Lord - I hear what you're saying re: pickup choices being specific to the guitar, strings, setup, amp, etc., everything that contributes ultimately to the tone. With a four-conductor pickup, you could conceivably test different combinations with jumper cables before hitting anything with sodder, right? I guess you'd have to wire a lead and a ground to an output plug, but then you could connect stuff in different configurations to get some sense of what is useful and what isn't.

Thanks again,
Eben