Way I did was I bummed around with crappy pistols and/or SMGs as I hit about level 70, at which point I could twink on a 140 jobe pistol I paired with a CDR. I upgraded the Jobe pistol as I levelled, then when I hit 100 was able to get a KMP on (not enough IP before then) to replace the CDR.
I went with a full-bore DD setup, and while I was cranking out massive amounts of violence it resulted in my HP being extremely low. Since you won't be using things like RPBs and electro gloves, this may not be the case for you. I also didn't perk colossal health in favor of SMG mastery for more DD.
Jobe/KMP takes some effort, but the additional damage is well worth it. While your individual FAs will be lower, you'll fire them much more often than SPB users. If you do go with a Jobe/pistol KMP setup, it should OD assault rifles through to endgame if you do it right. At endgame, you will want to switch over to Envy/Rapier or Envy/Rhat'ata as soon as you can. This will shift your focus from damage buffing to full auto, but so long as you have the Envy's recharge under 18 seconds (it takes 2425 FA skill to get it to 11s) you'll be ODing the Jobe pistol.
Assault rifles are a good, minimal effort option if doing max DD isn't an obsession, and perform far better in PvP against high-evade enemies.
EDIT:
http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=113293 was my setup on Wenona at TL6, but it can be easily modified to remove items you're not going to use/are too high QL. There's not a stitch of alien armor in it. Also disregard the fact that there's 40 perks - I was using this page for my endgame perk setup, too.