Really, I don't think that Seymour Duncan makes bad or inferior pickups at all. I just don't like them. If the likes of Jeff Beck, Dave Mustaine and a million others use them, theres nothing wrong with em at all.
Just that my preferences lie elsewhere. Some like cheddar others prefer red leicester. Neither are wrong. Ya can't please all the people all the time. Their well worth trying out and Seymour offers a return policy that is second to none. If you don't like his pickup within (I think) fourteen days. He'll swap it for one you do like. Or you swap the next one for one you do like. As long as your within fourteen days of receipt of the pickup you're swapping.
Ya can't beat that for standing behind your product. I can't think of anyone else who offers that guarantee or level of service. It's worth reading up on their website about it.

One thing I will say about a lot of these vintage voiced, low power pickups is that they often have a piercing treble response. So be careful you may get more than you ask for.

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No no and no

Majere sent me a PM asking me to weigh in on this thread after he saw my Blacktop Mod thread. I don't have much to add to the excellent advice he's already received, but to me if you want single-coil sound you should just go with single-coil pickups, which is what I did.



This image shows the universal route on the blacktop body.



As alfsboy said, you can use a SSS configured pickguard without modding the body and sell the loaded HH pickguard and put the funds towards the purchase of a SSS loaded unit. Then simply solder the ground to the trem-claw and the leads to the jack, and you're good to go. The holes on a SSS guard will line up well with the blacktop body, some were a bit snug on mine, but they worked just fine.

It then just becomes a question of which pickups to go with. I have had great luck with GFS pickups. They have a lot of different models and even some preloaded options at bargain prices. I have 2 strats with GFS pickups and I think they're fantastic.

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