ayan wrote: Lastly, I have two Strats, one with Kinman blues ("quiet" pickups, slightly overwound) and one with 57/62 pickups (regular single coils, RPRW mid pickup, low output), and the later always sounds better no matter what I do to the amp.
  Hey Gil, I hope all is well.
 As I always do when buying a new guitar, I became a mad obsessed before I bought the one I have. And for probably the first time in my life, I bought it when it was not my favorite one tonally. It was the balance of tone and comfort with the 9.5 R neck and 6105 frets.  It sounded great, and plays so easy, its insane.  That being said, by far the best sounding Strat i played, and I played all kinds of Clones, C.shops, and everything I could get my paws on, was a plain old dead stock production Fender Vintage series 57 RI. It laid waste tonally to every Custom shop I put it against (including mine), but the tiny frets, 7.25 radius neck, and thick sticky finish just made it to hard to play. Now my guitar has the fat 50s pups, which many other CS guitars at this one place had, and they are hotter than the regular Custom shop 50s pups. The pups in the production 57/62 RIs are suppose to be low output, and around the same as the "normal" CS 50s version. Why and how then, did the guitar have about 10-20% more output, just as much treble bass and mids, and were every bit as clear or clearer than the "higher output" versions?  (same string gauge, and about the same pup height).  As I said, i just ordered a set of don Mare super Sports, but it was a very hard thing to go with them instead of a set of those 57/62 RI pups. For a long time (years ago), my main guitar was a Daphne blue 57RI, and I tried almost every pup made back then thinking I was going to get something that killed those stock fenders. I listened after I changed them, and made elaborate clips comparing each set of pups, playing the exact same chords and licks. I remember really digging a set of Duncan Alnico 2s, but I ended up with the stock pups. They sounded better than anything else i tried, and my more than a small margin. I can get that 57 in Surf green (my favorite color   

 ) brand new for around $11-1,200 because they are discontinuing them.  I am still debating on whether to grab it because it was just a great guitar, or if fender just got those pups "right' the first time, and I should get a set of those.  Regardless, that guitar was off the charts great. One of the best sounding Strats I have ever played in my life. Little neck, little frets, thick finish, and a tone that would blow you away.