[Guitar74]

I don’t like batteries or pre-amps.  A boost pedal works too and much cheaper.

Agreed. That is why my Fulldrive 2 stays on my board. Even on a solid state amp.

[mysteryloaf]

Well, folks, I did something drastic to free myself up from the conundrum.

I bought a Charvel San Dimas with an HH route. Found it on Reverb, listed by the folks at Railhammer and comes both pre-loaded with the bridge pickup I was interested (Alnico Grande) plus a Hyper Vintage neck. They also ship with the original Duncans that Charvel loads them with.

No more fiddling, no more compromises. The Charvel arrives on Monday.

If I don't like the Railhammers (I kind of doubt I'll dislike them), I now have the options of swapping them out for a set of Fluence humbuckers.

This now frees me up to go back to my original plan of 100% DiMarzios in the Chapman: Since the Railhammers are very hot but still super clear and even a bit twangy in essence, I'm thinking D-Activator X for the bridge, since it's that kind of aggressively mid-focused, active-but-not sound.

Thanks for following along on this weird windy road, and thank you for your suggestions/advice. It's been a big help.

If there's interest, I'd be more than happy to report on my experience with the Railhammers after I put them through their paces.

[BluesJam]

Sounds like a plan.  So you are aware, if not already, Railhammer is an American company based in Ohio, and the pickups are designed in the USA. Our pickups are made by a South Korean winder to proprietary specs, who we selected for their ability to build consistent, high-quality, custom-designed pickups.

If you want rail style pickups, then Bill Lawrence Wilde USA 500XL’s are the ticket.

Personally, for the price and quality, you cannot beat USA DiMarzio’s. 

YMMV

[mysteryloaf]

Sounds like a plan.  So you are aware, if not already, Railhammer is an American company based in Ohio, and the pickups are designed in the USA. Our pickups are made by a South Korean winder to proprietary specs, who we selected for their ability to build consistent, high-quality, custom-designed pickups.

If you want rail style pickups, then Bill Lawrence Wilde USA 500XL’s are the ticket.

Personally, for the price and quality, you cannot beat USA DiMarzio’s. 

YMMV

Big thanks for the suggestsions, BluesJam. I've heard great things about the Lawrence pickups. In fact, way back when I was looking for single spaced rail-style humbuckers for a different guitar, Bill Lawrence definitely came up as a possibility. So I'll take another look into the Wilde 500XL now and see what I think.

But as you said, DiMarzios make for very stiff competition in this realm of muscly humbuckers, and back then I ended up with a pair of Choppers which still live happily in my tele style guitar.

We'll eventually see what happens this time around in the Chapman.

Cheers

[HarlowTheFish]

Wait wait wait, is this one of the HSS Chapmans with the three-way toggle? If so, you could get a couple of medium-hot singles for the middle and neck and just run them in series like a humbucker. Maybe something like the FS1 or SDS-1?

[BluesJam]

You should try the cruiser. 

[mysteryloaf]

Wait wait wait, is this one of the HSS Chapmans with the three-way toggle? If so, you could get a couple of medium-hot singles for the middle and neck and just run them in series like a humbucker. Maybe something like the FS1 or SDS-1?

Yeah, it's exactly that, the HSS with the 3 way. ML-1 with the natural Brazilian mahogany (sapele) body.

Honestly, I don't want to run two low/mid output pickups together to make one humbucker because that feels like another compromise. I'm in a mood to get around my limitations.

In fact I'm looking at replacing the 3-way switch with one of those nifty 6-way switches, and wiring it to have each of the 3 pickups solo, as well as the "in-between sounds," and using the two middle-most positions for the Middle solo and Bridge/Neck together.

There's also a push-pull switch installed, so maybe I'll try either a coil split or a series/parallel mode? I suppose we'll see.

You should try the cruiser.

Really that's not a bad option esp if I were to go with Harlow's wiring scheme. The Cruiser sounds really badass for a strat-voiced pickup. But I'm gonna go with the Chopper for the middle and Tone Zone S for the neck.

Also BTW I looked into the Bill Lawrence and Bill & Becky l500 XLs. Both of them are way too bright and top-endy for what I'm going for, though they do capture the shred-machine vibe really well. Nuno certainly could make those pickups sing. And they're affordable af. But I don't think they're for me.

Once again I value your suggestions, folks. Even if I don't go with them, there are a lot of options out there and it can become difficult to wade through it all. You've all been really helpful in feeding me info and ideas. Much appreciated!