Hi everyone,

I'm new in this Forum, but I've been reading some of the posts so I think here I'll be able to find people for helping or guiding me with my new set of pickups. Thank you in advance for your responses.

I bought the California 50s Set (3 SSL-1 pickups) and I put them on a Fender Standard Stratocaster MIM 2011. It gave me a new brighter sound, with more highs and perfect for playing funk, rock, pop, and those genres that need a clear, bright and brillant sound. I really like that vintage (bell) tone on my Strat, but the problem is that I hear less output from my pickups, I compared the output with a Squiet Strat Bullet and that Squier's signal was louder (and with more sustain) than the Fender (with new pups) one. I used the two guitars with the same conditions (a series of pedals containing an MXR Smart Gate M-135) going to a Fender FM212R amplifier.

My question is. Is it normal to lose sustain (and output level) with the SD SSL-1 pickups?, (The Luthier who installed the pickups didn't shorten the SSL-1's wires, he just rolled them), Can this affect my current sustain I have?, Should it have been better to cut the wires while installing them?, or maybe Should I try a new noise gate or noise supressor pedal such as the Boss NS-2? (Or some pedal without a big "cutting" effect like the MXR Smart Gate?.

Thanks, I hope I can get some help from you.