So now I have new curve ball. Originally, I bought these SD humbuckers as part of a package that included a Squier Tele body, hardware, non name Tele bridge pickup, and Kent Armstrong Tele neck pickup with chrome cover. I decided to get a Tele neck and put together the parts to build a Tele for my son. The bridge pickup seems fine, but the neck pickup does exactly what the SD humbuckers did (turning down the tone control makes it sound out of phase and volume is greatly reduced). I don't know if some environmental issue would cause this, or something else. This is the only time that I've experienced this, and with pickups that all came from the same guy.