talkToTheHat

I have an early 90s Washburn MB-4. (P/J 24 fret 4 string) I've had it since I was a teenager and it has been my go-to instrument for stage and recordings, everything else I have either not found as useful or fundamentally fallen out with in some serious way. I've been quite ill for a few years and am trying to get back into playing bass, I've restring it with some 30-90 strings that help avoid pain and fatigue, it's a little bright but it's opened the doors to much slappyness that I wouldn't have attempted before. The old washburn active EQ eats batteries, it's always been like that but for what's now occasional use rather than daily workouts and weekly performance use, I'm throwing money at it. Allegedly it switches off at the jack. I didn't mind when I always kept a box of 9volts for pedals, DI boxes, violins and other such powered things, now I often don's have a spare to hand and sometimes aren't able to find some in a hurry. Previously, I've not made much use of the tone controls, everyhting lives on the centre detent or turned up to the max, maybe rolling off the treble slightly occasionally, more on the P-Bass with exceptionally bright Delanos. Volume pot is mostly a kill switch. I got fed up of messing with batteries, pulled the soldering iron out and completely bypassed the old actices, wiring the from the pickup selector switch directly to the output jack. This works thereabouts but I'll need to wire in at least a volume pot. Finally I get to a question: What do I actually need in terms of on-instrument controls? What is worth me wiring back in? Is there any benefit to active electronics if all I do is roll off some treble? Are passive TBX style cut/boost circuits any good or do they colour the sound loads in the centre position? Is there anything I need to think about for playing slap styles that hasn't crossed my mind? I've got 4 holes to fill, one is currently a 3 way pickup switch, the rest pots on the old EQ, can easily fill all 4 with standard pots, probably cant fit a 5th one and have no desire to make more holes. Suggestions?