How can we hear the influence of pickups in a guitar?

[Yamhammer]

But how on earth can we know the pickups are the 'bad point' and not the guitar, amp or player in this kind of situations?

Well, in my case the player is always the "weak link" ;)

However I changed the Duncan JB/Jazz in my Jackson RR1T for a Holy Diver set & the guitar went from being a "backup" guitar (nice neck, but weak sound) to my #1 axe with jaw-droppingly awesome tone.

Seeing as the only thing I changed were the pickups, it's reasonable to suggest that the pickups made the difference...

Twinfan: thanks...