It's fine, RB's get dumped super cheap bc of perceived "beginner-ness".
Ends up the pickups out of a RB and my German $$'s may be the same.
RB with a seymour duncan preamp:
You can get these cheap. All you want is the module and you can solder it into your existing controls.
Model doesn't matter as the module is the same, just pot values and whether or not you get a balance for 2 pickups.
In Fact, Warwick did that with the FNA and Jazzman.
You can go full on SD pickups and preamp if you like the Aeroplane sound but preamp swap is usually good enough.
I went from ceramic to Alnico MM on my $$5, and you really have to go far to get much of a different sound. $$4 got a pair of Bigmans. Ends up that it's really fun, but I prefer splitting them back to a pair of Big Singles the most.
Somewhere along the way you may find yourself only really liking 1 of the $'s.
I ended up playing mainly the neck pickup. It gets fatter up there, and singlecoil is still P like and thick. I was never into the doinky J bridge solo sound. Not this Big Blademan clip sounds thicker. I think I'm doing one down the road like this.
It's not that my MMs or Bigmans are bad, you just get down this road with $$'s and all these gear what ifs pop up.
Lots of cool sounds to explore.
