I have an american deluxe ash, and the N3s are just not doing it for me.
they are too low output for my taste, plus they don't have that glassy bite I like to hear from strats.

I'm thinking about replacing them with

fs-1 - bridge
true velvet - middle
true velvet - neck

as recommended by dimarzio. "When you combine the FS-1™ in the bridge with True Velvet™ in the middle and neck, you’ll have a guitar with calibrated, balanced tone in all five switch positions."

Has anyone actually tried this before? What about red velvets in the neck/mid?

any other suggestions?

I'm quite familiar with all of them.

As I'm sure you are aware, your present pickups are stacked humbuckers whereas, the DiMarzios models you are considering are not.

The FS-1 is slightly more powerful than your present pickups, any of the Velvet series are about the same or less.

The DiMarzio FS-1 is not glassy. Rather, the mids and lows are enhanced and there is definitely high end missing with this model. Personally, I think it would be out of character with the any of the "Velvets", regardless of what DiMarzio, Inc. recommends.

The True Velvets are the latest offering of what DiMarzio, Inc. feels is the best culmination of all single coil Strat pickup traits. They have replaced the Blue and Red Velvet models and surely do sound better than either. There is that touch of, "glass" but not to any prominence.

In the single coil genre and reasonably priced, you may want to consider Seymour Duncan's SSL-5 or SSL-6 in the middle and neck positions and an SSL-4 or SSL-7 for the bridge.

In case you want to go with reasonably priced stacked humbuckers like you have OEM now, peruse and consider DiMarzio's Virtual Vintage/Area offerings.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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You dig?

Note that the HS-4s are even weaker than the N3s or even an OEM single coil.

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I'm most familiar with the H-4s. The reason I mentioned it was due to the fact that the OP wanted more power than what the N3s were offering which would automatically include that of the H-4s.

I disagree with your power evaluations though. A series coil configuration will always be the most powerful; split is one coil turned off which, premising the coils are balanced is by necessity, half that of series. I do I agree however, parallel is the weakest what with it being 1/4 the resistance of series. Of course, henries, KHz, millivolts, etc, etc. are co-factors too.

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Check out Kinman pickups, they may offer a worthwhile replacement for your N3's. I have the Kinman Blues set and K7 harness in one of my Strats and they are a very nice noiseless option that lets your Strat sound like a Strat.

http://www.kinman.com/index.php


Snowy