In 1992 I worked with Bob Glaub on an R&B track replacing a pre-sequenced Minimoog part with his p-bass. He had a tremendous sense of time and his tone was impeccable. He is one of those players who cause you to have an epiphany of such clarity and depth - as you realize that it's ALL in his fingers. Preamp, DI, limiter, EQ.. really doesn't matter- those concerns are akin to worrying about Halle Berry's shoelace color. The funny thing was, he complemented me on getting his bass to sound better than he had heard it before... It was a nice tone, but I swear I had very little to do with it..! On second thought, perhaps after spending years making lesser bass players sound as good as these guys, you get a chance to plug them in and suddenly the whole song lights up.
Have fun!
-CZ