So yeah I just got a completely unfinished Charvel body and SCALLOPED neck off ebay (not put together). It has room for a humbucker and single coil. I was wondering what are some amazing sounding neck pickups. I have been looking at some of the ones Dimarzio offers like the Pro Track, Chopper and Air Norton. I know Bare Kuckle offers amazing quality but it's far more expensive, which I am willing to ditch out for some serious tone. I want something that will cut through a mix with a good mid range (moderate warm sound) and tons of highs (very bright). Low end should still be solid and balanced, just not over powering at all. I don't want it to be too warm to a point it just sounds almost muffled.

I am playing thru a Peavey Triple XXX head and Marshall 1960 A cab and various rack fx (31 band EQ, Aural Exciter/Big Bottom, ISP Decimator) if this helps at all.

I really want sweep picking and serious shredding to sound real articulate/defined/"clean" with lots of high gain if you catch my drift at all. Harmonics are indeed a plus. Might be used for some jazz but I just don't want it super warm you know.

I have a Charvel neckthru Model 5FX, it has a slanted Single in the neck pos, I like the sound of the stock one.

Get a Dimarzio Fasttrack II, very hot and is a good matchup to any hot bridge humbucker. It shreds and screams. Or the original Fasttrack, which is lower gain and matches better with mid output pickups.

Plus they're both dual-rail pickups so they're not noisy like real singles.

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Sounds like this is what I am looking for. I wish I could try one out before I actually buy it. Is there any guitar that this pickups come in...haha I seriously doubt it so I pretty much can't try it out myself. Most of the time you just have to settle for sound clips of other people playing (which usually don't play extreme metal at all). Does anyone here have a Fast track 1 or 2 (in the neck position...maybe slanted as well) and could record a clip thru a high gain all tube amp?

What about the ones Malmsteen uses like the YJM (signature model) or HS-3 (also built just him but he uses it in the bridge position)? They tend to have more treble and I'm aiming to get that rich, presence high end sound for sure.

for single coils in neck, this may sound wierd... but i love the sound of a fender tele neck pickup. Amazing beefy, yet clear tone for rhythm, if you want a sample, listen to Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello records alot of the rhythm tracks on a tele.

Another one i really like is the seymour duncan cool rails, super clear, tight pickup, and it doesnt buzz.

Not sure about hot single coils though, i've found my ideal hot neck pickup and thats the Dimarzio Super 2... but its a hummer. I stopped looking after that.

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Hot rails....and they do make jb's and 59's in single coil format...

I have an older Hamer with two singles and one humbucker.. I'm looking for a good single too in the neck postion. Don't care about the center pickup. Good thread.

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For single coils, i used the Dimarzio Pro Track which is hot enough to be paired up with the X2N. It gets good clean sounds and gives you that cool tone for sweeps. Its a humbucker sized single coil, so there's basically no extra noise.