Upgrading Need Advice

FWIW:

you're obviously limited by your routings as to what pups you can stick in your bass (unless you want to carve it up). Some configurations give basically no altnernatives while others give you more than you'd probably want. So you first have to figure out what your options are. Changing pups is a crap shoot at best usually. It's been my experience that some pups play well to finger and flatpic, some pups don't respond to flatpick well at all, some pups seem to only work well to flatpick, and some neither work or don't work per se' it's just different. Changing the pick type will alter tone dramatically as will a myriad of other factors.

If I weren't me what I would do is look at what configuration pro's and locals use for the kind of music I play and go from there. Same shape of pups can vary dramatically in tone but at least it puts you in a ballpark - and gives you the look I suppose which is important to some players.

On preamps I would dicide more on factors regarding how it would phyically fit into the bass than anything else.

 

I've only changed out my pickups once, but i am also playing an (older) ibanez soundgear, and when i changed them i was in a prog metal band as well. My mid 90's SR500 has a P/J setup and i put in EMG's with an EMG BTS system (2 band). The difference in the tone was noticable, but what i really enjoy is the increased responsiveness of the pickups. theres a lot more interaction between the way you play and how the pickups respond vs stock pups. IMO check out some basses at the local store with different high end pickups and try and get a feel for the personality of each brand. EMG's are very open and have a nice edge to them when played hard. I also had to stick another battery in there to run on 18v cause i kept overdriving it at 9v so keep that in mind as well (my electronics cavity is now VERY crowded).

you can hear my bass through the link below. hope i helped some.

 

I JUST posted a thread on this same thing, well mostly.

I have an Ibanez SRX-505 which is similar to yours.

The pickups are very original and nothing looks like them really. People are saying music man pickups probably wouldn't even fit in there.

Anyways check out my thread where I added a Seymore Duncan Basslines STC-3A Tone Circuit Pre-amp to my SRX bass:
Ibanez SRX-505

I put that tone circuit in and everything on this bass seems more...
how to explain it, well everything is about the same, maybe a little quieter than stock and there is more of an EQ'ing option, things really shine now and it seems to give me more control of what I want to boost or cut.

Pickups are a no go for now. Not needed in my opinion but would be nice to goof around with in time.