Welcome to the forum!
I have a pickup question...
A luthier buddy of mine made custom pickups for a lot of basses and guitars as part of the services he offered. All of my friends and I have revered the pickups he made as they consistently sound better than anything else I have tried. Every time I asked him what his secret was, he said "Theres nothing special about these, Im using the same materials and specs as everyone else."
Is this just him being modest and not wanting to share his secret sauce? Or is there really less distinction between the "boutique" pickup makers and everyone else?
(for reference I have many guitars with everything from Fralins, Lollars, Antiquity's, to stock fender/gibson/squire stuff).