Thanks for all the great advice, guys. I can see that I have to learn more about pickups and techniques to tweak electric guitars / amps. Can you suggest a good site?
By the way, the only differences between my old and new guitars seem to be the following:
1. New one has a 3 piece neck
2. New one has V7-S1-V8 pickup configuration. The old one had noname pickups.
Thanks!