When I first had abass many decades ago I was always told that the bass should be felt and not heard.
I think there are times for the bass just to be there and when required be more prominent.
I put my musical interest down to the humble recorder. Learnt in junior school picked up again in late senior school.
Learnt fairly simple tunes but it gave me structure of trying to have a go at playing the same tunes on other instruments (as long as I could find the note of G).
My tinnitus is constant unless something I am doing takes my mind off it. I find it at it's worst first thing in a morning and in bed at night and especially so if my sinuses gets blocked (which is frequently).
When being fitted for earing aids it was suggested that I had the open bud type so that external sounds get in rather than just relying on the hearing aid.
While writing this I am suffering a rather bad session of tinnitus - mines a constant whistling.
Have a read of BassAdder27's NBD thread of the Squire CV60's P-bass in this forum a few threads below your at the moment.
I would not totally dismiss the Fender Affinity basses, the one I have is pretty good for the money.