Do brand name pickups really sound that much better than the factory installed pickups, or have we just been brainwashed into believing that they do ?

I believe there can be a difference, but probably not as much as a lot of players think. Too many people spend more time trying to find the "Holy Grail O' Tone" than practicing or composing.

You're generally not going to hear someone in the audience or someone listening to your CD saying "Ah, I liked this song until I realized he wasn't using Dimarzio's. I can really hear the lack of the extra mids/highs/lows, etc. " (Unless the listener is a pickup-centric guitarist!)

I've actually had people ask me what pickups I've used on certain songs, and how they can get the same sound, and the songs that have gotten the best compliments tone-wise were played with stock pickups!

I think this is a great topic. My guitar uses stock Ibanez pickups, I have a freind that came by yeaterday he owns the same model guitar that I do (except his righty, i'm a lefty) But he has laready dropped in a Screamin Demon. We took turns playing the same licks on my amp, just got the amp yeasterday (ValveKing 212) exact same settings on the amp. I am 39 years old and played on and off from age 16 and to be totally honest with you I really did not hear the difference. Now with his guitar being right-handed model I did not play with that pickup maybe I could have noticed a difference that way. And of course I did not mention this to him. That pickup runs you about 90 or 100 bucks and another 20 to 4o bucks to have a pro-shop install it. Until yesterday my next upgrade was going to be installing the Screamin Demon in my guitar. I think now I will use my money for a couple of stomp boxes for my new amp instead. I know there are some really junk pickups out there, but things have changed a ton in the last 10 years. Not only that but many of the major guitar companies now contract companies like EMG, Seymour Duncan, and so to make their pickups and just place the guitar companies name on the pickup. This topic I am sure will be open to major debate, and until yeatrday I would have agreed that brand names would be the way to go. But now after hearing it myself, I will give this much more thought.
Just my opinion.
Terry

MUST try Stan Hinesley/Has Sound pickups!!
Banners are on my page, check it out, awesome!!

I was just checking out some of the Stan Hinesley pickups and listening to tracks from some of the artists that use them, they've got a really nice sound. I had Dimarzio pickups in my last guitar, they weren't a matched set but they sounded pretty good; it had a "Fred" model in the bridge position and an old "PAF pro DP151" in the neck. Right now I'm just using the stock pickups in my 121Z, they don't really have a lot of gain, so I'm trying to find something with a little more punch. They are also quite dirty sounding, so you have to play with very little distortion or effects. The sound I'm looking for is lots of clean and punchy lows with a nice midrange presence; I can almost get the midrange that I'm looking for if I use my wah pedal, but then I lose the low end.

I found out why my pickups sounded so distorted and didn't have much output... I opened up the cavity in my guitar the other day and checked it out, the positive pole on my volume pot was pushed up against the ground; that can't be good !!! I bent it back into place, and now that the signal is actually going through my pickups, they don't sound too bad.

Things like that are happening a lot now. My Ibanez RG370DX, this is almost the 4th month I have had it. Last week while just doing some cleaning to the guitar and some tremolo adjustments I decided to have a look at the electronics. I was so pissed, I emailed Ibanez. Still have not heard back yet. I found 2 different wires with open spots on them. (places where the rubberized coating on the wire had a gash in it leaving the wire itself exposed. I almost removed it and cut it at the bad spot the re-attach it myself. But I decided to wait to hear from Ibanez. There is no excuse for quality that poor. I have played Ibanez guitars for many years now. In my email to them I let them know that my next guitar will be a Jackson. I know what there going to say, go to your dealer to have it repaired. But I already plan to tell them outright, I want all the electronics replaced.
You can actually fry a tube or 2 with an exposed wire. And if it had only been one then well maybe that could have gotten passed, but 2 of them. I have just wrapped them in tape for now, and waiting for Ibanez to email me back.

So if any one that reads this happens to have an Ibanez from the RG series, open it up and check the electronics, it could save you a ton of problems later down the road.

I know what you mean man... I use a tube amp as well and that was one of my biggest concerns when I saw that the positive pole on my guitars volume pot was grounding out on the case. It's a very old amp (1972 Traynor Bass Mate), and if it blows out I may not be able to get it repaired. That would suck man, I love this amp !!!

To Me there is a huge difference-pickups can be the biggest factor in getting the sound you want-They're your microphone, it's not unlike the difference of singing into a radioshack mike verses a shure beta 58.
Active EMG pickups and most Semour Duncan Pickups are AWESOME!

After my recent experience with EMG pickups, I must say that I totally agree. I just switched my Pacifica over to EMG passives and I gotta tell ya, these things kill; I am going to drop a set into my RGX next. :)