So tonight I brought out my Hello Kitty strat to a live situation and played it for a couple of hours with a modeling amph going direct to FOH. This was the first time with this guitar in awhile, so it took me a little bit to get used to it, but after adjustment my conclusion was that the strat is ridiculously bright. It has a single humbucker in the bridge and a lone volume knob (no tone knob), and it tended to be a bit ice-picky unless I brought the volume way down on the guitar, and even then it wasn't exactly warm, just slightly less cold and a little dull.

I like this guitar quite a bit. The stylings are obviously awesome, and it's actually a pretty good little player. But the tone leaves something to be desired. My question: is there any way to take a strat and give it that warmer, smoother sound of a Les Paul? Are the 25.5" scale and bolt-on neck too much to overcome, or can this be done? It doesn't need to sound exactly like an LP, but a bit more warmth would go very far in the music I tend to play.

My first target is the pickup, as I think this one sucks. It's really only good on high-gain stuff, but I need something mellow enough to give me decent clean tones too. The only caveat here is that to match Hello Kitty's face on the pickguard, I'd like the pickup to be white to make it match.

Any ideas on what to try for a pickup or other ideas for how to tame the strat? New bridge? New pot? A cap in the circuit somewhere? I'm open to any and all ideas.