Currently I have an Ibanez RG2EX1 with Basswood and the V7/V8 pickup combo that came stock when I bought the guitar. They don't sound that bad to me, but I've had other people say that if I were to replace these with some decent active pickups, I could get a lot better tone and overall performance out of my guitar. (don't really feel like dropping the money on a completely new guitar as I'm a broke ass college student)
For what it's worth, I play through a Vox VT20+ Hybrid combo amp. The amp has a lot of nice features, but I do seem to have trouble getting the sounds I want (generally when I'm trying to mimmick someone elses guitar sound)

TL;DR
Is it worth it to replace pickups in an Ibanez RG that has v7/v8 base pups and if so, what would be some good choices? I play mostly rock, all kinds.

Can't go wrong with a '57 bucker pup. especially through a Vox.

If you're having trouble mimicking sounds though there are a Ton of pedals out there... Probably not worth replacing the pups in such a cheap guitar... pedals can help and you'll still have them when you get a better guitar down the road.

The amp has all sorts of effects build in and I have a foot switch to control it all so I'm not sure how much a foot pedal would help.
What I have available on my amp:

Are you looking for a all around sound? I'd get dimarzios

I have been playing guitar for 18 years, and am a certified luthier so ignore that post above for the most part (well except about the gibson 57 classics, they are great pickups). Replacing pickups in a guitar is probably the single best thing you could do to improve the overall tonal quality of your guitar. Electric guitars create there sound from the metal strings interacting with the magnetic field of the pickup so tonewoods make only marginal difference in the electric sound of an electric guitar (they do make a difference in sustain with passives, as well as overall resonance). Active pickups especially will even further mask the tonal characteristic of the tonewood and make it less of a factor so throwing a set of EMG 81/85's would probably give you the metal and high gain tones you desire and still have nice clear cleans and crunchy mid gain tones as well as really improve the performance for a variety of tones (different pickups are better for different styles of guitar player but most newer players that want a variety of tones are better off with a higher gain pickup that they can dial back than a low gain PAF style humbucker that has to be boosted). I will say at the same time make sure the relief is set properly on the neck, and make sure your intonation is spot on as this will really improve the playability of the guitar (if you are not familiar with guitar maintence like that take it to a local guitar tech and have them do a setup, where they will check and adjust string height, neck relief, saddle placement and nut height for optimal performance.

This post was edited by Automatica on Jan 2 2015 06:50pm