Isaac Clarke

I have an American Stratocaster, and want to put a new bridge pickup in it.. I am looking for recommendations on brands and models. I play mostly melodic metal (As I Lay Dying, Unearth, Children of Bodom..), but also some modern country (Brad Paisley, Brooks and Dunn..), and having a nice clean is also very important to me. I do not want EMGs. I would like to keep the SSS look on my strat, so I want a single-coil sized humbucker.

What do you think would suit me?

Unholy.Daemon

I'd recommend looking at Seymour Duncan (I believe it's the Hot Rails, but I could be wrong), and also DiMarzio

EDIT; http://www.seymourduncan.com/produc...ndex.php?page=1

have a look through that, there are loads of stacked humbuckers - Cool Rails, Classic Stack, Hot Stack, etc

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Isaac Clarke

I watched a few videos about the Hot Rails and a few other rock-oriented SD pickups.. It seems like they are more aimed for classic rock tones rather than high-gain recto tones.. Would you agree?

Unholy.Daemon

hmm I wouldn't really say they're aimed specifically for that, I've played several guitars with Hot Rails in they're good for anything from classic rock to modern high gain metal. I do think there are better pickups for the job, but they're true humbuckers and since you want single coil sized pickups in a strat, then you may have to settle for something like that unless you want to change your strat to HSS or get another guitar

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My Band (Pop-Punk)

I offer mixing and mastering services, PM me for more info

Current Gear;
Jackson RR3
Fender Standard Tele
Zoom G2.1u
Line 6 Floor Pod Plus
Randall RH50T

T00DEEPBLUE

It begs the question: Why do you have an SSS strat when you play Melodeath?

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X-plorer88

What tonewood is your strat? I'm guessing Alder. In that case it would have pretty good mids and highs naturally. So I'd choose a pickup with a bass-ier response. Also you don't want the pickup to overpower the single coils so I'd shy away from really high output. And certainly not actives. If the pickup becomes to powerful then you loose all the natural acoustic character from the guitar.

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57Goldtop

I have a DiMarzio Pro Track in the bridge of my G&L Legacy that I love, but it probably wouldn't fit the heavier stuff you want to play. It definitely nails those modern country tones though...

If I were you I would check out the DiMarzio Super Distortion S. Those seem to be pretty hot pickups and they get good reviews.

Also, you said you don't want EMGs. I'm not a huge fan of them either, but from what I've heard the single-coil-sized EMGs have a much more natural clean tone than the full-size EMGs, but they can still get pretty heavy/thick overdriven tones. If you haven't checked out the different single coil EMG models you might want to do that before you write them off completely...

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Jhachey22

Most pickups for strats are going to have less power than their humbucking counterparts, from what I've seen/heard. I think it's so they match the output of the other pickups a little better. But even if it doesn't have the power you want, as long as it cuts out the hum and gives you a beefier sound, you can always boost your signal with an overdrive or a compressor.

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Egnater

kemingt

Melodic metal? I suppose a pretty high-output pickup would be of good use to you...you could check these Tesla pickups out, guy at a local guitar store recommended them to me before and they seem pretty cool :3

Tesla RS-1
Tesla RS-2

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dannyalcatraz

Check out Lace Alumitones. With those, size (mostly) does not matter- they voice them the same, singlecoil or HB sized. Sound is very clean, slightly bassier than most other singlecoil pickups.

http://www.lacemusic.com/Alumitone_Single_Coil.php

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marianoarnaiz

Go Dimarzio Mate..... Super Distortion S

grungelive72

Check out Bare Knuckle Pickups. Their website is great and has sound clips of all their stuff. Their Trilogy Suite pickup might just be exactly what you're looking for.

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