I was so intrigued by what was being discussed that I dug out my G&L S-500 and restrung it today and had a good couple of hours going through the stuff we do and love.
I'm as happy a a dog with two bones, no matter how old or experienced you think you are, you discover new stuff every day and today I put the G&L through my Strymon Iridium and Zoom G5n into my Dynacord Powermate 600 PA Desk that I have in my front room, it works identical to the band's 16 channel version that we use on gigs (which is why I bought it) and I experiment with new bits and bobs that come my way, so I can bring them to our shows with the band.
I realised only today that the MFD pickups that were Leo Fender's last major invention that he was working on in 1977/78 before introducing them into his G&L guitars, are made using ceramic magnets for the reasons of improving his original pickups from the fifties that used Alnico magnets. There's lots of stuff on You Tube from G&L telling everyone about these pickups, explaining the benefits and improvements and it all makes sense, worth a look if you're interested.
All I know is that for quite a few years whilst I've owned the G&L S-500, I've considered it to be one of the best sounding / playing Strats I ever owned, though I'm not mad on the dark blueburst finish If I'm honest as it may as well be black, which is why I don't seem to use it alot. That said, I'm putting all of that to one side and I'm going to use it anyway, I've been brainwashed for too long with fiesta red and what the hell, Hank had a black Strat for ages.
I've just installed a set of Ernie Ball ' Mighty Slinky' 8.5/40 gauge strings and set it up with the trem floating and it works and plays beautifully and sounds as good as it should, even on Shads stuff. Yes I know they are very light, but my hands are weak so it's a compromise. I've done a lot of studying string tension lately and these work for me on a Straocaster scale length, on a Gibson I can use 9/42 with similar 'feel'. In his later years, Chet Atkins used a Gibson Solid Electro that was nylon strung for the same reason, which is what made me investigate as I wanted to continue playing steel strings because of the music I like. I do have a similar guitar to Chet's Gibson but less expensive and built by Crafter, which is a delight to play as it is kind to the fingers. I once owned the Gibson Classical Nylon strung electric but sold it about ten years ago as I never used it but I can confidently say that the Crafter version is just as good but less expensive.