American Standard Strat H/P/S, is it possible?

[Roboten]

I've been thinking about replacing the pickups in my maple neck/fingerboard strat, and since i got most types of sound covered by other guitars i want to try something new with it to make it as versitile as possible. I use the neck pickup almost exclusively now and want to broaden my sound, seems like such a waste with 3 pickups otherwise.

For the neck i want something akin to the stock american standard pickups, just given the bkp treatment aka a more complex and airy sound. Lurking the forums i've learned i should probably go with slow hand, irish tour or apache, i want a smooth pickup that can do classic strat tones that can hold it's distortion.

For the bridge i want a rock pickups that can do 70s rock and metal but still go heavier with the right amp and split well, VHII?

Now for the most interesting part: i'm thinking about getting a single coil sized p90 in the middle position. Now i know bkp doesnt make those, and i'm considering a Lundgren Strat-90, but i just want to know what this would sound like. Has anyone tried this? I'm thinking i would get some jazzmaster-y tones out of it with pretty good cleans but maybe i'm way off and it would sound like mushy mush with a side of boomyness?

Any other unorthodox pickup combinations you would recommend?

/Jonatan

[WhiteRam]

Bridge - Holydiver

Middle - Trilogy Suite

Neck - Slow Hand

[Slartibartfarst42]

+1

[Telerocker]

Good call from Whiteram, the Trilogy Suite would be a beefy stratalternative for a P90. I don't know the Lundgren.
The Slowhand is smooth with serious mids and the Holy Diver provides thick rock- and metaltones.

If you want to go a tad more vintage you could think of Abraxas, Slowhand, Slowhand too. The Abraxas does Satriani-stuff very well, but has enough PAF-pedigree to give you classic rocktones too. Or Abraxas, 59 slabboard and Slowhand for ultimate versality.

Alternative could be the Crawler, I have this one in a swampash-strat and is beefy, warm and growling with some gain, leadtones are thick with the right amount of compression for soloing, also above the 12th-fret. Topend is round, but has enough bite, don't worry. In the bass the Crawler is little more loose then the HD, but still tight enough for me. Has more PAF-dna then the HD. This one cleans up great and splits very well with the middlepickup.

If you like P90's you could also check out the Stockholm for the bridge.

Btw, I have the VHII in an Fender American Series ash-strat and it seriously rocks. Splits well, but not to the degree a Crawler or HD would. The higher dc-resistance make them perfect for a balanced split.

[Roboten]

Holy diver and slow hand seems like a good choice, although i wonder if slow hands are too smooth, do they have enough highs to really bite with heavy distortion?

The trilogies are an interesting choice, if they have a sound comparable to p90 then they would be an alternative, but i'm wondering about p90s in the middle position in general. Has anyone tried putting them there? If trilogies are comparable, how do they sound in the middle?

[Telerocker]

Holy diver and slow hand seems like a good choice, although i wonder if slow hands are too smooth, do they have enough highs to really bite with heavy distortion?

The trilogies are an interesting choice, if they have a sound comparable to p90 then they would be an alternative, but i'm wondering about p90s in the middle position in general. Has anyone tried putting them there? If trilogies are comparable, how do they sound in the middle?

Trilogies don't sound really like p90's, but have enough meat and oompph tp play heavy rock/some metal.
I had a Yamaha Troy van Leeuwen with three p90's. Middle sounded absolute nice.
If you think a Slowhand in the neck will be too fat, you end up wit an Irish Tour. The Slowhand, yet still vintageflavoured, can do serious rocktones a la Blackmore.

[WhiteRam]

Two reasons I suggested Slow Hand in the neck. 1, you have a maple/maple neck. 2, the SH is wound using the same polysol wire as the TS...possibly good for tone balance.

If you're going to run back to your amp's EQ everytime you switch pickups (studio guitar) then this may not matter much and you could go a bit wild with different pickups...all BKP's sound amazing in my strong opinion.

Good luck. :)