Fatboys.
I had a couple of mxy pickups from alembic a few years back, a fatboy, and a neck pickup with a the magnet and coil offset from centre so it was closer to the fretboard. After trying them out i found the fat boy in the bridge position was a thicker sound and less sweet and hifi sounding than the standard pickup. So I put the original back in there and the offset was really full and warm but again the sweetness was less so i put the standard one back. I did put them up for sale but decided to try them again when i have. Few gigs using that bass. They both sound great but probably not suited to what i was doing at the time.
Jazzy, as I think I've read from you in many places, pickup position is huge.
I think of the way a string vibrates. With the fundamental most of the string movement is at the 12th fret, halfway between nut and bridge. The first harmonic has the most movement at 1/4 and 3/4 of the way between nut and bridge (the least movement 1/2 way at the 12th fret where one depresses to get the harmonic). Second harmonic, 1/6, 3/6, 5/6. And so on. The pattern is that the fundamental and 1st harmonic are near the neck, the higher order harmonics are at the bridge. The bridge pickup gets a brighter sound, the neck is the dark fundamental.
A defect of the electric instrument, particularly solid body types, is that the pickup positions need to change depending on what frets the strings are depressed at for uniform spectral/harmonic response. Obviously impractical.
Interestingly, I just looked at my P-bass pickup location and it's well sited to get the first and second harmonics with an open string. I know this from just playing, not the physics.
