I honestly can't remember what it sounded like with the stock pickups in it. I changed them to a set of Fralin Unbuckers to try to get stronger in between tones like a strat. It worked but then I was able to get my hands on a set of 57/08s that came out of a special run guitar back in around 2008 or 2009 and put them in it. They have been in there ever since. I have the original pickups and have thought a few times about putting the sock pickups back in to see what it sounded like when I first got it. I don't remember disliking them. I was just trying to get it to do something more specific to what I wanted at that time. I really like the 57/08 pickups. I had them in one other PRS at that time and when I was able to get that set, I jumped. If I remember correctly the stock SAS pickups are a tweaked version of the McCarty pickups that they put in them before the actual SAS pickups. They measure in the range of the McCarty and early 57/08 pickups.