Originally posted by Eirik Grindevoll
If i bought the RG550 EX and replaced the pickups with Seymore Duncan with that cost just as mutch as a Steve Vai signatur or isn't pickups that expensive???!!??

In the UK, at least, a pair of SD humbuckers will cost about £150 including fitting, less if you do it yourself.

The 550EX has, I think, the Low Pro Edge trem, maybe just the Edge, whereas the JEM 555 has a TRS trem, so a 550 with new pickups will, in my view, be a better guitar.

The 555 is not viewed as being a "real" JEM by any of the collectors; it's so much lower specced than the others. An RG5xx with new pickups is almost indisputably a better guitar than the 555, for quite a lot less money.