When I owned a VM, I upgraded to a set of Wizard Pickups, they gave it what I wanted.
If I were going down the pick up upgrade route these days, I would be using Entwistle pickups. Really impressive and for not much dosh.
For the last four or five years, I've been using the rubber grolsh type washers, at a cost of a few pence. So far, no problems and no signs of wear, after a few hundred gigs.
I've installed quite a few different Entwistle pick ups in customer's guitars and basses and have been impressed with all of them. The Neo Jazz bass ones being a particular favourite.
Their Smooth track pots are also a great upgrade.
What hooky said, also if the screws are close to the old ones, then they may well start to go in a bit wonky. If there's a risk of that happening, I would first fill the old holes with wood glue and cocktail sticks and leave it to harden.
I've found that if I do the popping thing on my P bass that wears Elixirs, then it's a waste of effort and is lost in the mix, if I do the same with the P with D'addarios or Highbeams, all is good.