Never changed any pickups on any of my Gibsons
What I will do though is each time I try a new set of pups out , i'll test them on a few different guitars time allowing , as they might sound better in one than another .
I'll also put any decent pups I do swap into a so called lesser guitar .
For example , my MIM Strat has the pups that I took from a USA , and the MIM pups will probably go in an Aria Strat that I gave my daughter .
I figure i'm only gonna use so many guitars at any one time , so it can be cost effective to do it like that , rather than buy a new set for everything .
About 6 or 7 of my guitars are totally stock and sound ok .