Disclosure - I’ve bought a TON of pickups in my days. And swapped a TON of magnets. While I stipulate that there ‘is’ a difference in pickups - to my ear anyway - the difference in pickups swapped into the identical guitar through the identical amp is down at the absolute lowest end of the ‘noticeable’ spectrum. Top end of that spectrum for truly ‘noticeable’ difference with all other factors being identical is speakers. Plug your guitar into your head and drive 3 different 4x12s loaded with: 1) 20 watt GBs; 2) V-30s; and 3) GT-75s and you WILL hear the difference. Pick your favorite of those 3 cabs with your head and guitar and swap in a Duncan ‘59 followed by a ‘78 or a Duncan Distortion followed by a JB and you will be hard pressed to tell the difference - let alone which one sounded qualitatively ‘better.’ You will hear a difference between ‘vintage’ output winds with A2 mags and ‘hot’ output winds with ceramic mags - but beyond those dramatic changes, the variances are subtle at best. Especially after adding gain, boost, verb, delay, etc. But that sure doesn’t mean that it isn’t fun and exciting to chase tone by swapping in variants of the same general ‘flavor’ of pickup…
