Had a hardback one for years. Lots of lovely, GAS inducing pics.
Don't know about the paperback version, but the hardback's got a couple of lovely fold-out pages for some VERY special basses (I think a '61 Jazz, Pino's fretless MusicMan etc...).
A simple compressor with a 'Make up gain' knob would do it - it would also even out the dynamics for you, so I'd be tempted to use that rather than an EQ.