No change to the pickups. Lace at the neck and EMG at the bridge, both passive. I used to own a old beatup Rickenbacker with natural maple body and loved the mid and upper tones....I did ask about the possibility that maple might be too thin sounding and they were confident the mids and bottom would remain solid just that the upper end would be capable of longer bright sustain. Which is good when competing with loud guitars and crash cymbals.