Yes, and since I don't regularly play bass, my Ibanez SR200FM will have to do. Ha ha. Imagine saying that here at an Alembic site. :-) Granted, it was awesome. Played perfectly, no buzz with perfect action, etc. Noise-free pots. Body weight was perfect. Were I playing bass professionally I would not have sold it. Insanely professional instrument.
That said, I think split pickups in the opposite direction is the right way to go. As strings get thinner, they lose bass fullness. Putting the split pickup with the thinner string half closer to the bridge is counter-productive bass-wise. My SR200 and the same done with expensive basses is the way to go. At the least, keep the pickup straight with no split is not as bad. Going in the bridge direction does not make sense to me. You can make up some of the bass loss of thinner strings by getting that half of the pickup closer to the neck. I guess it makes sense to the guy that wants to do some bass lead playing. I never wanted to do that when I played bass in a band. For me, the bass is for the bass part to keep that rich, lush fullness going that I love to hear. On solos (with no other instruments playing) I do understand it, though.
