Fender Sambora

Pickup features: passive single coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Squier Silver Series
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: stock
Other pickups on guitar: Japanese Fender pickups
Artists using this pickup: probably Sambora ?
You musical style(s): Hard rock, rock, funk ...
Reason for pickup change: I wanted a hot single coil in the bridge

Perceived output level: This is a very hot pickup and the best single coil I ever heard in the bridge position of a Fender. On the Sambora Strat it was placed in the middle position and the bridge pickup was a full-size humbucker.
Tone: It has everything a good single coil in the bridge position needs: well-defined lows, enough mids and just the right amount of highs to make your guitar sing or scream. If I would have to compare it to another pickup I would say this is the Duncan JB in a single coil version.
Sonic evaluation: I play through a Roland GP 100 , a Hiwatt tube head( which has been modified and serves as a power amp) and two four-speaker cabinets that are equipped with greenbacks. I can go from Richie Blackmore to Gary Moore ( in his strat-period)without difficulty. I tried everything to get this sound with all the vertical humbuckers you can imagine, because I hate the hum of single coils. But there's no way to get around it: if you want the real quack, you got to take the real thing and the hum that comes with it. My other Japanese Fender Strat has a Hot Rails ( single coil sized humbucker)in the bridge and to get close to the sound I was after I chose the neck-version for the bridge position! Hot bridge pickups tend to lack highs so I always take the neck version. The result is that my Japanese Strat now has a bright and fat humbucking sound which I like very much. But you can add all the highs you want to a humbucker it will always sound like a humbucker. You'll never get THAT quack !
In both my Squier and my Fender I have clean single coils in the middle and neck positions to make them versatile. A hot pickup in the bridge and a cleaner one in the middle will still allow you to play Dire Straits or Robert Cray stuff.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play mainly 70ies and early 80ies hard rock. The Sambora is a rock pickup and I wouldn't use it for country or jazz. I wouldn't use it in the neck position either because it might sound too muddy there.

Comments: I would like to buy another one but I don't think they sell 'em separately. Maybe they have been discontinued ? I don't know. I've been playing for 20 years now and I've tried out a lot of pickups of all brands. I will continue to do so, because my musical tastes change every now and then and experimenting with pickups is such an exciting hobby !