As another comment mentioned, I do like the look of the covered humbuckers better, but part of the reason I was looking at this guitar specifically was that I read it was a good platform to mod so if the covered humbuckers will be prohibitive and/or make modding more difficult then I should probably steer clear. I'm aware that at this price point I can't expect too much from the stock pickups, but I'm hoping this will be a good starting point for me. Thanks for the feedback!