I chose this for my bridge pickup. Also, I wrote a review on the Area 58 that I use in the middle and neck position, so this review is going to be the same. I added a treble bleed circuit and I'm in tone heaven. Plenty of midrange punch to cut in the mix just the way they are. If you are into the Lincoln Brewster tone, look no further as these are the very pickups he equips in his strats. Extremely satisfied in my purchase and greatly appreciate the way Sweetwater goes out of their way to check on their customer's satisfaction of their purchase.

Bought one of these in combination with two Area 67's at the recommendation of my luthier. Definitely a wise choice. My MIM Strat sounds like a new guitar as the tone in all 5 positions is awesome. Very articulate, chimey, and balanced sound. The best part is that there is little or no hum. I put the 67's in the neck and middle position and the Area 61 in the bridge as this PUP is a little stronger. The only thing that I had to do was adjust the Treble settings on my amps to around 10 o'clock as these PUPS are very bright. Played a gig last night and my wife shot video: I couldn't believe the classic blues, rock crunch and country tones that my guitar and Peavey Classic 30 were producing.

Very impressed! Currently have two American Strats that have had several pickup combos and now have one with Carvin AP11,s and Humbucker at bridge(my favorite) and just pulled SD P-Rails from other one(intresting,but sounded better on Hog bodies.) Hearing a lot of good things about Area pups so ordered a 61 for neck on the stock pickguard.Love the sound,very Fender but balanced and open.Hotter than stock with a nice warmth that opens to quite a sparkle with a twist of tone knob,responds to height adjustment smoothly and is very quite.Don't know how they accomplished it with hum canceling coils but has that 60's sound (yes,I was there),so impressed I'm ordering the 58...which reminds me,thanks Brad,love the Orianthi.