How should I set up my Strat Plus?

[Agramal]

I'm in a band these days where I'm playing bass, but I'm going to switch back and forth onto guitar for some songs to play more of a lead role too. My friend plays a Fender Tele into a Twin set clean, just on the edge of breakup - that classic tone. I've got a '97 Strat Plus that I want to use for this band. What I'm wondering is how I should set that up to best compliment my buddy's tone - while still staying within some of my comfort zones. Right now the Strat is tuned to drop-A with a Seymour Duncan Distortion in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck. My current band plays very melodic punk-y rock in standard E, so, yeah, time to switch off from sludge metal mode, lol.

I wouldn't mind keeping the Distortion in place and going with a HSS set-up, but I have option paralysis at the moment with the abundance of awesome pickups out there these days. So, anyone have any cool ideas? In general, I'm gonna prefer a humbucker in the bridge, or a high output bridge single coil at the very least. I'm not interested at all in "vintage" tones, so bear that in mind. Ironically, that said, I'll be playing a '65 Fender Bassman 50 through a Marshall 1960A 4x12. Haven't decided on what I'll use for dirt, but that's another consideration to bear in mind - I do want pickups that play well with dirt/OD/fuzz.

Also! Here's what I have laying around that I can slap in the Strat if I wanted:

SD Distortion (in there now)
SD Jazz neck (in there now)
DiMarzio Chopper bridge
Lace Sensor Gold neck
EMG 81
EMG 85

Fire away broheems!

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: How should I set up my Strat Plus?

EMG-57/-66 pair with an -SLV in the middle.

 

[Agramal]

Re: How should I set up my Strat Plus?

EMG-57/-66 pair with an -SLV in the middle.

That's an interesting idea. On the EMG front though, beyond what I already have, I'm more interested in the X series though.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: How should I set up my Strat Plus?

Go ahead and sell all those extra pickups on Ebay so when you do decide, you can buy anything you want. I hold onto pickups too long and then avoid buying what I want because they "cost too much". I end up using what I have sitting around and they are the ones I don't really like.