I'm not a "top shelf" bassist, I've never worked in Nashville, I don't play for any A-list artists, and I've never done a major label record. However, I've been paid to play on upwards of 40-something albums in professional studios. One of my best friends is a very successful drummer/engineer/producer/mixer with his own full-time studio. I've worked in other pro studios in NM and CO.
The majority of the time, I'm asked to bring my Manley Tube DI and "a handful of basses", and that's about it. Sometimes an amp/cab, and sometimes a pedal board. Most engineers I've worked with were willing to try my gear first, and almost always, opted to use that instead of their own. But sometimes they just want to keep it simple (for them) and record bass as direct/clean as possible with their standard signal path and then apply their own plug-ins after the fact. I'll do whatever, as long as I'm getting paid to play the right notes at the right time.
To @mike-matthews comment about making it easy - that's my goal, as well. I want to make it as good sounding and as easy as possible, even if it means I don't get "my [preferred] sound". That said, there's usually some give and take - like when the studio's REDDI I had used for the whole 2-day session sounded too harsh for the genre with a particular fretless bass compared to my Grace Designs Felix; the engineer agreed and we swapped to my piece for the that bass.
