State of Epicicity
Fractal Fanatic
Yes, and no.
The pickups need to match the guitar, you are right on about that. The guitar will tell you what fits, just with what it is producing out of the box. Too bright and harsh and you can't dial it out. Grab a pickup that has a lower resonance to match the most likely bright wood (maple top most times). Of if you have a mahogany guitar with dark pickups, you can put brighter resonant pickups in it. Like the JB/59 combo for instance.
Glad you figured out what was going on. I have a feeling those pickups were just an issue from the get go. The fact that they had either changed the wiring of newer versions of the pickups, or just messed up early on... Say a lot.
P.S. Using a vol pot as a variable resistance is a great idea.
Thanks! For me at least, I was totally able to dial out the harshness. I kept getting more and more ideas as that thread went on, and I'll be playing with it a lot more when I can. The Guitar Nuts 2 thread I point to at the end there just sat with me for a while.