Re: so i got to thinking today...
I played one with singles in it with those adapter rings like was posted earlier. It sounded thinner than a piece of paper
The biggest problem is the location of the p'ups. All three are slanted and they aren't situated under the "right" harmonic vibration nods.
If well situated, they shouldn't sound too bad. They would sound "stratty", but by no means as a strat.
A chambered Lester would be a good platform for single coils, if you ask me.
Another thing that makes a Start sound like one is the scale, 25 1/2".
All things equal, due to the shorter scale (the Lester scale is 24 3/4"), less brightness is to be expected.
And last but not least, is the lack of a harness-like wired pickguard... that would affect the general tone of the guitar making it sound less and less "stratty".
Bottom line: wanna strat sound? Get a strat and learn to live with all the quirks Lester players wouldn't know about.
HTH,