Tim has that sneaky pedal wiring thing going on. Plus he really likes certain tubes for his amps and I do believe he uses thicker wiring to/from his tubes for better signal.
The only idea he has that I'm not 100% on board with is that pickups are the sound and the wood of the bass doesn't matter. I really believe that pickups won't necessarily make a horrible bass sound good.
Tim Commerford is your answer. He's got a cool sound and I also heard he's good at climbing
