Hey folks: this question does NOT involve a musical instrument build, so it may not qualify for posting. If it doesn't, Mr/Mrs moderator, I apologize and you may feel free to delete it. Otherwise, if anybody in this section can help with a guitar pickup question, I'd appreciate your help and information.
To cut to the chase, I'm just needing to know what people mean when they refer to "hot" pickups. The background is that I've played acoustic and classical guitar for most of my life and am just now starting to consider an electric guitar. I did have a Les Paul Studio for awhile, and traded it in for my current classical guitar, a Takamine electric classical cutaway. I'm not wanting to get rid of the classical, but am considering getting another Les Paul.
This time, it will have to be an Epiphone, not a Gibson, and I'll go from there. I've heard that I can slowly replace pickups with the Gibsons and possibly work myself up to something approaching a Gibson, although it won't be exactly the same, but it won't cost as much either. I don't have the skills or patience to build a guitar like you folks do, but I keep reading about people who have their guitars up for sale with "hot" pickups replacing the original pickups.
I think technically, I might be approaching "old man" status and am not that interested in seeing how much distortion I can create out of a pickup, although I don't mind distortion on an occasional basis. I'm more inclined to appreciate a clean sound, though, so if by "hot", someone means distorted and staticky (is that a word?), I'm not interested. If they mean "loud", I can handle that. I'm not opposed to effects, distortion, volume, etc, but I like "clean", too. Can I get "clean" with "hot" pickups? Hope this makes sense to everyone. If any questions or clarification needed, please let me know.
Thanks for any help you can give.