building a bass, comment and critique

[21petro]

so i am in the process of building this bass, a little thunderbird styled. i have most of the parts, and cut out the body and neck but i decided to get a drop top piece to top it off, so it delayed building.
maple body
maple neck through
spalt maple top
ebony fretboard
two cheapy hofner-looking humbuckers (want to upgrade)
passive electronics with switches for parallel/series with the individual pickups, and parallel/series combined pickups
steel pick guard

i want a bass that is very unique, very adaptable, and sounds awesome, without breaking the bank. i want everyones thoughts on it / possible improvements etc, before i continue building. the image is a photoshop file,
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[millsbass5]

It looks more Explorer-influenced to me. Have you took neck-dive into consideration with that bigger h/stock? Those body-styles are prone to dive anyways. Good luck with your build.

 

[FBB Custom]

if you know you are going to eventually upgrade the pickups, then you should not choose a shape where you will have a difficult time finding a higher quality pickup to fit the same routs.

 

[21petro]

Definitely. I am going to be placing the straplock behind the body/neck, to better distribute the bass. In terms of pickups, I'm not sure what I should be getting. I think ascetics is important so was thinking black soapbar pickups would work. Not sure what kind though, bartolinis look good, but are expensive.