I'm trying to get some more information on Music Man Sabres.  I played a new Classic Sabre in a shop recently and really liked it.  It had a 5 way pickup selector, and covered pickups like the Ernie Ball Sabres. 
 
How do these 3 types of Sabre (Late 70s pre Ernie Ball, 80s Ernie Ball, and the new Classic Sabre) compare in terms of sound, tonal options etc? 
 
There's not a whole lot of info out there about them. 
 
I know that the Classic Sabre and 80s ones have a 16 pole piece front pickup, which will obviously change the sound, and were introduced to counter the big magnets interfering with the string vibrations, is this a big disadvantage of the pre Ernie Ball basses? 
 
Thanks, 
 
James