Interesting what you said about Sadowski flats, which I haven't tried. Also be sure to hard crimp and bend the end of the string before winding. If not the rotation from winding around the tuner can loosen the outer windings from the core causing a bad string. Especially with round core strings. Hex core helps prevent that but I crimp then anyway.Close call!
I've been trying to sell/trade my 44-02 deluxe because I wasn't boding with the play and tone. I wasn't getting any bites on sales - probably because it's got a few finish cracks and I replaced the preamp with an Audere so it wasn't stock.
I had a new set of the flats I use and the other day I figured I'd trade out this new set for the newish set of the same strings I had on it. The A-string windings had separated a bit for some reason and I realized I didn't wind that much of the strings around the posts. This time I wound it so that the last pass of the strings was right at the bottom of the post. Bingo! Now I'm not getting the same kind of fret buzz I was getting and I was able to lower the strings to where I have them on my Ibanez SR's. This one has become a keeper!!
It turns out I had a bum set of Sadowsky flats that gave the pickups a sort of spongy/hollowish tone but with these new ones the tone is full and rich. I also realized that turning the mids down at 750 Hz made these pickups sound better to me. The Audere preamp I installed has two mid controls - one at 750 Hz and the other at 250 Hz. It sounds really good with the high mids turned down a bit and the low mids turned up a bit.
Now I'm not only not selling it but I'm also not looking to replace the pickups!