Thanks guys!
I took some time and carefully set the pickup heights. I started at the Fender recommended heights, i.e. you need to depress the string at the last fret of the bottom and top e string respectively and measure the distance to the pole pieces of the respective pickups. For the bass strings, the recommended Fender setting is 3.6mm, for the treble strings 2.4mm. This gives a medium pickup height.
The settings were quite ok but not quite the fun factor of my Masterbuilt 1961 Strat. They were quite vintage sounding in the in between positions but a little shrill in the single coil positions.
I thought "damn, if Knopfler plays these PUs he must have a reason" and I started lowering them further. Then I also changed the tilt. I finally ended at 4mm for both sides. Bear in mind - the pickups are not parallel to the pickguard then because the bottom e magnets are sticking out of the pickup cover more than the top e magnets by about 1mm.
The result with the 4mm is very pleasing. The bridge middle position is very much what Knopfler gets in "Why Worry" with Emmilou Harris. The single coil positions are round and barky, but with enough presence. The pickups are pretty far from the strings so the guitar output is about the same or even slightly lower than of my Master Built 1961 Strat.
The Texas Specials give you the modern sound really. A good player can use anything to convincingly approach the early Dire Straits stuff but once you play the MK Strat back to back with a 1961 original or replica, the different character of the tone becomes obvious. This is not bad at all - the MK Sig is not worse, it is different and this is the fun factor about it. I totally get why people like this guitar and it is good that those who missed it can order it at least as a non-signature Custom Shop version.
Hope that makes sense.
