Fwiw I've had about 30 basses in the last 5 years and found that I can only get the sound in my head (or is that out of my head???) with active basses. Don't get on with Jazz basses ( bought a Sadowsky Jazz untried off here, thinking an expensive Jazz would fit better in the band than a cheap Jazz...it didn't...and I ended up spending more than the initial purchase cost on pickups/different eqs and luthier time...). For me, precision pickup, active 2 band EQ and either DR Sunbeams or bizarrely GHS Boomers seems to get me what I want. The tone I like tends to be quite dubby - despite the fact I play mostly pop rock