Rotti
Fractal Fanatic
Well, I'm more than a few fingers deep into a bottle of Crown right now, but I'll try my best...
We'll start with the easy ones: high output pups are great for hitting a pre hard. Granted, we have an input trim in the Axe, so any pickup can theoretically do the same thing, but I would argue there's a difference between the way a low output pup with a boosted IT does it than the way an already high output pup would... to over simplify, it's just a more organic feel that's readily apparent in my personal guitars when going from one to the next... and you really don't djent with anything but the most aggressive pups (or low output preamped active pups... sort of the same thing... sort of) like Lundrens, BKP Jugs, BWGC Neo's...
And then let's go straight into the tough ones: Low output pups are great for the exact opposite reason high output pups are, they retain a greater dynamic range BECAUSE they aren't immediately pushing the preamp into breakup. They also tend to be easier to dial in really great clean/edge-of-breakup tones with. I say these are the tough ones to describe because, man, what's really a low output pup these days? You've got to be talking about single coils (Fralin, Porter, Thorn), because all the boutique humbucker guys are either trying to reinvent the PAF (some of them with great success) or trying to get you the the highest possible output imaginable without completely flubbing out (also some success stories).
Then there's the nearly impossible to define ones: medium output pups are great because, theoretically, they ride the line between high and low output pups, stealing a few of the best qualities of each. I think this is where you find a lot of the more successful PAF clone guys I mentioned before. You could also lump several BKP models into "medium output" either because they aren't overly hot or because they clean up particularly well with the vol rolled back a few notches.
Because I like things that do more than one thing (my cork screw is a bottle cap opener, my watch is a compass...) I gravitate towards the higher output side of medium output pups. Often, I want a tone that's richly harmonic when I dig in, yet pristine clean when I back off. Then again, sometimes I want to dial in a Euro Uber kill machine and spray hate. I've found a couple humbucker models that do this well without the typical hot=dark/light=bright tone, Lollar Imperial regular winds have really excelled here, so have a few BKPs, Wolf makes some great stuff, Motor City's in that mix too, Shep's, Skatterbrane...
And to top it all off... it's all somewhat an exercise in the absurd, especially the PAF folks. What I mean by that isn't an insult. A lot of those guys are doing real, measured, quality work - the kind with obvious tonal benefits - but the product their work is based on is a line of impossibly inconsistent pickups that were the original PAFs. At the end of the day, I ask my pups to do two things well: clean up when I roll 'em off, and get mean when I roll 'em on. Lots of guys can do that these days, so really it just comes down to who's flavor you dig.
