I thought I was lacking magnetic force because a screwdriver did not stick to the pickup pole nearly as strongly as it did to a regular single coil pickup.
but after much playing with different magnets, I had been playing with this other project, a simple preamp from this schematic -
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which I attached my homemade pickup to, and voila! It now sounds louder and clearer than a regular passive pickup.
So I guess my design works ok for an active pickup.