yea, it's really not that bad....i'd played around with one a few years ago, and sounded like ass, and that impression stuck on me
i found that the secret is in that damn contour knob - turn it up too high, and you have muddy shit. too low, and it's mid-rangey crap with no balls. keep it between 5-7 o'clock, and you can get some usable tones out of it
active pickups help that thing out a lot, as well