If a pickup is said to be metal sounding or harsh, that's in my experience almost solely because it has lots of output, and/or the more flat the frequency response it has. The more 'soft' or vintage sounding a pickup is said to be, generally the less powerful they are and the more uneven the frequency range output is. It may give sweet spot blues sounds etc. but in overall use the lack of clarity in full driven chords for instance always drives me mad with 'vintage' style pickups.
To me having loads of output only means I need no solo boost etc. and can get more 'vintage' tone just lowering the volume, or using low input gain on the amp. But I prefer to have the reserve there anyway. I like my pickups as powerful and colorless/flat frequency response as possible, so a dimebucker might work well for me. I have several single-pickup axes, and many times I play clean parts simply by lowering the volume like 1/4th and it sounds just totally different.
Every passive pickup I've tried, the more output it has had, the better I've liked it, but soon the problems like feedback-proneness and such appear, and thus I use actives. Then I can have the gain at 1/4th instead of halfway up or more as with most passives, and retain the clarity while having the drive.
Dee
"When life's a biatch, be a horny dog"
Amps: Marshall JVM 410H w/ Plexi Cap mod, Choke Mod & Negative Feedback Removal mod, 4x12", Behringer GMX110, Amplitube 3/StealthPedal
Half a dozen custom built/bastardized guitars all with EMG's, mostly 85's, Ibanez Artwood acoustic & Yamaha SGR bass, Epiphone Prophecy SG, Vox Wah, Pitchblack tuner plus assorted pedals, rack gear etc. for home studio use.