I never liked the look of a Strat pup in a Tele's middle - too disruptive, especially with a '52. The black 280's blend into the black pickguard nicely. If I want to get cute I could color the middle's polepieces black to make it almost invisible.

Aside from that, I love that clear Tele neck sound - more organic somehow than a Strat. I want to retain that attribute when combined with the middle pup.

"Muddy" is too strong a word for what I mentioned; but there was a very noticeable treble loss between the single-pickup & combined tones. As for height adjustments - there is no variation I haven't tried - Becky's suggestions, Bill's suggestions, every possible combination. Probably can't be helped with higher-impedance pickups like these.

>Under the covers, so to speak, they're essentially the same pickup!

That's what Becky said, but regardless, they sound quite a bit different; that's what I attribute to the basic differences between Strats & Teles and the woods used. BOTH sounds are great.