I am the lucky owner of a new L-1000, empress wood body, 6.9lbs, and an alnico MFD pickup rather than ceramic. I don't know how many of these are floating around but i understand this is different and unusual. Perhaps Ken can dig up some background info. Don't think i can add much to what others (including myself) have said, this is a great instrument and player and my old creaky back and shoulder really appreciates the light weight. Big thank you to Greg at Rocket Music for grabbing this one quickly for me. It is perfectly balanced and hangs just right from a strap, or in my lap.
Not being familiar with the OMG effect, i was surprised at the somewhat noisy series switch setting (and single-coil of course; parallel is quiet). Greg and several others explained this to me, including the option of removing it for traditional no-noise series. I will probably just leave it as-is now that i understand this is normal.
The MFD pole pieces are solid and non-adjustable, like a traditional P or J bass. I have a borrowed empress L-2000 from a buddy and will spend time comparing the sounds with similar settings this weekend, my first impression was that the alnico MFD is mellower than the traditional ceramic MFD, much like the difference between the L and M preamps. But i reserve the right to change my impressions once i spend more time a/b'ing this weekend. I'll get some pics added to this in the next couple hours.
Speaking of pics, anyone know how to reduce the pixel size on a Macbook Air? The photos from my digital camera are too large to upload here.