I'm happy to have got this wrong but as I've said before I basically think the sound of an unplugged electric bass is irrelevant but are you saying you feel the Thumb bass even FEELS differently acoustically to when it's plugged in? When you arrive at more insight on this please let me know? I think my mental struggle with the sound is the sound shaping options available when plugged in versus unplugged. How for example can I expect the MEC preamp on my Warwicks to translate to them before they're even plugged in? Again I'm willing to learn.