Thanks to Amazon and Fedex my pickups arrived on time today. I decided on the Area 61 for the bridge and the Area 58 for the neck and middle slots. These are fully hum-canceling and have the standard six poles on top.
Looking at the bottom of the pickup reveals nine magnets in the pickup. I assume the extra three magnets are reverse wound to cancel the hum, but that’s only a speculation.
The poles are staggered but in an unusual fashion. Notice that only the A and D strings poles are elevated.
Here’s a quick shot of the wired pickgaurd. Vintage strats use middle tone pot for the neck pickup and the bottom pot for the middle one. This setup doesn’t really suite me so I hooked up the middle pot to the neck & middle pickups, and the bottom pot to the bridge pickup.
I’ve spent about 10 minutes with them plugged in and so far they sound fantastic. I’ll have a better idea of their sound tomorrow when i can crank up the amp.