Guitar pickup selection advice

acidlacedpenguin

So I have an HSS Stratocaster copy which plays pretty much ideally for me but I'm thinking of replacing the pickups because they feel like they're on the cheaper end of things. It's got a 5-way selector that does S--, SS-, SSH, -SH, and --H, and what I've traditionally done is to play clean and/or non-agressive stuff (think like blackbird and wonderwall type stuff) and then using just the humbucker for anything distorted. By that logic I'd just like to find some jazzy mid-rangey singles, and then some balls to the wall slayer/dragonforce/megadeth type humbucker.
My current singles buzz like crazy unless I'm using them both, so I was looking at some pickups which are humbuckers somehow magically fitted into the single coil form-factor.

With all that said, I was thinking DiMarzio Fast Track 1s for the two "single coil"s, and a DiMarzio X2N humbucker.

Is this at all sound logic, or will it create a toneless monster guitar that should be cleansed with fire? I figured I'd stick with DiMarzio just because I thought it would be weird to mix and match different vendors. Is it alright to mix and match? Finally, is it possible and/or advisable to have an active humbucker with passive single coils, assuming I'm not afraid of any extra routing required to fit the extra stuff?

anyway, I'm also open to suggestion as far as make/models go.

thanks guys/gals

Jimmy King

My current favorite humbucker for balls out metal stuff is the DiMarzio D Activator. One of my guitars came loaded with them in the bridge and neck. I've met very few people who have tried them and not fallen in love with them. A buddy of mine uses a DiMarzio Tone Zone and sounds brutal as hell. pm me and I can hook you up with mp3s if you want to hear the tone zone in action.

I know nothing about single coils to point you in a good direction there. Both of my guitars are h/h. My friend with the Tone Zone uses a DiMarzio Chopper in the neck, which is based on the Fast Track 1 according to the website. It's not truly a single coil, but it fits in the single coil routes, so it may or may not be the sound you want.

wonderpug

I'm far from an expert on pickups, but I'll just throw it out there that I got the Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups for my Jaguar and I absolutely love them. The idea is to make them not only as authentic and faithful as possible to the way the pickups were originally made in the 50s/60s, but to "age" the magnets to help make your guitar sound like an old original would.

I don't know what the Strat versions sound like, but the Jaguar Antiquities are great for clean tones and jazzy sounds. (The Jag isn't all that great with aggressive distortion anyhow, though.)