knowing anong kalalabasan. If that custom guitar was a mahogany, binili ko na agad yon.
3) I can't afford buying the real thing. All my guitars are cheap. Not exceeding 10K nga eh. Setup ko lang siya ng maayos, works for me.