hey, thanks for your reply, it helped alot, cause afterwards I headed over to seymourduncan.com to check out the pickups you had recommended, (I checked out the seymour duncans, but they were all $90+) and I listened to the sound files for those three (the distortion, the custom, and the JB) as well as all the other humbuckers on there that had sound files, and after listening to them all back to back (listening to the same riff over and over) I decided I like the SH-6 distortion the best. didn't sound like the cheesy nu-metal type stuff, very clear, yet still with a powerful punch. and it has lots of mids which is what I like. now the only problem is getting the $70 for it... I'm trying to sell some stuff I have lying around on craigslist, we'll see if I get any offers, hopefully I will... if not then I might not be able to get it for several weeks