You've bought that nice shiny new guitar

[Rog]

I've never even heard the std Fender pups on my Strat, 'cos I got it from new with the BL noiseless pups set installed. I love the BLs though!

I have the std Fender pups on both of my basses, although I did buy a replacement noiseless set off TM for my Jazz, just in case....

My Agile LP and Jagmaster both have original pups and I like it that way.

I don't know how many times I changed out the buckers on my '72 Thinline Tele before I gave it away...

[Hot_Grits]

I've never even heard the std Fender pups on my Strat, 'cos I got it from new with the BL noiseless pups set installed. I love the BLs though!

I have the std Fender pups on both of my basses, although I did buy a replacement noiseless set off TM for my Jazz, just in case....

My Agile LP and Jagmaster both have original pups and I like it that way.

I don't know how many times I changed out the buckers on my '72 Thinline Tele before I gave it away...

That's the thing with pickup changes. If the woods aren't making a sound that pleases you in the first place, no amount of pickup swapping will please you. I learned that after buying a beautifully beat up, sweet necked 76 strat. I tried all kinds of pickups in that guitar, and all it taught me was I don't really like swamp ash strats for neck pickup tones (which I was using a lot of at the time).

Wood and finish are the whole ballgame to me. Once you have that, season with pickups to taste.

...and the good news is that even really cheap guitars can sometimes be great pieces/combinations of wood. It's a fluke occurence, but it does happen...

[Rog]

I've found that one of the cheapest mods I can make, which works far better than pup changes is string changes. My new Jagmaster came with std Fender bullets (9s) and the guitar just wasn't 'right' for me. After I changed out the tuners with Sperzels (thanks, Iain) to give just a little more weight (I'm not a fan of too light guitars, I put new D'Add Chromes flats (11s) on and the difference is significant. The guitar just sounds & feels so much nicer to play.

[Rog]

...and the good news is that even really cheap guitars can sometimes be great pieces/combinations of wood.

I agree completely.
Coversely, even really expensive guitars can sometimes not be great pieces/combinations of wood.