[LPBII]

I finally tracked down a VS about a month ago. 

I was afraid it would not sound stratty based on the B/LM/UM/T charts, but to my delight it sounds very stratty. The good kind of stratty, too. I dare say it sounds more stratty than some overwound true singles I tried.  It's an excellent bridge position solution if you need a traditional strat bridge pickup only with more power-and without too harsh treble.

I'm very pleased. I have HSS strats and Charvels, so I wanted to keep my SSS strat with a set of boutique true singles traditional sounding. The bridge single of the set sounds great but just did not have enough power. The VS was the solution. And the VS sounds great in its own right.

Also the notch position with the middle pickup has great "quack." It's also nice to not have the buzz on the more used bridge position when running through a hot amp. The middle pickup is RWRP, so I just moved the hum canceling from the bridge and middle together to the bridge position alone.

[darkbluemurder]

Fully agree. My VS has been in my MIJ Charvel Strat for years. The Injector Bridge is a good alternative. Both do the hot but still strat excellently.

Cheers Stephan

[frankencat]

The VS is my favorite Strat bridge pickup.

[LPBII]

I revisited the Solo in an SSS strat today. I liked it a few years ago but went back to a stock strat single in the bridge position for music I was playing at that time.
Also it was sounding strangely dark on the wound strings. Turns out that was because of the speakers I was using at the time.

So, with different speakers and back to playing more leads again, the stock pickup was lacking power as before.

One of the great things I discovered about the Solo this time around is that with the guitar volume down a couple notches and the tone up a few notches it is pretty much a stock strat bridge pickup. Then if you crank up the guitar volume and roll the tone back a couple notches, it turns into a pretty good paf. (I use a 250k pot on the middle knob hooked up to the bridge pickup) And the guitar looks stock.

The notch position with the middle pickup is very stratty at all volume settings.

 BTW, Take your time dialing in the pickup height. It matters with this one.