Rading that, I immediately thought Music Man Classic Stingray.
I own and play fretted and fretless Jazz basses, but for funk and good rock tone I would go to my Stingray. I personally prefer the 2-band models, that's why I reccomend a Classic.

I considered that - I was lucky enough to borrow a limited edition Cutlass from a friend that had a Modulus graphite neck.
Best tone I ever heard from a bass...but they are like $4k!

The necks are a little big for my tastes, but I might consider trying them out again.

The Cutlass I (a Stingray with Modulus graphite neck) and Cutlass II (a Sabre with Modulus graphite neck) command high prices, because they are rare, but I've seen them go in the 2000 $ range. Never seen even a 1976 Stingray go for as much as 4k, a Classic with fancy woods is in the 2000 $ range.
If the Cutlass is your dream bass, you could get a Sterling Ray 4 and replace the neck with a Status Graphite MM neck.
I'm biased though, these days all I play is a '79 Stingray bass

...just a beat-it-up ol' J-bass, passive p.u.s, noisy, no case, throw it in the back seat, throw it across the floor, prop it up in the corner, falls down, still in tune. yeah. no, "Oh my God! You got hamburger juice on my precious!" even with my Stick, i got over it when it fell on the coffee table, scratched the coffee table. (im not kidding)

Bacchus (made in Japan) guitars make fantastic "better than Fender" style basses, without being twice as expensive. They have been around under different names (Headway, Deviser etc) since the 70's. Look them up.

Cheers,
Andy

I swear by sadowsky's. You may be able to find a used metro for under $2000. they are great basses much finer than fenders IMO the best jazz for funk. they are active.

Brett

About 10 years ago I had a BSX electric upright bass that was awesome for jazz-type music(we didn't do straight ahead jazz, but sort of a hiphop jazz hybrid). I don't know if they are still in business or not, but the basses sounded great and played great. And they look really cool!

Mike

I second the Bacchus. I picked one up from this great guy on line who lives in Japan and sells for Bacchus…. MUCHO better than the Fender… here is the link:
http://www.dannymstewart.com/bacchus-basses.html

If you dig 5+6 string basses, I suggest looking for models with the .750"/19mm string spacing. The strings are spaced the same as they are on Fender 4 string J basses. The Yamaha TRB series is a great example of this. Put some Nordstrand Big Singles or something similar in it, and you'll have golden tone. The Warwick Broad Neck models fit this spacing as well.

My main bass right now is an Steve Bailey Aria Pro II Fretless 6 with the same string spacing, and there's plenty of room to get between the strings to do all that slap/pop stuff. I have a killer preamp in it (A Demeter) and it sounds fabulous.

Yeah, I already have a 5 & 6 (Ibanez 5 string and a Pedulla 6) - and both have really tight spacing, so I think just a standard 4 string is what I'm looking for right now