I have a 2001 clapton strat that I took the pre amp out of. I had 250k pots in there, and with the tone controls all the way up I was happy but still wanted a little more high end. I put CTS 500k and 153k orange drop caps and was amazed how much more alive my strat sounds. The bridge p/u got rid of the nasal midrange and I can hear more detail and sound coming trough IMHO. I am using the lace hot gold p/u's. Just a FYI, this is only my opinion, but this seems to be the ticket to better tone.