Thanks, I should check them out. The pickups in my new vintera strat are good, but bridge is a bit shrill, and it’s pretty noisy. I haven’t gotten around to it because I tend to want to find the EXACT PERFECT thing and it’s too stressful! (Although that perfectionism did lead me to Fractal…)
Mind you, I've never tried them myself, but I've so been wanting to. I've just read endless forum threads about noiseless single coils, trying to find consensus, and ZexCoils had very very few negative comments anywhere. I know there are several ZexCoil players on the Fractal forum here, so if you just search you'll find what they're saying, and I'm sure some people could guide you better for whatever you're looking for in that arena. I've called the company that makes ZexCoils, and it's really just the inventor and his wife, from what I can tell. The guy's name is Scott Lawing, and I found him extremely helpful over the phone. Were I not perpetually broke I'd have actually bought from him a while ago.
But also I've read great things about Kinman, Fralin Split Coils (whom
@Joe Bfstplk loves), and Duncan Stacked Strats. But I'm not at all nuanced or experienced enough in single coil land to give you any good guidance myself; although I've read a shit ton about each of these brands, experience outweighs that every time.
One factor to consider, Lawing has a very strict and inflexible return policy, so you have to be ready for the gamble. With Duncan, I know they have a great policy if you buy from a dealer, something like 21 days where you can contact them and swap whatever you got with something that might fit your guitar better. And they're also great over the phone to guide you with whatever will work. For that matter, I did call Fralin once too, and Lindy himself picked up, and he was willing to answer all questions. The cool thing about Fralins is you can order with regular, under, or overwound for any of his pickups, which is extraordinary. I know Lawing will customize too. Of course there's the Duncan custom shop too, now that I think of it haha, and they seem great from all accounts I've read.
So you've got a lot of options!
One other company I keep my eye on is Alan Green, whose brand is Alagree, out of the UK. I know he'll do custom stuff too, and he has a noiseless strat set. He has very creative and cool designs overall, but his sound samples are awful, but I truly wonder from his designs themselves if his stuff would just be incredible.
