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Upgrading, need advice!

So played with some friends yesterday evening, through a decent PA system with monitor. It’s amazing (to this rookie bass player) how different tonally and volume it sounds from my RBX with p-bass setup. I’m sure it’s the pickups but also has to be the round wounds vs the flat wounds on my Yamaha. I had thought about putting flats on the JB but I guess if I really want a different tone than the RBX I should stick with rounds? I get more buzz with them if I’m not careful but as I improve hoping that gets smoother.

Glad you're enjoying the bass :) That buzz will go away after a few sessions of playing, though I personally love a nice crisp new string and the twang I can get from them, especially when slapping. I would say stick with roundwound because you already have a "P" type with flats, the JB should be nice and crisp and burpy with some rounds on it. And yes over time you will learn how to approach the strings to either achieve or eliminate the buzz; though it sounds pretty self explanatory, the more parallel you can keep your finger strokes or pick strokes to the fretboard, the less buzz you're likely to get, however the more perpendicular to the fret-board your strokes are the more likely you are to get buzz..... also if you're getting uncontrollable buzz at any one particular fret you might need to have the bass setup and the action raised slightly
 

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