versitility?
Try a tele special- a guitar with a serious case of multiple personality disorder. It can sound like everything from a tele (of course) to a strat to a les paul. The only drawback is I don't think the neck humbucker was potted, so if you stop playing with any resonable amount of distortion, it immediately feeds back.

Also if you're just putting in pickups, EMG's must be about the easiest- (atlest for my J Bass) the pickup end of the leads just clip to the pickup, so everything is easier to get into position, you only have to sodder the other ends of the leads to the correct pots. I did it, so I'm sure you can.