Crayon Sky Music

What are good new pickups for my Gibson Explorer guitar?

I was thinking of changing the pickups of my Gibson Explorer because the original 496R and 500T are getting pretty old and I think they are failing somewhat. What is a good recommendation for new pickups for this guitar? I play mostly rock, metal, blues and jazz and I have a budget of about US$120 per pickup…
Other miscellaneous questions. It’s just, I bought this guitar used and I want to know what year it was made. How do I find out? How long is a good time to change the pickups and overall internal circuitry of a guitar (potentiometers, wiring, etc)?
If you don’t know the answer to the second questions, please just give the advice on the pickups ^_^

Consider Semor Duncan SH8 (or sh6) for a nice rock tone. I also like the tone produced by all Bare Knuckle pickups i’ve tried (i don’t know model names though, sorry!), but they may be at the edge of your price range really.

As to the finding out when it was made i know that fender have a chart on their website for their guitars where you can look at the serial number and find out the year, perhaps gibson have one too.
You could also try this site: http://www.guitardaterproject.org/gibson.aspx

The third question i’m not sure about – i know that vintage guitars with replaced electronics actualy go down in value. So long as the guitar is in good condtion i personally would never change the wiring, and only change the pickups if they were broken or i wanted a different tone.

Epiphone Les Paul Standard (w/ Gibson Pickups) Demo