Precision pickups

[skisagooner]

I was looking at a few basses with the P pickups and most of the basses with P pickups are configured like this:

Where the pickup for the E and A string is nearer to the neck than the pickup for the D and G string, which is nearer to the bridge.

And then there's some configured the other way round. Like this:

Is there a difference? And why would some manufacturers fix the P pickup the other way round?

 

[mokkat]

Companies like Warwick and Sandberg reverse the p-pieces because it is logical:
-thicker strings with lower tunings have more boom and less definition than thinner and higher pitched ones
-the closer a pickup is to the neck the bass'ier and less defined the sound gets.
It makes sense to reverse the pieces to get a more even sound from all the strings.

Most precision basses have the "normal" configuration because thats how Leo made it, and it works. Reversed p-pickup probably makes a difference, but not enough for every company to stray away from the "normal" placement