well, I've never heard of them before this thread, but from reading that, here's what I got from it:

toasters were the kind of pickups they used in the 50's and 60's before they had today's technology of pickups. according to the letter thing, they sound very much the same as today's pickups, but are slightly different. "The original toasters were brighter, clearer, and more HiFI/lower distortion and lower output compared to today's" and "the reissue toasters... sound more like the standard high gains than like the original toasters." (standard high gains being modern pickups)

so basically, they use different technology but sound the same... LATS could interpret it better though :rolleyes: