Re: pickups for tele
The custom shop makes a great pickup, the BG-1400. It has plenty of twang and glass, good output and it's stacked, which cancels the 60 cycle hum.
The hot rails is very hot in series, but it really sounds nice in parallel, keeping some nice twang but giving decent output.
The little 59 has less power than the hot rails. It sounds similar to a 59 in series (still a little twangy, but not as much as a regular tele pickup). In parallel, it sounds more like a tele bridge, but still not quite there.
The regular stack is pretty similar to a traditional tele pickup, but I don't think it will have the output you want.
The hot stack has more output and more midrange, but less twang.