Putting fingers on fingerboard is no trouble but sorting out sounds of pick ups is hard. Some like thick and soupy, some like spider, some clean, some dirty and all that, so recommendations are difficult to make or take. Some players are really neat and tidy, some trash the thing. What can we do?
I want nice pick ups for a Les Paul, have already SG Standard with Burstbuckers 1&2, it's kind of feisty and spiky, that's very good for me. If I get the same for Les Paul, this won't be bad and it's a different sound from the SG but I think the only way to know is to try to find a guitar that has them already. It's not easy to find Les Pauls in showrooms with Bare Knuckle, Lollar, Di Marzio, Seymour Duncans etc. so it comes down to recommendation for these, but I live near London so I can try out all these unknown Classic 57's, Burst Bucker pros and all those 490 jobs quite easily for myself because I know that a Les Paul Classic has BB's and a Traditional has 57's.
Homework..... It's different if you don't live near a decent guitar shop. What I do is "tour" - take a day, take the train and walk around these places. I can make this a relaxed pleasure by getting lunch in a pub. I make this "I'm going to town for lunch and get a set of strings" into my "day" so I don't get hung up that I'm "buying today", because I've made my mistakes in the past (so what? It's all a journey). I'm afraid that I have also visibly developed the habit of "glazing over" when the sales-pitches start. I don't need to have much interest in that because of my "homework". If I want to know, I'll ask and if I don't, I just look. I never say what I'm looking for until I see something - "Just looking, if that's all right? Thank you." Peace!
White noise - loads of folks like something called "Klon", a legendary pedal with imitators/repros like "Archer" and I think everybody knows about Tube Screamers but what I hear of all that doesn't interest me, I like direct, thinner, nastier filth without all that "mid-range" stuff, I use ear bleed treble and I like Alnico pick ups more than high-power ceramic because it's more "open and airy" i.e. a much wider frequency range - the aggression or "bite" comes more from the presence control than the overdrive and the guitar's tone controls become useful. That stuff picks up finger noise like crazy when you crank the amp, some like it, some don't, and whether your "craziness" is individual or you copy others in a covers band for good money, we all do different stuff. The point being that review and recommendation can only get you so far.
In general, ceramic (and active) designs usually suit 1980's+ type music and the "open, sweet and airy" description is older Alnico designs, more like playing through a Marshall stack in 1968 (Page, Clapton etc.). Not quite so "tidy" but more "sparkly" for pop. That might narrow stuff down a bit but in the finish I can try loads of Gibson guitars in showrooms for 57 Classics, Burst bucker pros and all that but I don't know how to try out all the "little guys" because recommendation is so subjective - "some like soupy, some like thin" etc all over again, blah blah.
So just try what you can get to try while reading as many reviews as possible to get some idea of different characters and qualities. The next thing is the amp you use - modelling with digital solid state or old fashioned valve stuff with maybe twin channels as your tonal options. Some players have Line 6 and Blackstar, some have AC30s. Try to use an amp that you know I should think, bear in mind that amps matter - fabulous pick ups are a waste of time if you are playing through crud. A good twin-channel can cost but it's Godsend if one ever played in the 1960's - a hundred-watt Marshall was gutless at pub volumes and muddied up in an open-air situation. Today you can get the sweet spot where you need it just by standing on a button. It's this which has made the vintage pick up revival practical and it's still cheaper than playing golf, no? Magazines are good, read between the lines though.
I'm definitely a trasher myself. I'd never be able to hold a job with Alice Cooper, it's too polite and I'd way-sooner get a divorce than calm down. I've got one life and I want a Les Paul, not an Epiphone, thanks. Yeah, I know that hurts but ain't it great to have fingers? OH YEAH, HEARING LOSS - 15% BOTH SIDES! AY? So I'm murder in a guitar shop and I recommend this - TRY THEM OUT FOR REAL! After you've listened to all the blarney, try them for real. Don't buy unheard, unseen, unplayed. If you want to know about Lollars for your Korean-driftwood "thing", play a £5,000 Collings and "give it some". It's your money! Then if you take the plunge and they don't do the job, discuss the potentiometers and capacitors with a repair man, that stuff can be sorted for a bag of chips while saving up for your Collings (or Huber!).
Other than all that, I don't know. Best to all, keep trucking, it's good. It's not wrong. It can't be wrong.
