What Single Coil?

[The Rossness]

I just bought a Charvel San Dimas (wildcard 7) and want some help choosing a neck pup for it. The guitar is a H/S configuration and while I have some ideas about the bridge pup (I'm not the biggest JB fan, I need some help with the neck. The standard pup is a Duncan STK1. As for tone, I'm looking for a medium hot or hot, slightly dark tone, but something that sounds more vintage than modern. I want singing distorted leads and funky rhythm/ ska tones for clean. I want to keep it a single coil vibe and not a hum sized SC.
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For reference sake, I currently have a Dimarzio Injector in one of my charvel's, and while I like it, at times, I find it a little dull. I've also listened to some of the duncan samples and liked the Alnico pro II single coil, and Hot stack the most. Does anyone have experience with either 2 pickups?

What should I be looking at? Maybe a dimarzio or something else I should also mention that I can't use a pickup with the "tab" on this guitar as the cavity is narrow.

[straycat]

Old DiMarzio SDS-1 has a great clean sound and handles an over driven amp nicely too. Clean but has a fat edge to it.More along a P-90 kind of tone. They have a huge magnet on the bottom so you may have to do some slight routing to the body.Your body may be deep enough not to have to resort to that. If you have a pick guard it should not be a problem.
SDS-1 has no tab BTW.

[j2379]

1/4 pounder, or custom flat. COOL RAIL with a coil tap.

[markD]

i second the 1/4 pounder....also, if you can find a USED dimarzio virtual vintage heavy blues, that would be a good choice. i say used because i am pretty sure it is out of production.

[dvscool]

I like the PG injector NECK. Sweet pickups man.

http://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/strat/hum-canceling-strat/injector-neck

[sully]

Another vote for the DiMarzio SDS-1.

[ulijdavid]

i second the 1/4 pounder....also, if you can find a USED dimarzio virtual vintage heavy blues, that would be a good choice. i say used because i am pretty sure it is out of production.

If you can't find a used virtual vintage heavy blues, I am pretty sure you can call Dimarzio and they will make it for you - as an OEM dealer I know they used to.

[The Rossness]

I like the PG injector NECK. Sweet pickups man.

http://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/stra.../injector-neck

I know. I have one.

[shreddermon]

I've found the Hot Rails to be too hot. It's not easy to get a good clean tone out of it, so I have a strong preference for a Cool Rails over that one.

I'm also a big fan of the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2. Pretty sure that's still in production, as I recently spec'd it on a custom shop order.

Also, Dimarzio will do any pickup without the front tab, you just have to special order it that way from an authorized dealer. The upcharge was pretty modest, and the wait was very reasonable. Maybe 10 or 15 bucks, and a few weeks IIRC.

[shreddermon]

See bottom right on last page for the "no flange" option...

http://www.dimarzio.com/download/dimarzio_pickups_list_file

[charvelguy]

I'm really surprised you give that much love to the SDS-1. I must have about 6 of them laying about here and I've liked them for a long time in some guitars but I haven't used one for over a decade. I still have one set that is wired up with early 80's dimarzio pots and switch in a strat format. I used one in the middle position for a long time in a strat but swapped the neck pu out for a 1/4 pounder just to have a little more power over the SDS. I also really like the J-100's. Not very hot, but really nice chime and cleans while still giving pretty good rhythm alternative but that is not what your looking for. The problem with all these that I mentioned is - they're still a true single coil and therefore, HUM. I'll have to wire one up again and see how I like it.

You could go with a Jackson blade single, which may fit the need of the tones you are seeking. You might also consider an Ultrasonic which come in various reference ratings. They have a very flat eq, so they tend to sound darker to my ears if not rather woody, so as far as a soloing pickup you'd have to find a hotter one. They definitely sound unique. If money was no object, I'd probably shoot for a virtual blues - velvet style to start or the quarter pounder if I didn't mind the hum aspect.