You probably know that there's more to output than the DC resistance measurements. That makes you smarter than Talkbass flakes.
I earned a warning over on TB for this!
In short, some teenage dude had some sort of PJ bass, and the J pickup route was only wide enough for pickups with what are traditionally considered neck pickup dimensions. I pointed out that he could route ~ 2 mm on each end of the pickup cavity. No dice. I pointed out that with a sharp chisel it would be 2 minutes' work. No dice.
Okay. Why not just buy a neck pickup then? According to kiddo, neck pickups are completely different animals to bridge pickups. You wouldn't fit the neck pickup for a Telecaster in the bridge slot, right? (Some do, but never mind). An all round stupid suggestion. Why? Because Jazz bass bridge pickups are about 500 ohms hotter than their neck counterparts.
I then asked, why not simply buy a hotter neck pickup? Find a high output Jazz set and use the neck pickup? No, not possible, because you never use a neck pickup as a bridge pickup.
I then pointed out that early MIM Jazz basses shipped with two pickups of the exact same dimensions. Still no dice, kiddo didn't want to learn and I kept getting "why does it matter so much?" thrown right back at me. Just about the dictionary definition of wilful ignorance. I eventually called him wilfully ignorant, and got a ban!
Having said that, I just had my arse handed to me on TDPRI for asking why guitarists rigidly use microfarads as the single unit for capacitors (0.0047 uF looks idiotic) and tend to not include the unit. Therefore you get some old hick on there saying "
well I find a 0.022 sounds a bit more buttery than a 0.047, praise Jeebus and Waylon Jennings". As far as I'm concerned if you pay well over the odds for standard electronic components because you have a tortuously anti-intellectual approach to guitar technology then you deserve all you get. This is why Stew Mac are in business, right?