I just got a AC30 with blue alnicos. the new fangdangled chinese ones, but despite that it was expensive and sounds great. My x-50 with the franz is best at getting the best bark/growl out of it. but of course I cant ever gig with my x-50 because of the awful feedback. I'm about to order f-hole plugs from dougsplugs.com but I get a feeling that wont cut it. I remember reading somewhere about wax-potting the pickup. I cant find it but, is that really effective? if it is is it worth doing? sounds like a hassle.