I've seen people play amazingly on budget instruments, and others play crap on expensive instruments. It is the player, not the gear.
Maybe that's why guys on here keep changing what they've got, they're searching for something that can't be bought.
If you buy an expensive bass, string it with the latest highly fashionable and expensive strings, and play it through a boutique amp and cab that a guy in bass shop tells you, you absolutely must have, but then proceed to play it using your less than good technique (sloppy fretting, uneven picking etc}, then unfortunately you'll still sound crap.
Jaco Pastorius was once talking to a fan. The fan kept saying how amazing Jaco's bass was, how amazing it sounded, and how he wished he had one like it. Jaco took his bass off and stood it in the corner, turned to the guy and said "does it still sound amazing now ?"
Look at guys like Pino, Tony Levin, Jaco, Guy Pratt, Victor Bailey, Louis Johnson, Bernard Edwards, Marcus Miller, Paul Turner, Julian Crampton and dozens more, they use 'normal' basses on the whole.