Blackguard Pickup Specs

[Gringo13]

After looking over some '53 Tele/Esquire specs from the Blackguard book, I noticed the average bridge output was 6.29 and the average neck output was 5.83. The highest bridge output was 7.29 with the lowest being 5.69. The hottest neck was 6.97 with the lowest being 4.93. A few questions:

Are these numbers indicative of the '52-'53 era or just a small glimpse? They seem much lower than what most pickup winders call their "Blackguard" pickups. Even Fender's OV pups are considerably hotter. Are pickup winders just responding to the demand for hotter pups or are most of the specs I found considerably low? Perhaps winders base their specs on the "hotter" side of vintage spec?

Were all bridge pups 42g wire and Alnico III in '52/'53. Were the neck pups Alnico II or III? They were all 43g wire, correct? What about the covers?... brass, brass chrome, something else?

Is the low output why vintage Tele pups sound sweet but new hotter neck pups sound muddy?

It just seems like so many people want "vintage tone", but then want to use hotter pickups than were on most vintage Teles. Then again, I'm just guessing here, so please set me straight.

[AJBaker]

I might be wrong, but I remember hearing that some neck pickups used 42g wire. 4.93kohms with 43 wire seems extremely low to me.

[JKjr]

I don't know the answer to any of those questions, but once I stumbled upon low winds most of my hotter pickups found new homes. Sweetness and clarity. I can find the gain somewhere else if I need it, these days thats pretty easy. Having said that my favorite tele bridge is a Lollar Special,which is quite hot. But it never loses the sweet stuff, and sounds quite the Broadcaster with the volume backed off a hair.

[Antoon]

From the website of Bare Knuckle pickups:

"For a very short period in '52 both bridge and neck coils were wound with 42AWG plain enamel and the Flat 52 set replicates this with a brighter, tighter sounding bridge coil and an open, almost Strat-like neck tone."

Covers were always chrome plated brass