I recently commissioned a build and got to hand pick my wood. I looked at rosewood, but what struck my eye was a piece of quartersawn wenge for the neck. When I asked the guy doing the build about wood, he told me that he hasn't seen the wood make a tremendous difference in a solid body electric. In fact, he said you can use the same type wood and depending on the source of the wood it will be different. His advice, pick the wood that was the most appealing and that wasn't too heavy.
I know this is sacrilege to the "tone wood" folks. But we sat and discussed that some electric instruments used to be made of pine or even plywood, and they sounded great. Some very famous instruments weren't even made of wood...old Dano basses were masonite. Dan Armstrong used to build them out of acrylic. Some instruments have had formica tops.
I do believe quality materials make a big difference, but I feel that quality bridges, strings, pickups, preamps, signal path, amp/DI, cabinet and/or PA, and the room have a bigger influence on tone than any wood you build your bass out of.
My bass will have African mahogany body with three vaneers on the top (rosewood, wenge, and figured maple). The neck will be a laminate of birdseye maple, rosewood, wenge, and purpleheart. The fingerboard will be wenge. But the most important parts, to me, are the frets, nut, bridge, preamp, and pickups.
