My beef isn’t really the PCB quality, it’s that it obfuscates what’s happening in the electronics cavity in an unhelpful way if you want to change things.
Yes it does not lend itself to any changes.
There could be some truth to this as far as the full humbuckers go, but I can't say that about their singles like the S, SA, SV or SAV. They're fairly dynamic. The S for example can have the most sweetest and lovely clean tones yet become a raging monster with more and more gain, and it responds very nicely to pick attack. A lot of territory can be covered and covered well. But these things vary for everybody and we all pick differently so there's that. EMGs are just another choice, and they trend up and down for me. Just like many gear decisions, these things go in cycles because we're curious and want to try something else.
Definitely. My first EMG sets were the 81/85 and the S set. This was '95/96. The 81/85 do a few things really well and that's about it lol. But sometimes that's all you need! I had them installed for years in my '71 Artist. Surprisingly good clean tones, and of course sounded great when running distortion. But the S set is/was more my thing because of the dynamics and clarity. Much more versatile.
I see the Toneriders come up a lot. I’ve been tempted by their PAF clones especially.
Hopefully will get my Dover Drive this week or next. 
The Gilmour (SA) pickups are nice, but they have more of a midrange push that makes them darker, smokier. Not a bad thing, but I do find the S pickup has more of that acoustic quality that lets a strat breathe with better articulation, which is closer imo to that of a normal single coil. That said, I still love my dimarzio virtual '54 and area '58, especially for neck position tones. Pole pieces do make a difference. Eventually I'll wire a strat with regular singles again, perhaps the EJ set too.
Hahahah, I do not doubt that you've had that experience with them and we can use this clip below as evidence that all this shit can be wildly different depending on a million other factors. You're going to hear the total opposite of what you just wrote
In order-
Orville w/ Suhr Aldrich/'57 Classic - '54 Spec Strat (ash body)/maple neck) w EJ pickups - '57 Spec Strat (alder bod/maple neck) w/Gilmour EMG's
All guitars are going straight into my Plexi50, Normal channel with the volume on 6. I consider this the 'truth' spot because that dirt will change wildly depending on every little frickin nuance in front of the amp. Hahahah I was actually coming to write in my post "I'm surprised how mid-scooped the EMG's are, which doesn't help some of the tropes"!
The Strats sound different acoustically to begin with, I really don't care how much people buy into all this stuff and I only observe what's in front of me, nor do I use it as any kind of marker of tonal perfection when certain elements are combined, it's all happenstance and unfuckingpredictable and at best we can aim in certain directions.
I have an MJ Gilmour paired up with a couple of Abby 54 replicas in my Strat with EJ tone and a Gilmour switch mod on a push pull. It works great and covers a lot of ground while remaining solidly Strat . All the air in the 6.6k alnico 3 54s still with mids and piano bass. Then a push from the bridge..The Gilmour (SA) pickups are nice, but they have more of a midrange push that makes them darker, smokier. Not a bad thing, but I do find the S pickup has more of that acoustic quality that lets a strat breathe with better articulation, which is closer imo to that of a normal single coil. That said, I still love my dimarzio virtual '54 and area '58, especially for neck position tones. Pole pieces do make a difference. Eventually I'll wire a strat with regular singles again, perhaps the EJ set too.
Very nice. It's been a looong time since I've had standard singles in a strat. Putting the Fralin single back in my tele got me jonesing again.
