[JsXLine6]

you could always do something similar to what the AZ series Ibanez guitars do. There's a switch that changes all the tones, it's sort of like a phasing switch... you have your 5 standard positions and then once the switch is hit, you get another 5 selections.

What you want to do is completely possible though... individual coil splitting isn't hard, each pot would have the north finish wire and the south finish wire going to the switch in the push pull pot (in a dimarzio pickups case that's the black and white wires) then when the switch is activated it sends those wires to ground splitting that pickup. And the wire that would normally go to the selector to the volume pot would just go direct to the output jack instead of the volume pot. It's definitely doable... though it may take a little trial and error.

 

[JsXLine6]

They are made better in general. Mainly is the wax potting process. Cheaper pickups are made essentially the same way, but the quality control can be a little all over the place. If there is a bad wax potted pickup it will be microphonic and be very noisy. Cheap pickups (at least in my experience) seem to be ceramic magnet as well. Which is not a bad thing, it's just a preference for most people. Ceramic magnets tend to be higher output than their alnico counter parts. Each different type of magnet gives you a different character. If you take one pickup... and replace the magnet and rotated different magnets in it, you will notice a difference in tone and output. Also, cheaper pickups tend to have a little less clarity and string definition. This is especially noticeable in cheap single coils. BUT! Sometimes you can get a set so cheap... if you wind up not caring for them... you can just dispose of them. But really, if you know what sort of tone you are after do a little research and ask around. There are a lot of youtube videos with sound comparisons. Most manufactures have very good descriptions of their pickups. Plus the Big 2 (DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan) have a money back guarantee. If you don't care for the pickups they'll take them back and send you something else. They want you to be happy.

 

[JsXLine6]

Wax potting is a process where they dip the pickups in a vat of Wax. The wax gets in between the copper windings of the pickup. This prevents them from vibrating against each other causing unwanted feedback or noise. Unfortunately there aren't really many sets anymore for that cheap. I normally buy Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, Fender... A lot of guys like Fishman or EMG. But none of them are all that cheap especially if they're humbuckers. Maybe you should start a thread asking what a good affordable set you should get?