I don't know a lot about the details of pickup construction (though that sort of thing is probably useful serious gear nuts!) but I do know something about what kind of sound I want to hear coming out when I pluck a string :).
I guess most people looking to get new pups have a tone in their head they want to hear, or a particular disatisfaction with their existing tone they are looking to doctor. They'll say "I've got a Strat and am seeking an SRV kinda tone (with maybe a bit more low end)" or "my stock humbuckers lack definition at high gain" or something. Presumably you designers have a similar feeling that leads you design the pickup in the first place -- if you already had what you wanted, you wouldn't need to make something new! :)
I wouldn't want to get hung up on "suitable for style X" descriptions, but it's useful when scanning over a wide range of pickups; it's obviously useful to get a sense of "we were thinking about X kinda sounds when we designed this". The names are kind of a guide here, and I think knowing why you BKP guys designed a particular pickup will tell me much more than "this pickup is suitable for metal" or something generic like that.
Obviously, the amp and the fingers are a big component of any tone, on beyond the guitar and pickup, but as a person shopping for pickups, I'm interested in knowing about things like their relative outputs (in case I'm not getting 2 pickups of the same model), where the emphases are in terms of highs/lows/mids, and how the definition is at different leavels of gain, how things differ in bridge or neck or whatever -- the chart with info for different guitar body materials (Gibson LP/SG types, Strat types, PRS types, etc.) looks pretty useful in this context.
I've understand the dissatisfaction some people have mentioned about pickup clips where the same riff is played through different pickups, but I think I have to disagree to some extent -- I think it would very useful to hear very short clips that did some very brief chord and lead work (just a few chords or notes) of different pickups on clean and dirt for a given guitar and very vanilla amp (or amp sim). I've been sticking different BKP MP3 clips in my machine's iTunes so I can A-B the clips get a stronger sense for the sounds (though I spend a lot of time wondering about how the guitar body or amp settings affect the tone -- so in this case the clips Tim did of the Mule and Nailbomb and whatnot all at a similar time with similar amp settings are pretty useful!). Maybe this kind of sample comparison would be most useful for pickups that seem more closely "related"; I'm at least less likely to be wondering which of the Country Boy tele pup or the Warpig humbucker are best suited for my guitar :) but I might want a better understanding of the nuances diffentiating the Warpig vs. Miracle Man, or the Country Boy vs. The Boss.
Mmm, enough rambling! I'm just another musician (very slack musician, in this case :)) trying to figure out how to best upgrade his hardware to get a sound more like he wants. I'm sure once I've lurked enough, listened enough, and asked enough dumb questions I'll have a better idea :)
Cheers,
Carl
