I switched out the EMG's on my rebop for SD NYC soapbars and ditched the tone pump. I lost a tiny bit of the low b but not enough to notice. Especially not live. In a weird way it now sounds like a 5 string P bass on steroids. Not unhappy at all.
This is all good and fine. We all get the marketing angle. I want to forget about that for a minute and vent my real complaint. And it has nothing to do with Fender. Cant Gibson suck it up and reissue a REAL EB 3!? I am so sick of these 2 pickup volume volume tone configurations. Or even the EB...