I would go for the black outs. EMGs are pretty standard for most players but I've played a couple Jackson's with blackouts and they sounded really good in distortion and they also clean up really well. Me personally I have a set of Eddie Van Halen wolfgang humbuckers in my ESP. If I want that heavy palm mute chug I run my pedals.

I use a carvin SX300 212 combo amp ( solid state ) with a 212 extension. It has tube emulation so it sounds badass but there's no substitution for a nice tube amp. Black star HT series is a good amp.

Either way you go, they are both decent pickups.

Few years back did a few shows with rob zombie, and his guitarist turned me onto Dimarzio pickups, specifically the Activator set, best I've ever heard

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EVHGuitarist87 wrote I would go for the black outs. EMGs are pretty standard for most players but I've played a couple Jackson's with blackouts and they sounded really good in distortion and they also clean up really well. Me personally I have a set of Eddie Van Halen wolfgang humbuckers in my ESP. If I want that heavy palm mute chug I run my pedals.

I use a carvin SX300 212 combo amp ( solid state ) with a 212 extension. It has tube emulation so it sounds badass but there's no substitution for a nice tube amp. Black star HT series is a good amp.

I just looked at the prices of the Black Star amps, the only one in my price range is only 5 watts, would it be playable at a show? (Underground stage.)

It should be fine even if it's not mic'd. The best thing to do though is take your guitar to a Guitar Center and plug it into some amps in your price range. Playing through your guitar will let you know what kind of sound it is capable of. With a tube amp you may not have to worry about changing pickups.

If you do buy pickups most guitar centers charge $40 per pickup installed. You can save that money and do it yourself but you need to make sure you have what you need to do it, electrical tape, solder, soldering iron. Instructions come with the pickups btw for every company.

Any tube amp will be pricey though so you need to try out a couple and look at cost verses what you need. A small venue or garage/basement gig is fine for any 2x12 combo. A half stack would be overkill and not practical.