Guitar rig has all you need.
Octave , chorus reverb , synthish stuff , etc..
Use it in standalone.
The ideal would be for you to buy an audio interface , like MOTU Ultralite mkIII
If you don't have the budget to buy a firewire interface , you can use the audio In and Outs of the Macbook.
Get a small board ( some under 100) to plug your bass in and get two 1/8"stereo to 2X1/4" unbalanced for the I/O.
Be carefull to do a correct gain structure.
Do some test for the latency vs CPU usage.
Lower the buffer as low as possible , before the CPU starts screaming "uncle"....
And by the way , lots of people use Apple stuff BECAUSE it is easy/working , not because it is "hip"
