software

I must admit they are a bit fat in the low end .
Tested in a Roadstar RS530 with a very thick baswood body , blocked trem .
Those pickup have plenty qualities; treebly but with enough mid , powerfull but not over the top ( no buzz here like X2N ) and abundant basses witch are good for clean , like an even EQ .
BUT when you want clarity with high gain you don't want so much basses .
I just swap the slotted screws for allen head screws ( of an Humbucker From Hell ) and those magical screws cleared and tightned the bottom end and added screaming harmonics .

This sounds interesting - you would got something like a screamin demon, which
is too bright for the taste of some users.
They recommend to replace the allen head screws with the regulat pole pieces.
For my taste the lows of the Custom are too tight, so this might be worth a try.

Yup, that is why the Demon and the full shred are the way they are! I still think the Demon is too harsh and bright with 2 rows of screws though!

Just a thought: I'm fooling around with those Virtual Vintage PAFs from DiMarzio. DiMarzio weakend the magnetic strength a little in this so called Air Bucker pup by having a little distance / gap between the magnet and the screws. This is obviously done by laquering the screw, so that they dont have a direct physical contact. Maybe this would work with a screaming deamon too. Otherwise i would try a A4 magnet from Fralin or Lew's Guitar. Hope that helps.

This sounds interesting, my biggest fear with the custom and why I never tried it was I thought it'd be too bassy.

Why couldnt you add a small cap to the demon to tame the harshness? like a .001 mfd or somthing like that? You could change the value till you got it where you wanted it. same as adjusting the tone control unless your guitar has no tone.

You can lower the pickup hight to tame the low end out cant ya? i always thought lower = thinner tone.

Or what if you lower the pickup, raise the poles on the high end side? this would tame the bass but keep the treble side right?