I think the general consensus has been made by people who are not willing to tak the time to try the original pickups properly and are too quick to change them for "something better" because they heard on the internet, that all the hardware and electronics on their orville (not by gibson) models would be crap.
And the truth is that in many cases that is simply not true.
+1
Seems that since the net took off there are all these armchair pickup (and other gear experts) coming out of the woodwork everywhere.
Compulsive pickup changers are everywhere it seems.
Over at the Seymour Duncan forums most of them can't wait to change their pickups and so called armchair experts will advise you on the exact pickup for you even though they do not have your tastes or know in advance how the pickup will combine with your guitar and your gear.
What a lot of BS.
I'm not against changing pickups or pickup magnets as I have done it many times but changing pickups only does a certain amount to the tone and it might end up as good or bad depending on the players taste and the gear they use because the amp and effects are also in the tone and the pickups just combine with the body wood and transfer the signal to the amp.
Try a different amp with the same pickup/guitar and it's a different tone.
Treating just the pickups as if they are responsible for most of the tone like the dorks at the Seymour Duncan forums seem to do is absolute BS, it's how the pickups combine with the guitar and effects and amp and speakers that results in the final tone that is judged by the players taste which varies.
Really badly made pickups are pretty rare but do exist and current pickups from Korea and China are pretty good in general.
Some pretty good pickup info is in this link http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/lemme/
There was a time back in the 70s when most players did not do anything to the pickups but just used stock pickups and that was during the peak of Rock as far as I'm concerned.
I bought a Ibanez LP in the 70s and I did not rush home and change the pickups, I just played it through a Marshall and it sounded pretty good to me.
Same goes for the first Fender I bought in the 70s, I did not rush home and change the pickups, I just played the club circuit with it the way it was, stock.
The Orville pickups are around 7k-7.5k ceramic magnet pickups so are sort of a PAF wind with a ceramic magnet.
I thought my Terada Orville pickups in my SG were not bad at all combined with certain amps that I have, ended up sounding a bit PAF like to me, if that makes any sense to someone.
I also happen to like the way my DiMarzio pickup ends up sounding in in my Orville SG with certain amps so now I have the Orville pickup in another guitar and it seems to suit it and I have the DiMarzio in my Orville SG, but really I could play quite happily just using the stock Orville pickup in my Orville SG.
I also put a Alnico 5 magnet in one of my Orville pickups and it turned out pretty well but the stock ceramic is pretty good as well.