This will go a long way: if your band is very loud it'll need some help from the PA.
Speaking of PA, a Beringer BD21 straight to desk is a reliable way of getting a decent signal into the venue. Cheap and just good.
Peavey amps work great and can be affordable, it all depends on the rest of your band how much oomph you need.
You could see if this is still available if you're still looking:
The fundamental isn't the driving factor in bass guitar amplification:
The timbre of the second harmonic in relation to the fundamental and the higher harmonics is what we commonly refer to as 'tone'. With the dominant harmonic at 61,.. Hz even the ampeg fridge will produce a pleasant sounding low B.
The Electro Harmonix Nano Battalion doesn't have the di out but is a nice toneshaper. I have the big version that also has the noise gate (which is the only noisy component, ironically) and d.i.
Wear the shirt, believe in yourself.
Can you imagine being ashamed to wear a representation of your identity? Ridiculous.
Wear the shirt of the band your seeing, I love spotting fans with our shirt on!
I copied "Gretsch Junior Jet" and "truss rod" from your post and this video was returned by the internet browsing programme. It involves something with six thin strings, I'd be cautious if I were you.
https://youtu.be/wOMoyZG7pw4
Huge improvement over Fender's droopy turd design imo.
Also consistent quality control over Fender's 'you'll take what you get and happily overpay for it' approach.
Impressively good band names:
Gate Keepers probably already exists
Flaunters of Grim could be Indie/Shoegaze rock
Consumate Professionals could be P-funk or ska/oi
Semantics is for instrumental math metal/fusion
Got any more? These are gold!
They're faster and they look it. The Italians could make hypercars that look like a volvo 240 but what would be the point? Overalls would work fine for a grand gala, but a tuxedo or dress suit is expected to fit the ambiance. Getting in character is part of the fun of playing extreme music.
Having said that, a good bridge pickup and/or effective tone control can help put some bite in the tone. Metal bass isn't clanky per se but generally has a bit of an edge on top of a solid round tone.
Can you guys get a private chat going or something and please stop messing up other people's topics? It's very annoying having to scan over your nonsense and derailing of good threads.
Gain is the level of the signal going into the EQ section and then on to the power section. If you turn that down there's nearly no signal for the power stage to amplify.
So turn up the gain to the point of breakup (drive) that sounds best to your ears, then turn up the volume to the desired loudness, then adjust the EQ to fix any acoustic issues.
Otherwise it's like driving a car with a clamp on the fuel line.