Glad to say I've gotten rid of my Musical Research Works bottom of the barrel guitar and picked up something a little bit better.

I was in the Tom Lee's today with a friend because he wanted to get some picks and I was thinking of getting new strings when a jewel blue Ibanez GRX20 caught my eye for 172.21 canadian ( some sale or another) seeing as I just got my tax return I thought I'd pick it up. felt right for some reason and even unplugged sounded quite nice.
However there were a couple dings in the body. Apparently the guitar had been sitting as a display for quite some time and showed some signs of it. but the pickups still sounded fine, the cable plug in is sturdy and the knobs didnt make any scratching noises.
I talked to one of the salesmen there and they were able to knock it down to 145$ because of the cosmetic Damage.

Needless to say I love the guitar. the colour is really quite deep to it. in some light it's a dark purple and in others a vivid blue. Oodles of sustain compared to my old guitar and sounds fantastic. the neck is very comfortable to play on. and from what I've just read on some reviews is that it can really take a beating and keep on ticking.

I know, no need for such a massive post over a guitar that I picked up for less than 200$ canadian but I couldnt be happier Just restringed it with EB hybrids and been playing the snot out of it all day

What kind of pickups are those? Oh ya and can you take the pickguard off?

Not sure what pickups they are. there's no writing on the front of them so I'm not sure how to tell.
the pickguard is held on with philips screws so i'm fairly sure it would come off. what it looks underneath I couldnt tell you.