Substituting an external EQ in place of active pups

Ok, I'm not entirely sure if the subject made any sense, but it's the best way that I could think to put it.

Here's the deal, in the next few months I'm buying a used Alvarez 6-string, and having it defretted. All in all it's gonna cost me around $450, leaving me flat broke for a while.

This bass has passive pups, I'm not sure what make, but it doesn't really matter. I want to have that nice fretless FWAH, but I also want decent, snappy, tone. Not as aggressive as a fretted, but with a little bite nonetheless.

Before I got my warwick thumb, I used a MXR 10-band EQ to give my previous bass, a squier P, a bit of tone. But I don't use the MXR with my thumb, it has enough EQ.

So here's my question: barring the immediate possibility of putting in active pickups, will my MXR help me to achieve the tone I want (crisp, snappy, but FWAH-ish) on a fretless?