The Last Bass Outpost

Haven't been here for a long time (almost 2yrs).
Hope everyone's doing well. I missed some of you, dear friends

So let me get to the point.
My Les Paul DC bass has almost no use recently. How come?
There was something in its tone that bothered me a lot. I didn't understand what exactly.
But then I realized it by comparing my observations of another basses (Ps, Js, Spectors, G&Ls, EBMM etc.).
There's some thing I really hate in how ceramic pickups sound. All such pickups have some kind of hiss and harshness that langsam aber sicher drive me crazy.
So the last one in my stable with ceramics is my Gibson. Either I'll figure out how to fix it or else I'm going to sell it.
Which I really don't want to because this is my only Gibson bass... and most probably I won't buy another one soon (I'm pretty much loaded)... and because I really like how it plays and feels... and because it matches so nice with my Gibson electric and acoustic guitars...  d'oh!

I know that there were AlNiCo replacements - Bassbuckers by Lindy Fralin. Though I can't find them anywhere.
Were they any good? How can one find them now?
Are there any other direct drop-in alternatives?

Would be much grateful for your inputs.


Cheers,
Serge

First of all: Happy New 2013 Year to all of you, dear forumites!

Well, the idea of T-Bird II build haunts me for the last few years already.
One of the unsolved questions is the issue of pickup placing on original '63-'65 Thunderbird II basses. Some pictures show it exactly close to the central pickguard screw (i.e. the pickup chrome frame upper right angle is placed right next to that screw), other show it an inch or more closer to the bridge.

So where is the truth?


One more thing: how does the pickup placing on original TBrids II relate to the neck pickup placement of modern TBirds IV?

Many thanks in advance!