A fellow Scot here, with a Sterling Sub Ray 4 in my arsenal. (No cheap shots, please, about tight Scotsmen, or I will hunt you down like a dog.)
Like the OP, I wanted to test the MM waters, but I find the wide nut on EBMM basses to be too wide for my delicate little paws, being a Jazz Bass player by temperament.
The Sub Ray 4 I nabbed may be cheap, but it really packs a punch, and sounds close enough to the real thing to me to be well worth considering, to get a sense of these things, which are very different to the Jazz.
I got mine for 200 quid, and there are plenty around, so give one a whirl, I say.
I will now duck into my previously prepared bunker, so as to avoid the inevitable incoming from those rightfully enraged by my maundering..
Carry on.