Hehehe. I spent ages actually loathing the sound of the Precision's split humbucker. It just sounded bleah to me. Even with rounds, I couldn't get it to sing like I could on the basses I owned that I actually liked (a lawsuit Jazz, an Ibanez Roadstar II with soap bars that had the active electronics removed, and a Danelectro Longhorn were my favorites). On top of that, I also hated the string spacing and the neck shape of the Precisions I had the opportunity to play. Even if I liked the sound, it was a labor to get to it.
But I was playing on mostly low-gain amps around then, with similarly subdued tones. I had an EB-0 with the mudbucker for awhile, and I loved it through my Super-Fuzz no matter what it was strung with, but most anything else wasn't as pleasing. It and other basses were aggressive enough, but still not as satisfying as it could be.
In the last decade or so, I started driving my amps hard even when I wanted clean (you can usually just play softly to clean it up), and I ran into the Precisions that I love. If it's an E-series serial number precision from the MIJ 80's production run, I'm liable to buy it. Their necks feel wonderful to me, the original pickups are generally verging on microphonic, but the feel and the tone are exactly what I'm looking for. I can string one with flats, or I can kill the roundwounds with Chapstick, but I can get it to the place where I love it whether the tone is clean or fuzzed out.
So, in this day and age. I have (does a quick mental count) I think 9 instruments that could be called basses. 5 of them have that split P humbucker as part of their setup. If it has that pickup, I'm using mostly it, and adding the other in for flavor. My formula for those instruments is to either string them with flats, or kill the rounds they're currently strung with through the judicious application of a waxy substance (Chapstick is just easy to find, soft, and has a pleasant aroma). The flats are actually slightly brighter than the rounds get to be once I have my way with them with the application of wax. That buzz is still there when you move your hand without lifting your fingers on the rounds, though. So you do still have to be mindful of technique, if you are lazy and don't want to re-string them. I do play with a heavy hand, and will probably eventually break a string. When that happens, I'll probably re-string any of them with flats, even the basses without that pickup. I've decided that a good set of flats have the tone I want for everything, and if it doesn't, a preamp sure does.
So, I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb, when it comes to the P-bass and its split humbucker. Fender has an array of neck profiles that rivals Gibson, though. And that's saying something. So yeah, it's the neck that makes me hate or love something with a Precision style pickup.
