Update. I chickened out on the magnet swap. Not for the faint of heart. Once I removed the tape around the coil and saw how tiny the wire between the bobbins is I stopped and put it back together
I kept playing with the original pups and have worked up considerable appreciation for them. I did some test recordings with my various guitars (see my signature) which allows to listen back and compare more easily.
Here a fairly subjective ratings on how I liked the different pups (more liked at the top):
I used a clean setting for the neck pups and used Yellow Ledbetter intro as the riff.
- SD Hot Strat (single coil)
- SD Jazz
- PRS 85/15S
- SD 59
I used a dirty rhythm sound for the bridge pickup and used the Animal intro as the riff.
- SD Full Shred
- PRS 85/15S
- SD Pegasus
- SD JB
I forgot how the noise-less single coils in my Fender Ultra fared, but they were somewhere in the middle each (not best but not worst either). I actually also did the same recording test with my Core Custom 24 and Core 85/15 pups, and they were very similar to the imported version. Maybe a little more "clear". I'd have to go back and compare them all at once again.
The only pup I really have no liking for is the SD JB. Just too high output for the style of music I play these days. Actually nice though for hard rock/metal cleans, a la Pull Me Under intro.
I also noticed that I really like the volume roll-back behavior of the PRS pups. Clean up nicely and get a little brighter. Probably has to do with the treble bleed circuit more than the pups, but I like.