Before you throw away your Ashton and pour money on a new axe, play and listen to the guitar's tone acoustically. Unplugged, just the guitar's original tone and resonance. If it sounds good and you can feel the sound vibrates nicely through the whole guitar, then you have a keeper.

At this point you have now saved up a whole lot of money for the pickup and hardware upgrades. IMO, it's more rewarding to play and stick to your first guitar. You'll definitely develope a bond for the instrument and your skills will improve as well. That alone makes you want to play your guitar even more without all that unwanted GASing for expensive axes.