Re: ultrasonic pickups
They made them in WEST Germany, you know, at the times when they were also East Germany and Soviet Union etc.
Ultrasonics should be installed very close to the strings because they haven't got any (or very very little) string pull. They are not alike ordinary passive pickups. They could sound low output pups 'cos people haven't installed them close enough, infact they are little hotter than vintage pups. I guess they are working more like vocal microphones but I don't know for sure. This is what I've heard.
I own one single coil type with vintage output, the Reference 1 was the model if I remember right. Somebody said that it's a humbucking single coil. I haven tried it to any guitars yet, but I guess I will try it to my Custom Explorer because it's the only guitar I have with a single coil mount and I'm not pleased to The DiMarzio Fast Track 1 which I have now in the neck position.
They had 6 different models of Ultrasonic 1, 2 and 3 are single coils, and the bigger the number, the bigger output. 4, 5 and 6 were humbucker models.