Yet another Strat pickup question but a little different

[Prawnik]

I recently built/bought a 1971 4-bolt Strat clone - without going into details, the body is alder and the neck would have been a "D" neck which was available from Fender in 1971, but only upon special order.  Like all of the illegal Strats this guy builds, this guitar has a an unusually warm tone.  

Furthermore, I am using vintage frets and .012" strings with a wound G, standard tuning.  It has a rosewood board, which may have been a mistake, as this guitar does not have much twang.  However, it sounds much better acoustically than through an amp.  So I have hope for it.  

Right now I have Fender 57/62 pickups in, but the guitar lacks sparkle.  Maybe if I lower the strings and/or raise the pickup height, this will help.  On the positive, the bottom end is plenty beefy and the bridge pickup is pretty useable.  

I am debating between buying Chubtone and BKP.  I have also used Lindy Fralins and liked them.  

I will use this guitar for blues, avant-blues, rock, jazz, metal, what have you.  I like vintage things because I don't like things that suck.

Any pickup suggestions?

[Elliot]

Mothers Milk all the way for that one

[Prawnik]

Thanks, Elliot: How would you compare Mother's Milk to Apaches?

Also, do you know whether it would be possible to get BKP strat pickups with gray fiber bobbins, ala late 1960's/early 1970's?

[Elliot]

I did a really hamfisted comparison in the players section recently (although I not really a good player, so it doesn't do much justice to the pickups).

Of course MP3 can never do much justice to subtle pickup differences - In my view the two are very similar and you would be happy with both - the Apaches have a slightly higher treble range and have that classic strat tone nailed, easily a competitor with Fralin Real 54s - the mother's milks are slightly warmer and are slightly lower down in the eq - you can hear the bass in them more than Apaches.

[Prawnik]

c'est le cool.  I would add that lower notes are kind muddy and lack sparkle and spank when played electrically.

The .012 string I am currently using do not lack bass themselves.

This all makes the Apaches start to look better and better....

[Elliot]

Apaches are v good - and they can easily go to blues rock crunch without any trouble.  I have a MIM 60s classic (£199 in a sale, so good value, especially as a I had a spare steel block trem at home and a set of Apaches  :D ) - the Apaches do very well in that guitar, sometimes the pure strat tone just jumps out of the guitar and hits me on the head.....