7. Different colour silk per string looks horrible. My favourite strings don't use silk at all, so I got lucky there!
8. You can rock out with your bass at any hight, Entwistle for instance. I like to play at about the hight of my pockets and being 1.92cm have not had much difficulty finding good straps.
EMGs sound good at 9v, great at 18v IMO. I can't seriously tell the difference between 18 and 24v on them (my 2 main basses have EMGs).
Good thread!