This topic has come up before. Someone, years ago, put up some interesting sound clips that illustrated some of the differences nicely.
I don't know if Leo ever tested the "reverse" P arrangement.
On basses with a reverse, split-P arrangement, I've seen some that flip the coils around the center-line of the standard P placement (the pickup as a whole is in the same place, the EA/DG coils are just "flipped," with the EA closer to the bridge and the DG closer to the neck) and some with the EA coil in its usual spot and the DG coil "flipped" around that, so that the pickup as a whole is closer to the neck. Some others (particularly when adding a J, MM, or something else in the bridge location) fudge the placement of the P (whether "reverse" or not) or the bridge pickup one way or the other.
My Power Jazz Bass Special (a late 80s Fender with a P body, J neck, and a reverse P + J setup) has the P in the "standard" spot (near as I can tell from comparing it with "normal" Ps), with the coils flipped around the centerline of the standard placement. (I've also played a few other 4- and 5-string "reverse P" basses, with and without bridge pickups, with various placements of the neck pickup.)
Taking the P solo (and assuming "standard" placement), the main difference you hear with a "reverse-P" is tighter low strings and more full high strings. (There's some difference in the harmonic profile, too, but let's stick with "tighter" and "more full" for now.) This goes counter the tendency for the low strings to "boom" a bit and the high strings to sound thin, and there are a lot of people (relatively speaking) who argue that this balances out the sound of the instrument better and that this is the way a Precision Bass should have been made from the outset -- "what Leo shoulda done."
I agree that the sound of the instrument is more balanced/consistent this way (though you can still hear the transition from bass coil to treble coil if you listen) and that it better suits the instrument to some music but, for me, there is still something about the way a standard P is set up, with those more pillowy lows and sharper highs (that have something to do with -- or at least interact with -- the limitations of older amps in a fortuitous way) that... just occupies the space in a different way -- the lows sit differently, the highs pop differently. It you make it growl, it growls differently (more broad, open, relaxed -- subjective, but that's how I hear it). When playing that old music, I feel more connected to it with a standard P than I do a reverse. The instrument speaks and sits in the mix differently.
All
that said, there are a
lot of other factors that can influence the sound (even two 70s Precisions are likely to sound different, played side by side) and, next to some of them, standard/reverse P orientation is a subtle thing. A reverse-P still sounds "P" to me and I've played old J5 tunes, Funk, R&B and whatever else on it and gotten a good sound. My Power Jazz Bass Special was the only bass I had for a long time.
My trusty PJBS (modified -- sorry purists) is still my favorite bass, but I have a (non-reverse) P with flats now that I prefer for some stuff.
Whew... that's more than I mean to type. I'll add two things, though:
- When a bridge pickup is added to the mix, I prefer the reverse-P. If you're looking for a "Precision with a little bite from the bridge blended in," fine, go with a standard P, but taking the blended sound on its own merits, with the pickups at roughly equal levels, the reverse-P/J works better than a P/J in my opinion. (There are some very good-sounding P/Js out there -- and P/humbuckers, P/MMs -- but that's my opinion and I'd take a reverse-P with them, too.)
- How you play will have more of an impact on how well you can sit in a given mix/tune than will the orientation of the coils on your split-P.
I'll step away from the keyboard, now.
