So I just wanted to chime in and say how pleased I am with my Rio Grande "Dual Calibrated Set" for Stratocaster. I soldered them in the other day, and after a day or two of playing, I'm really happy with the tone. Big difference from the stock pickups.

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1999 Fender American Standard Stratocaster, Lake Placid Blue (with a little age this color gets beautiful)
Rio Grande DCSS Pickups
2007 Fender CyberTwin SE

Nice! What are the major differences between the stock pickups? Did you change out any pots or wiring or just the pickups?

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-Kirk

GUITARS
'12 Sonoran Acoustic - black (dated 10/31/12)
'13 Standard Strat
AMP
Vox ac4c1-bl
PEDALS
Compressor
Big Muff
Vox Stomplab 1G
Carbon Copy Delay

Right now I've just changed the pickups, no change in the capacitors or pots. It sounds nice. They sound a lot beefier than stock. The bridge has a lot more substance to it, yet still has that twangy sound. The middle pickup has a distinctively clear and articulate sound to it. In the stock pickups, the neck pickup was my favorite, but I find myself playing middle more now. They just have more "voice" to them than they did.

You can't really tell from the pics, but the Muy Grande (pickup on left) has quite a bit larger diameter magnetic pole pieces than stock. The Halfbreed (middle pickup) has somewhat larger ones, and the Vintage Tallboy (right pickup) has what looks like the same, or similar, sized pole pieces.

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1999 Fender American Standard Stratocaster, Lake Placid Blue (with a little age this color gets beautiful)
Rio Grande DCSS Pickups
2007 Fender CyberTwin SE