I started using the 2.36 magnet earlier than the Whiskey. It was my standard magnet for my bridge pickups starting with the Sunset Strip, Roxy, then the Whiskey. It does have a decrease in gauss at the pole pieces which would result in slightly less highs and lows and the lows would be tighter. But, the driving factor for the use of that magnet was from the rabbit hole of reading that EVH famed PAF was from a 1961 ES335. By 1961 Gibson had standardized and was using the 2.36 A5. My earlier pickups were wound with higher tension and to be able to facilitate tight high gain tones and quick response. By time I got to the whiskey was when I really started deviating from traditional winding patterns and tension. The Whiskey was really the first pickup where I got back to some of my favorite tones when I favored the more relaxed feel under the fingers and thicker single note tones. As a result, the whiskey has a much lower spike than other high output pickups. It does well in bright guitars light maple capped Les Pauls and bolt on alder or ash body guitars. Can do rhythm well enough but i put more focus on lead tones with this pickup.