I done replaced the pickup

Well, being the supremely lazy guy that I am (along with just being busy this month), I finally replaced the stock bridge pickup on my $69 Kramer Focus with a Seymour Duncan Performer Scorcher--a cheapy model made exclusively for Guitar Center.

I don't know. I'm not wowed. I'm not sure why I expected to be wowed, like it would make such a big difference. You always read those reviews on Harmony Central where some guy says, "Man, they are awesome!!! I give it a 10!!!!!" And you wonder if they really know what they're talking about, or if they just bought into the hype.

Or maybe I'm just so stupid I can't switch out a pickup correctly. It was simple enough though, although my little battery powered soldering iron that I picked up at Home Depot had a hard time melting the solder. Maybe I should have changed out all the other hardware like the switch, too.

You can listen for yourself. Here's the original stock Focus pickup. Here's the Seymour Duncan Performer pickup.

The more I think about it, the original pickup wasn't so bad after all. The Performer pickup was a typical humbucker. It was smoother--creamier, I guess. Both times I hooked up the guitar to my POD at the 2A setting, which is Line 6 Clean with compression, a setting I like to use a lot.

I switched the pickup mainly to get practice in case I wanted to change out the whole set from my Squire Strat, but now I'm thinking--even if I buy really nice pickups--would I really hear that much of a difference?

The only benefit that the Focus now has is versatility, I suppose. I can't say it really sounds any better. And truthfully, when I want a humbucker sound, I will use my PRS Santana SE.