Having got totally fed up with uneven/staggered pickups on various Starts I decided to get a G&L S500 with the adjustable pickup poles. The neck has a much flatter radius (12") and wider than most Fender offerings which are usually 9 1/2", however I soon got used to this after a few days. I don't like the two tone 'adjustments',which work in conjunction, the 'bridge end' tone control being quite difficult to hear what's happening...if anything. Another serious problem is the sound of the pickups...they don't sound like a normal Strat with an 'odd' harshness towards the end of the note, plus the fact that adjusting the pole pieces can be tricky as they don't screw downwards so you need to start from the 'loudest' string and work from there- the claim is that these pickups are the same as the US ones- not so sure about that... Owing to my dislike of the pups and the tonal control issue I've started a total pup change (pig irons- as recommended by Dave Robinson) and a total swap out of all the wiring and pots- I'll report later on how this pans out.
On the plus side I can totally recommend the tremolo system which works better than any Fender offering I've used in the past, the system has a 'push in' trem arm and also the whole guitar stays acceptably in tune after considerable use.
Incidentally I discovered after I had dismantled things the middle tone knob had a push/pull operation which I had suspected but owing to the shape of the knob couldn't operate- I've no idea what this is supposed to do as there were no instructions with the guitar and I could find nothing online. Anyway...