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@dooks
i do *try *not to be a fendernazi retrogrouch... it's just that to my ears and eyes everything else sounds and looks worse. playability schmayability. unless you plan on playing expensive chords, two handed tapping, slapping and popping (which i definitely don't), there's nothing i can't do on a nicely set up p-bass... preferably with flatwounds though a valve ampeg.
having said that i do like gibson EBs and fender mustangs while we're on shorties. oh and thunderbirds and rickenbackers and i used have a real thing for musicman basses. hollow hofners etc are also very cool of course.
i'm just not a fan of modern "more is better" engineering when it comes to guitars and basses. the quest for endless sustain that produced though-necks and active pickups etc i think is a bit of a fools errand. who said that more sustain was always better? isn't part of the sound of good bass that thuddy thump? a beefed up version of the upright "thunk"? i don't want to hear bass that zzzzings and sustains like a piano and cuts though.
to my (admittedly quite narrow) aesthetic sensibilities, bass should be buried underneath, supporting, anchoring and holding down the bottom end. i don't what it interfering with the other instruments in the mid or even high frequency ranges.
but that's just me.