Hi Folks,
This question will probably reflect upon my lack of knowledge regarding all things which pertain to "classic" tone and true Stratocaster vibe, but please be kind with me as I try to learn.
I have posted previously regarding Strat pickups. In particular, I tend to use my Strats like "Swiss Army knife" sort of guitars, in that they may be asked to play anything from jazz clean on the neck pickup all the way to classic rock (by which I mean a bit of Van Halen, AC/DC, etc) on the bridge pickup. While I love the clean Strat sounds on the neck pickup, I have found myself really struggling to get the bridge pickup to sound good with a moderately-high degree of overdrive, be it via a tube amp or using a pedal. The bridge pickup has sounded rather thin and shrill-sounding when really pushed -- at least to my ears -- but I may just not be doing things right. Recently, it was suggested to me (on this forum!) to incorporate the tone control to effect the bridge pickup -- I plan to try that when my main Strat comes back from a fret job. But I digress...
In the meantime, I was looking around the internet for ideas to possibly try for replacement Strat pickups. The only names I could think of off on the top of my head were Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, and Lace. I have now stumbled across a few higher-end (?) brands of Strat pickups(?): Rio Grande. Van Zandt. Lindy Fralin. I am sure that there are others, but the really surprising thing to me is that those three "gourmet" pickup manufacturers seem to ONLY make SINGLE-COIL Strat pickups. I guess I had always assumed that Fender used the single coils to save a few pennies, and that serious Strat players typically scrapped the OEM Fenders for something else which I (wrongly!) assumed would be some sort of noise-cancelling pickup. I am now learning that some folks just insist on true single-coil pickups, even when purchasing some really expensive upgrade pickups.
I am just trying to put some perspective into my line of inquiry regarding Strat pickups. I had until now been looking exclusively at noise-cancelling pickups such at the "stacked" designs and the Holy Grail (I have a set of Holy Grails -- nice and quiet, but they do not handle overdriven tones well for me). Maybe I am missing the mark? Perhaps some of the single coil designs would work well for me, and I just have been ignoring them because I was never really looking at anything that was not noise-cancelling? (After all, I must bear in mind guys like Eric Johnson who can get a fabulous over-driven lead tone out of vintage single coil pickups). This all raises a question in my mind: I can see the advantage of noise cancelling designs; conversely, is there a (tonal) advantage to staying with the (classic) single coil design? Are there ways to manage the hum (and neon sign cross-talk) that I haven't considered?
Sorry for the long post. I appreciate any insights.