On my board I use a Bass Soul Food at the start of the chain for a bit of grit and a Tritonab drive pedal later on for dirtier stuff. Love the Tritonlab.
In my experience it's very much a 2 handed technique where the muting or complete deadening of notes is just as important as slapped or plucked note. It's more like drumming on the fretboard than anything else and requires a lot more subtlety than you'd think (especially after watching Louis Johnson!).
I use a Tokai Hardpuncher (which to all intents and purposes is a P) with flats. Sounds good through my Aguilar Filter Twin which I prefer to the MXR which I also have.
In my opinion the quality control on Stingrays has been consistently good as opposed to Fender who have been all over the place for decades. I've played quite a few Rays and they've all been spot on.
In my experience young'uns love the Line 6 Spider amps. Vast (and I mean VAST) range of sounds and effects and enough gadgetry to keep an 11 occupied for ages.
The stuff I think of as 'modern' is generally at least 10 years old now. If it's post Honky Tonk Women and Alright Now it fits my criteria though. Stuff like
Ready to Go - Republica
Only Happy When it Rains - Garbage
Slither - Velvet Revolver
Will undoubtedly be met with howls of 'They won't know it!' though.
Dark Side of The Moon for me. The lyrics to some of the songs have been astoundingly relevant throughout my life. They lost their bite when Waters left in my opinion.
I'm not precious at all but we played a private gig a couple of years ago. During the break between sets I came back into the hall and an utterly pissed woman was dancing around with my EB Stingray slung round her neck. To say I was unhappy was an understatement. I subsequently bought a Tokai Hardpuncher for gigging duties and the Stingray stays at home.
I don't understand how Brexit (which is nowhere near happening) has devalued sterling so much and yet America is about to elect one of 2 shockingly bad candidates as President tomorrow and the $ isn't worth 10p.
Some ZZ Top is quite funky like Just Got Paid.
Top of my list to get into our setlist The Boneshakers version of James Browns Cold Sweat. The Boneshakers were formed after the breakup of Was Not Was and play some seriously funky stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ0Lg_Am918
Try swapping out everything else first (i.e. power cable, bass, instrument lead, speaker lead, cabinet) to eliminate them as the source of the problem.