Best Neck Single Coil for High Gain Tones

[Drew]

Sort of piggybacking on this thread, I have an old Ibanez USA Custom (basswood body, maple neck, HSS configuration w/ licensed Floyd) and I'm considering swapping out the stock single coils for DiMarzios to go along with the Evolution that came in the bridge position.

This guitar is going to be used pretty much entirely for metal, and mostly for older stuff (thrash, early death metal, some shreddy Vai and Satch material, etc). Which DiMarzios would you guys recommend? I'd like to stay away from pickups that have rails like the Satch Track, just because of the aesthetic.

If you want something with humbucker-like output in a single coil form factor, your options are pretty limited. Heavy Blues 2 or Injector neck are as hot as you're going to get from a Dimarzio non-blade singlecoil suitable for the neck/middle, though you could also shoot them an email and ask how the Virtual Solo would work with an Evo in the bridge.

 

[metallifan3091]

Do you have personal experience with the Injector, Drew? I was looking at those but I don't know anything about single coil pickups.

 

[stratjacket]

I don’t have a ton of experience with different single coils, but I did have a Trilogy middle and neck in a Suhr Pro Strat that sounded pretty damn good. I liked it so much, I ordered the same for a 7 string Skervesen 4AP that is being built.

 

[cthroatgtr]

JB junior is a great shred pickup. It doesn't really sound like a JB it is tighter/clearer and has a good mid range hump that allows clear sounding leads on the neck pickup.