Sorry, can't help ya with your question, but I have to say, though it's not style to listen to, you guys sound pretty damn good. Drums, bass, guitars, and I think the vocs are killer.....

...good luck in your quest,

B Kent

Might want to just try a pickup replacement? Seymore Duncan Hotrails is a single coil humbucker pickup. I have one on my epiphone. It's not the greated I've used but it sounds pretty good.

But if you want to go for the best for very heavy thick distortion you would probably want to look at EMG pickups.

I can't make any suggestions on a guitar. But that epiphone with the hotrails stood the test of time for me.

-Bryan

I have to concur with the hotrail in a Strat bridge position making one of the most versatile guitars around.

-Rick

With a budget of up to $1500, you can get a lot! You could get an SG Standard or a really nice Jackson, ESP, Ibanez, or even, if you like the Strat feel, an American Deluxe Fat Strat. Play 'em all, man, that's half the fun!

-Dale

Godin
LGXT
or
LGXSA

Shouldn't be hard to find a great guitar for that coin. Good luck. Band sounds cool man - tight.

Raemond

Brain Moore guitars have the same neck and body feel, but have humbuckers. Mine is a real sweetheart. They are very under rated.

Bill~~~

In general, a guitar with two humbuckers is going to give you more of the sound you are looking for than a single coil fiddle with a 'bucker in the bridge position. This is because a lot of the 'bucker sound comes from a combination of either both 'buckers, or primarily the neck 'bucker. Yeah, I was once surprised to note that a lot of tone Gods get their tone on the neck p/u.

IMHO, any two-humbucker p/u guitar above the $150 range is going to give you more of the sound you are looking for than most (note - not all) of the mixed p/u guitars, bar none. Two different classes of sound, as far as I am concerned.

Just as one example - rencently I heard, for the first time in a LONG time, CCR's "I put a spell on you." I downloaded the track to play along with, but just couldn't get the right sound using my FAT strat (HB in the bridge position). So I switched to my DeArmond M-70 (LP, with chambers) and 'buckers, and by mixing the two 'buckers was able to duplicate the tone on my solid state Marshal MG-50. (Note that the song is played using "clean" guitar. Tube and Solid-state "clean" can be indistinguishable.)

I achieved the CCR tone by setting bridge tone to 6, neck to 8, and bridge volume to 6 and neck vol to 8. Bass, mid, and treble on the Marshal at 5, 7, and 3 respectively, with a reverb setting of 4. I can't get very close to this sound with my strat, even with the bridge 'bucker.

I can also tell you that with a single humbucker in the bridge position, and a single or singles, you'll never be able to get the real "crunch" of two mixed humbuckers.

The exception would be fiddles with a 'bucker at the bridge, another at the neck, and a single in between. Then you'd want coil-splitting on at least the bridge to get the best of both worlds.

chuck

i've ruled out the option of messing with the Strat, it's not mine anyway. it's a great guitar, but i'm looking for one with a different personality, that allure so often found in a Les Paul. just to add to this discussion, i checked out 2 LP standards (one w/ burstbuckers), a LP classic and an SG standard today. out of those 4, the classic sounded the most natural and felt the best - too bad it's gold. i'm really at the very start of this search, so thanks for all the input.

I have a gibson les paul st. with emg 81 and 85s and they give some good thick distortion. you should look in the esp direction. I am not shure of the model but i think it is a custom 1100 or somthing like that its pretty cool guitar and it comes standard with a set of emg 81 and its runs about $900 wich is a pretty good price for what your getting.

Hey.

Try each of these two:

1. PRS McCarty Model - has humbuckers in bridge and neck but also has a coil tap for single coil sounds!
2. Fender Fat Strat Texas Special... whoah! One versatile hot fender baby!

My 2 cents.

Good luck!
Kevin