Changing a SB335 bass sound where do I start?

[Pinball]

I have a couple of Bass Collection SB335 5 string basses. Armed with 2x soapbars the controls are Vol, Pan, active 2 band/treble and bass together with a passive or active switch. I really like their tone and they have plenty of oopph under the bonnet but I don't need two basses that sound identical so would like to differentiate their sound.

IIn the past have been content to change sound thought changing strings so where do I start? Pickups? Pre-amp?
The good news is that the pups seem like pretty standard 4" x 1.5"
I suppose the obvious question is what sort of a sound am I after? Well in the past the basses that I have used are Ibanez with custom barts, Stingrays and G&L's so I'm after a dark sound with character. I'm not keen on typical Delano, Norstrand, emg's....Jazzers generally don't do it for me. Therefore it makes sense to make one of the SB335's sound a darker and more agressive.

So where should I start?

[Happy Jack]

What strings do you prefer?

What style of music do you (mainly) play?

Are you a pedal-tastic player, or strictly bass --> amp?

[Pinball]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1503916705' post='3361489']
What strings do you prefer?
What style of music do you (mainly) play?
Are you a pedal-tastic player, or strictly bass --> amp?
[/quote]

Pedals? I love them and tend to use the amp pretty flat and to use a BB bass pre, octive, envelope and wah. I guess that this is the area where I usually mess with sound.
Strings? That's complicated as Status half rounds were my preferred string and I have also used flats. I'm trying Elixir nanowebs at the moment to get a bit of growl back into my sound in addition to thimp!
Music Type? well it's proggy and at times heavy. If I was emulating sounds it would be bands like Placebo, muse ...it's probably easier if you judge for your self. [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXPhW7z2UJ0&t=9s"]https://www.youtube....XPhW7z2UJ0&t=9s[/url]

Edited August 28, 2017 by Pinball