Looks like it's seen some action. That will clean up nice though. The pickups on these are just so powerful. Volume on full they are aggressive and snarly as hell, wind back slightly and it gets into vintage P bass territory.
It could be a shorting issue, for example: If the cavity is shielded and the output socket moves slightly and then makes contact with the shielding, you will lose all sound.
I don't cut flats these days. I know that generally too much string wrapped around the tuner post is not a good thing but with flats I make an exception.
For the last few years I've gigged a BB2 and Super Compact combination. They work very well together, although to lighten the load slightly more and given that I don't really use the tweeter on the BB2, I may swap it out for another SC.