i got a epiphone SG copy with pretty shitty pickups ( the clarity is horrible )
and when i strum, its just a mess of ugly distortion. i have a marshall 15 watt practice amp. i saved up 200bucks to buy EMG's but my question is....
with a 15 watt practice amp is it even worth it buying these expensive pickups because i dont want to spend alot of money and barely notice any differnce. THX

IMO, its not worth it

your probably not playing in a band now im assuming, so you dont really need to sound great, but of course its always better to good tone.

what i would do is to save up for a better guitar.

either way it would be an improvement imo...

__________________

im just hoping with me changing the pickups ill notice a big difference.right now my guitar is ok for metal rythym but for lead its terrible.

There will be a difference, but not a $200 difference. Wait and buy a better amp and pickups both. Thats what I did. I waited, and got a better guitar, then shortly after got a better amp.

__________________

you're in a bad situation, you have a small crappy amp... you need a big tone monster but if you bought a nice amp instead you'd still have a yucky guitar...
you're guitar is also pretty bad, but even a nice set of emg's can only do so much for it.

the way i look at it:

replace the amp and you fixed your amp problem completely

or

replace the pickups and you only used a "Band Aid" for your guitar problem. so it's still a problem.

my .02 u.s.d.

__________________

are you switching to the neck pickup for the leads? Best pos for soloing imo.

__________________

thats the EXACT same situation i had. i updated the pickups to emg 81 and 85's. im happy with it, becuase i also bought a peavey 5150. i think its a good choice, but epiphones (at least mine) are prohibitively bad for soloing. i love the guitar though

__________________

i say, get the pickups. but remember, you dont HAVE to replace both at the same time. then, after you got that, save again for an amp. you will notice a difference with the pickups, but when you get the amp it will be like night and day. happy shopping twat.

yea, get the pickups first and then save up for a good second hand amp. I take it ure american, so u could prob get ure hands on a cheap ass crate blue voodoo, which wouldnt set u back much

__________________

I'd vote for getting the pups first, then (if you feel like it) replace the guitar (obviously, keeping the pups you bought), then buying an amp.

The reason I'd do this: If you're gigging somewhere, you can play on your POS guitar with good pups through someone else's amp. And then, you can play your good guitar with good pups through someone else's amp, and then you can play your own stuff.
IMO, it's easier to adapt to a new amp for a gig, than to adapt to a new guitar, so it's more important to keep your guitar in decent shape. Plus if you're going to be gigging, there'll probably be some more bands there, so there'll be more amps around, quite probably some decent ones (since people with good amps want to be sure to get their good tone, not someone else's shitty tone).

__________________

damn, the fools in your area must have tons of hospitality n' such...

we're so selfish around here.... one time my friend was playing a show, he broke a string on his nice ass fender jazzbass like two songs into it, and had no more strings, so he asked the bass player of the other band nicely if he could use his bass to finish the set... the kid was all all like "fuck no, nobody is touching my bass!" and refused... his bass was a peice of shit ibanez soundgear 5 string too, he thought it was the shit though because it was a fivestring, cuz fucking korn uses 5 strings or something... but it just goes to show how some fucks arent willing to lend stuff.

some guys are nice and let you barrow there cabs or something... but i don't like to always mooch off others... i don't mind buddies using my gear. but some people are simply fuckers.

__________________

I went through the same thing you are currently going through about crappy guitar and crappy amp. I hated my sound, and at the time I was big into Metallica. So for that reason I got EMG's, and let me tell you, that right there made a huge difference. I put them in a Jackson Dinky Reverse that was new for $250. And the pickups were about $80 each. But after that, it became one of my favorite guitars. Change the pickups now (which will make all the difference) and then worry about a better amp first. Because the EMG pickups have such an impact on tone and such. They really push whatever amp you play on.