speaking of pickups, I am looking at getting a new guitar on the cheap, and I read a review on the Ashton 282 model, it says its a great guitar but the pickups are a bit cheap, one of my mates has tried one and they reckon it sounds just like a telecaster(which is what I'm looking for).
you can have a look at it at: http://www.australismusic.com.au/ashton/512812.html



also (as you can probably tell I don't know much bout the insides of guitars), another of my mates has a really old (50's) maton hollow body, and the pickups seemed to have dulled in it, what are the life spans of pickups???.