The Layout.

[811952]

I'll reiterate, with a slightly better explanation of where I'm coming from:
 
Tone IS in the fingers on any given instrument. No two players will sound exactly alike, and some will sound considerably different than the rest.
 
Now the trick with the knobs and such is to capture those differences in musical ways. Some instruments do this very well, and others (I'm talking to you, Telecaster Bass) capture only the barest essence of what's happening at the string.
 
Where we pluck along the string, how we pluck and a multitude of other personal factors are the root of any given tone. Translating that to speaker movement is just that: a translation of what's already there.  
 
I.E. without the origin tone, there's nothing for the rest of the signal chain to work with. Garbage in = garbage out.
 
John

[5a_quilt_top]

IMO, it's better to have the option for too much control as opposed to not enough.
 
I like instruments that have the potential to expand my capabilities and tonal pallet as opposed to those that are restrictive.
 
Do I use all of the capabilities of my Series II bass on a regular basis? No - but it's a source of comfort to me to know that I can, when required, dial in any tone I hear in my head and tweak it as required for my technique.
 
It's sort of like having a 24-fret neck. How often do I play up there? Not often, but when I want to do it, I know that I can.

[peoplechipper]

I don't even like amps with that many knobs; I run my bass with bass and treble boost on, q control off, both pickups; basically full blast and adjust tone with picking position...I do like the active boosting though, but I surely don't need all that control and wouldn't know where to start...