ShortScale.org

Sorry if this is too generalized a question...

Over the last few years I've been playing guitars stock that are already equipped with good pickups. I haven't attempted any project guitars since the Ibanez Blazer, which I wasn't happy with the pickup combination....the middle Phat Cat overpowered everything in terms of clarity and output, the P-Rails in the bridge didn't come close in output when divided which is what I bought it for, and the Duncan 59 in the neck was didn't sound special at all in comparison to the other two. In hindsight I think the Phat Cat was just too hot for the other pickups, but anyway, that was my last experiment.

Now I have this Aria Pro II Strat Copy, I was originally going to get a set of GFS Brighton Rocks, but while looking through my parts bin, I found out I still had two Alnico Single Coils. One of them is a Duncan Designed SC101-M, which should be reverse wound....it has flat pole pieces. The other is a fender bridge pickup from my old Classic 60's strat. Considering I'd rather not pour a ton of money in a cheap guitar I'm not even 100% sure I'll like when my mods are done, this route seems preferable.

What I am thinking of doing, is putting the Fender pickup in the bridge and the Duncan Designed in the neck position, but wiring it to the middle on the switch, because I usually only use the neck and bridge on a strat anyway. The middle pickup I figure I could just buy a used one at the local shop for like $10 or so, anything that wouldn't be the cheapo ceramic bar pickup with the pitted pole pieces that's in there now. I'm finding it hard to find information on my two pickups online, so I don't know if they'd sound good together or not...can potential differences in output be resolved by subtle pickup height adjustments?

Or should I just suck it up and buy a cheap matched set of GFS Alnicos when I order the replacement bridge and tuners?

Is it just the output you are concerned about?
I'd measure the two pups with a Multimeter. Generally, a neck pickup has more volume due to position so is usually the lower output of the two. You can, to a degree compensate by adjusting the height between the two. Given these are both Alnico Singles i dont think you will have a problem doing this, its more so when its a high output Humbucker and a Single Coil.

Ceramic Bar are mostly higher output so the middle pup could be the problem. Personally, if you dont use the middle i'd put one in but not connect it. Thats what Richie Blackmore used to do.

You should be more worried about matching phase and polarity than anything.

Testing for polarity is easy. Just put the pickups face to face. If they repel, they're the same polarity, if not they're different. Two pickups of reverse polarity can be a RWRP pair. However, pickups aren't always wound in the same direction, so you can have phase problems. Thankfully, that's easy to reverse as well. Just swap the wires if they're out of phase.

I like the SC101 quite a bit. It's a pretty punchy sounding beast, hotter than vintage.

Well I just tried wiring up the two pickups I had.

Like Fran said the ceramic pickup was WAY hotter than the other two, not that it really matters since I'm not going to accidentally hit the switch up to the neck position anyway. In a way it might be good to have the option of a natural boost if I need to break through in a solo or something.

The Duncan seems to be RWRP from the Fender pickup, there's no crazy hum or hiss or anything. It actually is close enough to output of the Fender that it reacts quite well to it. It's a little beefier in the bottom end and doesn't have quite the same chime as the fender in the highs, which I think I can attribute to it having flat poles. On the other hand I kind of like having a more drastic tonal change.

Now to ponder swapping out the 500k's and the ceramic cap for 250's and an orange drop.