To have had a Strat you liked and then put all those fine pickup sets in a parts Strat you have yet to like as much as your old plain jane US Strat, I'm going to say the guitar is just a dead sounding bunch of parts.
Allowing that a rack of same model Strats all sound different, we know that the guitar has an influence on the pickups.
Some will stamp their feet and claim the guitar cannot possibly play a role in its own tone, only the pickups matter.
Yeah sure OK next!
I've been swapping Fender parts around since 1980 and some assemblies of neck body and bridge are just kinda dead.
Some players may find some sounds they like in a dead bones guitar.
You seem to need more than deadwood to be happy.
I've also swapped possibly hundreds of Strat pickups, but like a good number of us, I find that the whole rest of the guitar can be better or worse, and pickups just might not fix a worse guitar.
You gave this one a good run, really good run.
Try another body, maybe another neck.
What body and neck is this dead dull guitar we speak of?
Allowing that a rack of same model Strats all sound different, we know that the guitar has an influence on the pickups.
Some will stamp their feet and claim the guitar cannot possibly play a role in its own tone, only the pickups matter.
Yeah sure OK next!
I've been swapping Fender parts around since 1980 and some assemblies of neck body and bridge are just kinda dead.
Some players may find some sounds they like in a dead bones guitar.
You seem to need more than deadwood to be happy.
I've also swapped possibly hundreds of Strat pickups, but like a good number of us, I find that the whole rest of the guitar can be better or worse, and pickups just might not fix a worse guitar.
You gave this one a good run, really good run.
Try another body, maybe another neck.
What body and neck is this dead dull guitar we speak of?