At the suggestion of our distinguished leader @holster, I hereby ask of you people to direct my Clownpenisness to some killer single coil Seymour Duncan pickups, let us discuss sexy options that sound as though Mount Everest itself is singing to you.
Years ago I was fascinated by custom pickups, but haven’t paid much attention in a long time. Why single coil? Are you trying to upgrade a Strat or something? If you go with single coil, get one that is a coil-bucker or something - there is some SC product that is low noise using some technology. Double-stacked pickups that are actually humbuckers but sound like single coil. Something like that.
Anyway, I’m not really a good candidate for advice on this. I don’t care for SC pups much at all. I have one axe that has a coil tap switch that will get SC sound, and I play with that occasionally (and it seems to be low noise), but it’s less than 5-10% of the time. I think it’s cool for leads sometimes, or a funky little breakdown.
There are many SC’s out there. You should choose an artist sound and then aim in the same direction. Lindy Fralin and Jason Lollar are makers who get a lot of praise, you’d have to listen for yourself.
I second the Fralin and Lollars. Duncan Antiquities are a good choice as well. I have all three, and they are all excellent.
In my experience, sticking with lower gain pickups yields better tone (to my ears.) If you are into gain, I have learned that you are better off getting that from other sources down the chain.