Fair, so I may opt for the Blacktop for now, and then upgrade to AmStd-HSS (and fit a neck humbucker then). I may choose one of the HH-FR or HSH variants. The HSH, people say, has the maximum tonal variation of the strats. Then again, does the HH-FR have more sustain? The entire Blacktop range is pool-routed.

That HSH mod for the HH-FR will make a little more sense, then. I may have both the guitar to buy and the mod job to have done. Although, while upgrading, selling it will be a tough ask. But with two Diamondback humbuckers and a Fat 50 (or two Atomic Humbuckers and a Texas Special)- can I get more out of the Blacktop?

I'll pass the Jackson for now- it will be in the running as a second guitar- SLXT, maybe. Or get a luthier to build one like it- if you can't buy it, get it built. An answer to the HH-FR vs HSH puzzle will decide what I ask the dealer to order.

For a high-gain metal rhythm, do I have to have a humbucker in the neck position? Or at least a HotRails pickup? Or will stacked singlecoils do enough? That's something I'm now thinking of, since I want both metal and clean tones. Maybe it's easier to get metal tones on a guitar which does cleans better (with added gear), than to get clean tones out of a metal-spec guitar? If a second humbucker is needed, which Stratocaster bodies are routed for it? Plenty of classic metal guitars have HSS, and there are a few 22-fret strats (Highway-1, American Special) selling here. The odd Jackson Dinky is somewhere in some warehouse, not in a showroom, so I can't test it out. There's a Blacktop HH regular trem, very good for the task, but I'd still prefer a little more- like a Floyd/Zero.