Hi,
I cannot coment on the blackguards I have no experience there. I have two guitars with tele pickups in. The first as a set of yardbirds and the 2nd one a boss bridge irish tour neck. First off for a vintage sounding tele pickup do consider yardbirds as well. They are my favourite bare knuckle pickup very versitile and sweet sounding both clean and overdriven. The boss bridge pickup can go into slightly heavier territory has compared to the yardbird. Clean not quite as good but can do some metal. For me I think it works better with a marshall tone amp as oppossed to a fender (though this could be just me).
For me I would look at yardbirds, blackguards and brown sugars.