Pickup recomendations...

[Ratrod]

Craw;ers are great for what you want. They will go well with a mahogany (super)strat and the Bad Cat amp.

I've done some fine tuning on my Crawlers since the clips. I've lowered them just a little bit and lowered the coil screws on the E and A string a notch. It now has a little less pronounced mid on these strings and really tightend the bass up. Not as tight as a Miracle Man but damn close when pushed hard enough.

[Werewolf]

Do you guys think I could get that prog/metal sound out of the crawlers?  I want the high gain to be between dream theater and children of Bodom.

Would a heavy front end on the amp help with this?  Or would a massive preamp be damaging to the amp?

[Tim]

first up, huge preamp gain won't damage the amp as such, you'll burn through valves/tubes marginally quicker that's all.
COB tone..............yes, the Crawlers will do that especially hooked up with a hi gain amp, no problemo PDT_045 and you'll still have great cleans and also good splits too. 8)
Imagination is the only limitiation!