Re: Strat or Fat Strat
It all depends on what you're looking for. If you aren't going to play with distortion, keep the S-S-S.
I love a blend pot because it helps make the guitar so much more versatile. I nail both the 2 and 4 positions quack tones. Maybe it just depends on the pickups, but my WCR SRs and Dark Burst humbucker do it extremely well (they are also perfectly balanced).
If you have a blend pot, you can be on the 2nd position, blend it towards the single coil if you want it thinner, or towards the humbucker for a thicker quack. I find the best blues type quack tone is in pos. 4 and if you're using a H-S-S strat, you're going to get it easily because it's inbetween two single coils (with or without a blend pot, it doesn't matter).
As far as the "humbucker" sounding single coils, don't believe the hype, there is no such thing. There are singles and then there are overwound ones that nail p90 like tones. You will never get the fullness of a humbucker in one. If I could have replaced a humbucker with a single coil to keep the S-S-S config. on my G&L, I would have, but since there were no options, I had to route it out myself.
