My experience has been that, tonally, it's at least as much the guitar as the pickups. Many years ago I had a mid-70s Strat (maple neck sunburst) which never sounded as good as it looked, despite all my efforts with alternative pickups. Eventually I picked up an Alder-bodied '62 and the difference was simply astonishing - I won't be selling that one! There's a warmth (not just sustain) to the acoustic sound which I feel is the x-factor; without it you're just never going to get a fat, warm sound when you plug in.
Interestingly - to me anyway
- a Simon Neil Squier I bought awhile back to save gigging the '62 always sounded pretty good acoustically but disappointing through the amp. After changing the trem unit for a steel-block Wilkinson (US string spacing) bridge/trem unit and popping in a set of Bare Knuckle PUs the sound is more than good enough to take out for live shows. And it plays beautifully.
Conclusion: we play the guitar, not the pickups - but both need to be 'right'...
