Baloney Balderdash

Definitely plays a fairly big role, as does cosmetic quality and finish of the wood (the latter though not necessarily the case if we are talking Gibson).

Regarding wood it's more a case of the degree of randomness of quality of the wood between individual units rather than it is a case of cheap necks consistently being made of bad wood (which honestly makes sense, picking out consistently bad wood would end up making production more expensive, also what on Earth would the point be of doing that). As you said with cheap instruments it's more of a lottery. My cheap Ibanez Mikro Bass got an outstanding neck in just about every regard, don't think I ever had a neck on any guitar or bass at any price point that was this stable. Unless swapping to a set of strings with significantly different tension, at most it will only need a very minor, not even strictly necessary, truss rod adjustment something like once a year (and yes, here where I live there can be rather big seasonal changes, both in terms of humidity and temperature). It also shows as good as no signs of fret wear despite being over 10 years old, with roundwounds and daily playing, and the frets was practically perfectly leveled from stock as well.

Hopefully you didn't pay him for ruining your takes?

Most music, there are exceptions, benefit from being organic rather than mechanical. Organic will in by far most cases sound more alive and interesting where as strictly mechanical will in by far most cases end up sounding clinical and boring. If it sound good it is good, and I am not convinced you actually would like the sound of everything being robotically/clinically straight dead on the beat. Now in certain electronic music there might be a point with everything being robotic/clinical, whereas most other music would suffer from this and actually offer a less satisfactory listening experience. As people have pointed out it is music not simple mathematics without any variables (there's a a reason why almost all new robotic technology is based on artificial neurological networks rather than simple rigid predetermined scripted algorithms, the latter completely lacking the complexity and flexibility that is needed to solve actual real life problems). Swing, groove and feel is a thing in music, even a very essential thing, especially feel, true musical timing (rather than being on time), and neither of those happen with everything being dead on clinically/mechanically straight on beat. Don't listen with your eyes, and don't look at the world through square glasses, the world is not made of nothing but squares (even if it might sadly appear that way sometimes ). Do you perceive your music as a (complex) living breathing organism, or a mechanical construct, a (simple automat) machine? Which do you find most pleasing? Which would you rather people associate your music with? That said, of course it is still possible that you do in fact have bad timing, just saying that what you have discovered by looking closer at those tracks isn't necessarily a case of it, and that it is still totally possible that there in fact is absolutely nothing wrong with your and your drummers timing. As said if it sounds good it is good, and having everything straight dead on beat almost certainly wouldn't give a more satisfactory result, likely rather on the contrary.

Noon position, or 5, would be approximately flat/neutral position. And the "Tone Shaping" switch is not actually a tone shaping switch but a Mids Q/Bandwidth switch, that is setting the width and angle of the curve around whatever center mid frequency you dial in to boost/cut, or put a different way how wide a frequency spectrum around the center mid frequency you select is also affected (the frequency bands on all equalizers works this way, the difference is just that not all equalizers let you chose Q/Bandwidth, but instead has a fixed value).

Well the Harmonics dial is really just what is usually called a Presence control, that is a boost/cut of the upper most frequency spectrum. You would have thought being able to dial in some mids would have been a more useful feature on a bass preamp pedal (hint: it would totally had been just that).

It's not a Tech 21 VT Bass clone, it's a Tech 21 Bass Driver clone, including the huge mid scoop that pedal is (in)famous for that can't really be dialed out since there is no mid control and the center frequency of the treble and bass controls are located such that the "boost" of mids that cutting those and turning up the level instead otherwise would effectively result in doesn't match with where the center of the huge scoop is (just about 800Hz, which is exactly around the frequency that helps with adding snap to and improving definition/articulation of your tone). Though if you are one of those strange people who prefer the mids of your tone scooped out you might actually like it. In my opinion you would have been better off spending a bit more and getting something like the One Control Silver Peg.

Lefty Ibanez GSRM20L Mikro Bass? https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/detail/gsrm20l_1p_02.html It features a just 28.6" scale length, which is 1.4" shorter than the 30" scale length most commonly used and pretty much otherwise standard for short scale basses, but I love mine and it has been my main for the last past several years (Though I did upgrade the pickups, even if the stock ones are actually pretty decent, but still probably this bass's weakest link), also this would make it perfect for your children, if they should find interest in learning how to play bass at some point as well. Here's a random Google image of the left hand version (the left hand version only comes in this finish) :

Reminds me of this masterpiece of a song that I made, all by myself:

Japanese bass and drums experimental rock duo: Kind of sounds like an odd mixture of Primus, Mr. Bungle (particularly their "Disco Volante" album) and Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band (particularly their "Trout Mask Replica" album), but then with the only instrumentation beside vocals being bass and drums.

Love the look of this bass. Would love to own the short scale version.

Also I forgot to ask: Blue or Red pill?

Depends on which DiMarzio pickups in specific, and otherwise is totally up to specific application, that is what other gear do you use and what do you play, what you want to achieve, and not least your personal preferences. If there was such a thing as the ultimate best preamp there would only be one model on the market. That said it would be worth considering an external preamp pedal instead, those often offer much more possibilities for tweaking and customizing your tone than onboard ones, which in most cases are pretty basic in comparison. But yes, depending on the specific preamp in question it can make a huge difference.

I've discovered that really high gain heavy distortion and fuzz tones benefits, both in terms of added heft but also in terms of improved articulation and definition, from having a subtle polyphonic 1 octave up effect (of course blended with a good amount of clean signal) stacked into it. Personally I use a TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini for this, placed as the very first thing in my signal chain, right after my bass, and loaded with a customized Toneprint that has been tweaked to deliver an as authentic/natural sounding octave up effect as possible, but I would think, given the high gain distortion and being applied relatively subtly, that even more synthy/organ sounding octave up effects would work for this without ending up sounding unnatural. Sounds absolutely huge, and as said improves the definition and articulation of the distortion as well.

Well, making an untreated Maple fretboard approximately the same color as Rosewood should be relatively simple and cheap, getting it to look like actual Rosewood would be a very costy and complicated affair that likely still would only last for a limited amount of time.

I am not much of a compression guy either, outside of post production mixing and mastering that is of course. I do tend to use some very subtle compression, but an untrained ear probably couldn't tell the difference, more so of a feel/tone thing than it is a way to control my dynamics, I very much prefer the latter intact. But since drive technically does compress the signal slightly, technically you would use subtle compression as well.

So I am in the process of totally rearranging my pedal board and I am in the need of a high gain distortion pedal. My Boss MT-2 Metal Zone stacked into a Joyo Orange Juice (set to a low gain overdrive), really tightens up the Metal Zone, and mixed with parallel dry signal, via a Boss LS-2, at an about 35% dry signal/65% distorted signal ratio, gets me really close to the kind of high gain distortion sound I want. However, judging from various demos and sound clips, it seems like either the EHX Nano Metal Muff or Ibanez Super Metal Mini could get me even closer, and without the need for the Joyo Orange Juice, since they are already much tighter sounding than the Metal Zone. The EHX Nano Metal Muff or Ibanez Super Metal Mini seems quite close in terms of character, but I am having a hard time judging which would likely give me the best result, so can someone who has first hand experience with either or both please guide me? I like to point out I am definitely not looking for the popular Darkglass fizzy distortion top end on top of clean bass sound, and I am actually satisfied with whatever low end the high gain distortion naturally cuts mixed with the full frequency dry signal and don't mind loosing a bit of low end when using my high gain distortion.

Love that band photo!

Worth to consider here is that the Tech 21 VTDI does feature a simple but all analog cab simulation, the Laney Digibeth, as far as I know, doesn't, so if you pick that one and need cab simulation (because most basses sounds best when a fair deal of the higher frequency spectrum has been cut) you would need an extra external IR loader pedal or similar for that.

This! Start with knowing what you want, then do research and adjust your desires accordingly to what you find/learn from that research, everything else is a certain recipe to later regrets! No one else but you is going to know what fits your physics, playing style, taste and personal preferences best! What is the absolute ultimate best bass for me is almost certainly not the ultimate best bass for you (this is especially true here as i got some rather unusual preferences). There is a reason why they don't just offer 1 single model with 1 single determined set of specs.

I am pretty sure OP's pickups are stacked coils (on top of each other), not split coil (side by side), ("faux singlecoil") humbuckers.

Damn, that sucks... I've managed to rip out the bridge ground wire of one of my basses once too. Not when installing the Geezer P though. Thing is that the only thing that holds the bridge ground wire in place is the downward pressure from the bridge against the wood of the bass's body, so while it definitely will never rip loose by it self it doesn't take a lot of pulling strength to do so. Guess you will have to remove and then reinstall the strings and bridge again after threading a new ground wire. Edit!!!: You did mean the bridge wire came loose, right? Or did you mean fell out of the ground cap included in the set to splice the bass bridge ground with the EMG ground wire? If the latter it isn't exactly a huge issue, just remove a bit more insulation from the EMG ground wire and splice them, you don't even need to solder them, just give them a thorough series of wiggles/twists to attach them to each other properly and apply a some electrical tape to the joint (nothing is going to rip them apart as long as they are sheltered in the control cavity, and the connection should be plenty firm for proper conduction), or you could also just solder the the original bridge ground wire from the bass directly to the jack socket sleeve connection, or really any spot that got ground connection.

Not to be pedantic but it's due to the extra resistance and not impedance, making less high frequency content bleed to the ground (unless I have misunderstood something, might have something to do with raising the frequency of the pickup's resonant peak as well). I prefer my P pickups wired directly to the output jack socket, which I've found makes them sound much more open and clear, though that of course is at the expense of any onboard control of Volume and Tone.

Ballsy move...