I like the at1 in the right guitar. It has too much bass for a les paul, great for super strats. The dimarzio pickup picker on their site does a pretty good job when you're trying to wade through their offereings.
Mahogany, or what is sometimes sold as mahogany, can have very different weights. Gibson and Fender were both selling very heavy guitars in the seventies.
The alnico 2 story comes from EVH using a Duncan Custom Custom in the neck of his MM prototype, according to Dimarzio.
https://www.dimarzio.com/story/remembering-edward-van-halen