i have a mexican hss strat and im looking for a new pick up. i play a lot of trivium, parkway drive, atreyu, etc. i have been looking at the seymore duncan sh-13 dimebucker for bridge and later on a lil 59 in the neck would these be suited to what i play and are they any good ive read a lot of mixed reviews. ive heard tests and reviews on youtube but obviously the sound quality wont b as gd as real life so just looking for advice as it seems matt and corey have both played them at some point.

thnx sam

try out an EMG 85 there pretty killer, pretty sure the guys have had 85s in there axes at some point around ascendancy, i guess the guy to ask would be Ken the Tech, il see if he wants to drop in and answer :)

Seymour Duncan Dimebucker = NO NO NO NO.

NO.

Reason being: it's not a high gain metal pickup. It gives you a twangy metal type tone; it sounds thin, and doesn't have any low end or balls to it. It isn't full-bore metal. It has a warmer passive tone to it, but unlike a DiMarzio D-Sonic or even a DiMarzio X2N, it doesn't have a rich full tone to it. If you're running your guitars through a solid state amplifier, you won't be able to tell the difference. But once you switch over to a tube amplifier, you'll definitely notice. Every Dean guitar I've had came with a Dimebucker. Before I even restrung it, I took out the Dimebuckers. They're really not the best pickup for metal, by far. As mentioned above, look into DiMarzio's D-Sonic, or Seymour Duncan's Blackouts, or a pair of EMG's (I don't like EMG's personally, but it floats some people's boats, ahem, JACK.)

As far as a neck pickup goes.. you sort of can't have one on a Strat. HSS means means humbucker single single right? Seymour Duncan offers a '59 only as a humbucker. They have a "mini" '59 that's a single coil, but it's nowhere near as nice as the regular humbucker '59.

As far as I'm concerned, your main issue is your guitar setup. I'm sorry to say, but there's not much you can do to a Strat to get a decent metal tone out. Pickups aren't the only thing that dictate how your guitar will sound. Woods, your amplifier, and craftsmanship of your guitar also play a big role. Try investing in a good amplifier first, amps are basically the main source of your tone, I'd say about 60% of your tone is dictated by your amplifier. 30% is dictated by your guitar, and the rest is how clean you can play.

isn't that the truth. i've been stuck (because i am uber broke constantly) having to play through a fender rumble 100 bass amp with just a stupid Boss mega distortion for the past couple of years, and i finally got a Line6 Spider (which isn't incredible, but god did it make everything sound better). as far as strats getting metal tone, ashan is right, it's hard to get a ballsy sound out of a strat, but my custom stagg strat (broke, like i said, don't hate) actually has a pretty boss high end (sometimes). if i could drop a humbucker in it on the bridge, i would actually be pretty content with it, but unfortunately, it's got three singles, which is why i play my buddy's dual humbucker ibanez. i don't know what it has in it (it's whatever comes with the ibanez's standard), but they get the job done.

i have a vox valvetronix ad30vt its very bassy hence the want for a pick up with a lil more treble and clarity i dnt want an active pick up id prefer a passive, plus i dnt want to have to do any work to my guitar to fit the pick up eg routing, cutting up the pick guard etc. i also dnt have a very large budget, i know im picky lol. as for the neck pick up i said i was looking at a lil 59 seymore make this as a single coil sized humbucker as a straight replacement for a strat neck pick up. i know u cant get a great metal tone from a strat so i want something that will have a decent range to play metal and rock etc then in the future buy an ibanez tho im not to sure bout them or a washburn xp-50 pro fe for metal and for drop b tunings, for parkway drive songs etc i dnt want a tremolo on my second guitar but i hjave plenty of time to decide wont b able to afford 1 for a fair while lol.

thnx for the help, i havnt been playing long.

sam

got the dimebucker in the end £30 off ebay lol sounds gr8 for what i wanted cuts thru the muck of my amp and ended up building a 2x12 cab with a pair of celestion g12t-75s in it for the amp its a beast :P.
thnx for the help and advice :D

Dimebuckers are cool but you have to have the right effects and settings on your amp to make them sound good. I've been trying for a while to get them going with my rig and have finally found a good sound with them, but I'm playing on a line 6 amp. I would have to agree on the EMG's they sound good through anything. I'm probably gonna get them installed in my 6 string guitars (I only have the 707's on my 7 string).

yea i agree it sounds awesome thru my vox. it sounds pretty gd on my mates line 6 spider 2 but as thts a treblyt amp to begin with it lacks the low end grunt it has on my vox, the settings ive got at the mo are nu metal amp model 7-8 on gain depnding on what im playin the more the better when palm mutedlol 10 on treble 9-10 on bass n 4 on middle its got plenty of grunt when you dig in but stays clean n clear when u need it to, ive got a damn close tone to matt on shattering the skies above at the mo which is gd considerin thts what im learning :)