I had posted this question until a different title topic but I don't think the question was clear enough so here it is again:

ORIGINAL QUESTION:

How much different tonally are the American Vintage '62 pickups in the current American Vintage '62 Stratocaster than the '57/'62 pickups in the early "Fullerton" '62 Reissues? I found some info online about how they redesigned the '57/'62 pickups in 1998 when they redesigned the Vintage Reissue Stratocasters. It said that they reverse engineered an original 1963 Strat pickup to come up with the new American Vintage '62 pickup. They staggered the alnico pole pieces and they beveled the top edges to match the original but they didn't mention anything about the sound. Were the changes merely cosmetic?

FOLLOWUP OBSERVATIONS:

On my gig last night I gave my '62 Reissue a good run through comparing it, probably unfairly, with my '63 Jaguar. The Jaguar sounded incredible, like it always does. It has that quacky, bright, slightly "choked" tone, just like the opening riff to "Fun, Fun, Fun" by The Beach Boys. Now while the '62 Reissue does sound "Strat-like" it seems kind of bland, lacking any real distinctive character like the Jaguar. If I really lay into it I can get some of that vintage "throaty" tone out of the middle and bridge pickups but it's not the sound I want to hear. In general, the pickups sound kind of midrangey and tinny. I really want to hear something with a midrange scoop and some real vintage Fender character. What pickup should I be looking into? The Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Surfer Set perhaps?

I have a '57 RI Strat and a '62 Hot Rod Strat...the '57 pups were bland to me,like you said,so I replaced them with Lindy Fralins Blues specials I think they were called and it was an improvement,but to me the Fralins didn't sound as good as a set of Van Zandt pickups I have in another Strat.
The HR '62 is another guitar all together,and the pickups in it sound great,the whole guitar is exceptional...but I can't find much on those pups except they're described as "vintage Strat" by Fender or something like that,so I don't think they're the '57/62s...but I would like to know more about them.

I just swapped the 57/62s in my 57 Reissue for Seymour Duncan Antiquities. I got Antiquity I for the neck, Antiquity II for the middle, and the Antiquity I custom bridge for well, the bridge >_> Before my strat was overly bright, I suppose you could call it tinny. After it sounds equal or better than the custom shop guitars I've played, such great sounds. ^^
As far as the Antiquity IIs go, I should mention it sounds the best out of all 3 pickups to my ears. It sounds like a piano when I'm playing clean, which is awesome because on my Ampeg on the vibrato channel I can make it sound like a church organ. Distorted with my old Proco RAT it sounds way better than it ever did, full and fuzzy rather than bright and harsh.

I should mention I had no problem paying the price because I bought them when Wymore guitars was going out of business and had them for 30% off ^^ If I had to pay the full $80 per pup, I would have probably still bought them but wouldn't have been as happy due to my penny pinching nature.

Anyhow, I think the Ant. IIs would sound amazing in your guitar. The only thing is, $240 opens the door to a lot of other boutique and factory pickup options to consider. Fenders, Kinmans, Lollars, Suhrs, etc... so many choices ^^

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

Thanks for the info on the Antiquity II pickups. I've heard that the '60s Surfer set is really good too:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/antiquity/stratocaster/1102409_08_10_a/

I've had my eye on these for a while but I can't really afford to get them right now. Then again, if I keep gigging with my Strat I might get aggravated enough to get them sooner than later!