The core Starla and Mira are no-compromise guitars.
Yeah, I think they're a more mature player's guitars. I view my Starla as a slightly fatter sounding SG, or a Jr with a Bigsby, almost.
I personally thought the stock pickups were good, on the face of it.. That said, when through a rig and EQ'd, I found the neck pickup was too heavy on bottom end, too bassy. So, you set the EQ to tighten the bottom end and bring out highs, right?
Then you switch to the bridge and now it's ice pick bright, lacking in bottom end fatness and compressed in the output (weak basically). You EQ for the bridge and the neck is too wooly, EQ for the neck and the bridge is too thin. There was no punch and they felt under powered compared to something like a Telecaster. To be fair, in my own experience, I felt the pickups were unfinished, I think they could have been refined further.
I've replaced the pickups in mine with Bare Knuckle Riff Raffs. They retain most of the brightness, tightened the bottom end so there's no mud at all, but there's power, thump and punch. Plus, it has that chirp in the upper mids that make it sound like a refined SG, a bit fatter and less wirey maybe. No going back for me. Every time I hear AC/DC I think; man that sound....
I also tried the Starla pickups in other guitars and they didn't work.