pickups and pedlas ??

[Toxophilite]

I have a question which will likely reveal my vast ignorance of pickups and pedlas


I've benn playing professionally and semi-professionally for the past 25 years
However i always had the same guitars (64 Gretsch Tennesean and more recently a 64 double Anniversary as well)
The only 'pedals' I used were a Roland Space Echo RE-150
(tape not reissue stompbox) a tuner and a GE-7 as a boost for solos


In the last few years i started playing louder rock stuff with some friends
I use a older MXR distortion, a boss Super overdrive, an old boss phaser and I still have the tuner and GE-7


The gretschs have really low output single coils
Tennesean 3ohms
Anniversary 3.4 ohms
They sound great through all the pedals generally and the Hilotrons are pretty sounding pickups clean and hate a good bite distorted


I just made a fun dream guitar on the cheap. A big 17" 3.75 inch deep Aria acoustic Jazz guitar with surface mounted D'armond 2000s (new ones), bigsby etc
It sounds lovely and is really fun to play, long scale, more string tension, big body, it kind of fights back a little, you can be pretty aggressive with it


The pickups measure around 8-9k and are significantly louder than the old gretschs (I have to turn down the space echo input) Also nicely bright and articulate, beautiful clean sound with character too


The curious thing to me is I have to turn up the levels on the distortion pedals to get the same volume of dostortion with the hotter pickup guitar.
With the lower volume Gretschs I don't have to turn up the level as much to get the same volume


Which seems the reverse of what I should expect


Also the Gretschs sound better through the pedals, The Aria with the D'armonds sounds like it's compressed and thinner, maybe a bit mushy


is this an impedance thing??