Baloney Balderdash

Personally out of those two I would get the EHX Batallion.

Trying a lot of different brands and gauges throughout the years, though always roundwounds, and, except for a short lived experiment years back with stainless steel roundwounds on my 34" bass, all nickel plated hex steel core, I've concluded that I prefer relatively light gauge, low and approximately balanced tension, and following is what I've have settled for this far: Bass, all scale lengths, in regular E1 standard tuning: D'Addario XL nickel roundwound bass strings, gauge: .095 - .075 - .055 .040 28.6" scale tenor bass, in A1 standard tuning (as the 4 upper strings of 6 string bass in regular B0 standard tuning): Elixir Nanoweb nickel roundwound guitar strings, gauge: .068 - .052 - .038 - .028 30" scale Bass VI, in F#1, 2 half steps above low E1 bass string, standard tuning, as in 10 half steps bellow regular guitar E2 standard tuning : Newtone nickel roundwound guitar strings, gauge: .080 - .061 - .046 - .035 - .027 - .020 Guitar, all scale lengths, in regular E2 standard tuning: Elixir Nanoweb nickel roundwound guitar strings, just the regular premade "Light" set, gauge: .046 - .036 - .026 - .017* - .013* - .010* * =plain string

Another amazing love song by Syd Barrett, but this time a really beautiful and not silly at all one (first take guitar solo by the way, by Syd as well, that fitted in perfectly when played back and in reverse, which gives is a unique haunting quality that fits the track perfectly), from his second solo album :

Take These Hands And Throw Them In The River - Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra

While this is true and a good point, I think OP's point is actually much more trivial and obvious, which is the fact that you will find it easier to start slow and then speed up, rather than going full speed right away, when learning new relatively fast paced stuff.

There's a saying in Texas tenacy that goes: "Fooled twice, thrice the charm".

This, at least as far as goes for my current main instrument of choice: I suppose ultimately my soul, or rather being as a whole, who knows, perhaps rather even The Great Artist of All Creation, Formerly Known as God.

I see, thanks for specifying. Though I am a bit puzzled by what you say about the P style pickups, as regular P pickups by far most commonly will have their two halves wired in series and therefor by themself already be noise cancelling (and even if wired in parallel instead of series the coils of the two halves would still make each individual P pickup hum cancelling by their own).

And actually it doesn't just narrow the Q, it alters the frequency curve effected in a different a asymmetrical way that is different from simply narrowing the bandwidth affected, as it only limits the boost on the lower end frequency part of the affected EQ curve, which can be used for your advantage to dial in more punchy low end, without causing mud, as mentioned in the video linked to in the OP, referred to as the Pultec trick. Pultec being a legendary mixing console, where you commonly would boost the Bass control, but then activate the build in HPF after it, resulting in a unique punchy, well defined and articulate, bass response.

My single biggest bass related regret is without doubt choosing to drop out of the hardcore and noise rock influenced math rock band, Menfolk, that I was part of, in the role of the sort of "lead" bass (band, beside a guitarist/vocalist and an incredible drummer, featured, and continued to feature after I dropped out as well, 2 bass players, the other bass player filling out a somewhat more traditional supportive role), which, beside missing out on continuing to be part of a really cool band, caused me to miss out on getting to play on the biggest Scandinavian rock festival, The Roskilde Festival, about a year after I dropped out. As far as goes bass gear related regrets, my top 3 is following: Being stupid enough to sell the Ampeg B-15S 60W all tube amp I used to own, same with the Jerry Jones Neptune Longhorn Bass (sort of a high end/boutique clone of the Danelectro Longhorn Bass) that I used to own, and also selling the 4 string 28 5/8" scale bass that I had made out of Warmoth baritone parts, those were all some relatively rare, really astonishing, and truly great sounding, pieces of gear. Ah, yeah, similarly I really regret managing to rip open my left hand ring finger, starting from the palm a bit bellow the finger and almost all the way to the tip, on bard wire, drunk deciding to take a short cut down a muddy slope to catch a train home, a New Years Eve some 15 years back or so, which has caused some slight impairment of flexibility and movement of that finger. Definitely regret that too, and mainly because it does have some negative impact on my bass playing.

The Harley Benton Beatbass (Höfner Violin/Beatles Bass clone) is both cheaper and better than the cheapest Chinese made budget Höfner ones: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_beatbass.htm

No, they are all digital. Also while digital pedal these days aren't necessarily lesser than analog pedals in any possible way, I don't think analog pedals will ever become obsolete. That said, I have seriously considered selling all my individual pedal, which by far predominantly are analog, and getting the new HoTone Ampero II Stage multi effect, which features a triple-core CPU, independent ESS Sabre AD/DA, and 5" touchscreen (and of course supporting 3rd party IR files (2048 sampling points, that is double of most other, even most so called high end, multi effects and dedicated IR loaders), and parallel signal chain processing) : https://www.hotoneaudio.com/products/multi-effects/Ampero-II-Stage

There's also Halrley Benton's take on the Rickenbacker, not an exact copy, as said more like Harley Benton's take on one, but like most Harley Benton instruments it is not only cheap (199£/229 Euro), but also gets really great reviews. Even the stock pickups are supposed to actually sound great. https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_rb_414bk_classic_series.htm Personally I am not really a Rick guy though, many years ago I bought a used vintage 70's, 4001, cause I had that kind of money to spend at the time and had fallen in love with the looks of it, but I very quickly ended up absolutely hating it, didn't sound bad, but not exactly great either, and it just felt horrible to play on, think i only ever played 1 single gig with it before ended up banished to sit in a case under the couch in the rehearsal room of the band I played in at the moment, ever to be played by me ever again, and I went back to my trusty Aria Pro II Laser Electric Classic, which I still own and love to this day. That Rickenbacker still holds the little flattering record as the most expensive piece of absolute crap I ever bought.

They are, that's why they got that odd middle dummy "pickup"/coil, to cancel out the single coil noise from the real pickups.

This might be obvious, but would be a good idea if you tried going DI at home or your band rehearsal space with all your basses before the gig, so you can decide for yourself which you think sounds best going straight DI. This could be done if you own a set of studio grade headphones, which basically just means FRFR (Full Range Flat Response) headphones (regular "Hi-Fi" headphones will usually have certain frequencies boosted, especially bass, which would not really resemble what you would usually hear from a PA), or a set of studio monitors, which would also resemble the approximate FRFR of a typical PA (or of course if you got a PA system yourself or at the band rehearsal space).

I'd be inclined to suggest the P Bass. That said out of those options the Hofner, according to my personal preferences at least, would be likely to sound best going straight DI to the PA without any amp or cab emulator/sim.

This beautiful Sebadoh ballad, written by Lou Barlow, the closer of their "Bakesale" album:

It is indeed, in fact one of the main reasons I think it looks so interesting and am really curious on the report of what it does and how it sounds. Just had a closer look, and it looks like it supposedly was part of the Russian space program too, however that is supposed to make sense.

What is "drive combo emulator" even supposed to mean? Looks interesting though, looking forward to your report once you have had a chance to try it out properly.

And another silly love song by Syd Barrett:

I am pretty certain I could tell the difference in a blind test, even if I probably wouldn't be able to to tell which is which (but the has more to do the fact that I am not particular familiar with these pickups in specific). Also there is quite a great amount of quite distinct and notable difference between the tone of let's say a 70's vintage voiced Alnico based P pickup and a DiMarzio ceramic based Model P, or even more pronounced, the DiMarzio Split P or new Relentless Middle P pickup, and I am pretty sure I could tell the difference even in he mix of say a power trio, and possibly even a full band (given of course that the tone hadn't been manipulated further beyond recognition, or been given the "...and justice for all" treatment). Try listening to this for example, a comparison between a vintage voiced stock Fender P pickup and the DiMarzio Model P P pickup:

100% agree with J. Mascis, one of the absolute greatest rock guitarists of all times. It's just astonishing the amount of emotion he is capable of channeling into his otherwise usually relatively shreddy solos. When it comes to jazz though Bill Frisell is unparalleled.

So this thread is for posting pictures of all those basses people own that got one or more P pickups with reverse orientation equipped. Really though it's just another excuse for posting another picture of my beloved just 28.6" scale Ibanez Mikro Bass, which I've named "Dud Bottomfeeder", with various mods, among those pulling out the stock pickups and installing an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup, wired directly to the output jack socket, instead. Currently equipped with Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings of the gauges .068 - .052 - .038 - .028, and tuned in tenor bass tuning, that is A standard tuning, as the 4 upper strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning, which really makes this little bass shine, though it does sound great equipped with thicker gauge strings and tuned in regular E standard tuning as well. Without further ado "Dud Bottomfeeder" (note that the knob closets to the neck is now red): Having the P pickup orientation in reverse does really help making the tonal balance between respectively the two thicker lower strings and the two thinner upper strings more even, which is even more pronounced on a short scale bass, because the relative difference in distance is greater, rather than emphasizing the inherent tonal difference between respectively the two thinner higher and two thicker lower strings which the traditional orientation of the two halves of a P pickup actually does.

I don't think it exactly is any well kept secret among people who actually knows anything about playing music that these types lists are pure bull crap, and that a more accurately descriptive name for them would be "Most popular [X instrumentalists]". I still think these types of lists still got entertainment value though.

Can't speak for the Tonestyler or preamp swap, as I have no personal experience with it, but my personal experience with swapping pickups doesn't match yours. Swapping pickups in my experience potentially can make a quite substantial difference, of course depending on the specific bass and not least the specific pickups in question, and might potentially take a bass from decent to amazing sounding. But of course as we all have different ears/hearing and personal taste/preferences one persons substantial difference might be another persons neglectable difference. However as always have been suggested, I would probably suggest an off board external preamp instead too.