Pick ups are personal preference. you can swap them out anytime with the one(s) you like. sounds like the Guitars you have in mind are all Epiphone. You can get Epi pickups on ebay and the slow boat from china online store (ali express). My experience with the tone and the way they sound depends on the guitar. Gibson and epiphone are producing Chambered out guitar bodys like a les paul to reduce weight. that effects the guitar tone. Me I like a 12 DC resistance alnico 2 humbucker and or a 11 dcr out put Alnico 5 on a chambered out guitar body. I had good results with a seymour Duncan JB 16dcr on a chambered body. I could tame the Jb pickup better than on my solid body Explorer guitar Buy the Guitar that feels good in your hands and sounds good. Soldering is an easy skill to accomplish. Seymoure duncan has a non soldier pickup change out kit along with a few other out there (stew mac) the heavy high output pickups are heavy metal. ceramic magnet pickups are great for the metal sound. but (my opinion) thats all the sound best at alnico(aluminum nickel cobolt) will get you the other geners. you need more than one guitar a metal guitar with ceramic magnets, a classic rock country blues guitar(s) with the alnico 2 or 5 magnets. take you time finding and setting uo you guitar arsenal