Thank you for the info and link.
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These are great but just a wee bit too soft.
I know folks are afraid of the green pads (I was, and started with Maroon).
Went back with green ones, but, like you say, gentle but firm.
Maroon you can go nuts but it is just not quite enough.
it will take off the ‘sticky gloss feeling’, but not make it satin like.
Note - even with all this, your own oils will shine the finish back to a gloss eventually, this is something you will have to repeat hear and there regardless.
I would end up being overly cautious and remove the pickups from the body and store them somewhere far away from the sanding station if I was using steel wool or another metal type abrasive. Of course that means extra and possibly unnecessary work.
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Best bet is to take the neck off, if possible.
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You said this now but when it’s time often the economy of effort just prevents you from doing the right thing, lol.
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Very true, but if I’ve learned anything from my pizza-making journeys it’s that the little bit of effort you might shrug off usually will pay off big time, or save you from a ton of grief.
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There’s no reason to use steel wool on a guitar if you dislike it. Other abrasives work as well or better.
If you like steel wool, it’s fine too, but I’d either remove the neck, or tape the pickups, or better, bag the bass body in plastic first.
I’ve had good results with it on wood before but even then was pretty unhappy with the cleanup needed.
I had super spectacularly poor results with it cleaning a car battery cable once 
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Pro tip: Get a bar magnet (can be scavenged from an old pickup or get one at a hardware store). Cut a finger off a rubber glove. Drop the magnet in the finger and tie it off. Wrap steel wool around your rubber covered magnet and get to work. I lot less escaped steel dust this way.
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thats a great idea
This^^^ 
I just used 3m pads. Worked great. Happy in my ignorance
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This pretty much! All I ever use
No worry about metal dust from steel wool, cheap af, about £8 for a pack of 10 sheets, just trim off what I need. so far, in nearly 3 years and 5 or 6 basses, I’ve use all of 2 sheets 
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My Stingray Special has the smoothest neck of any of my basses. It takes getting use to.
Maybe one day I’ll have somethin like that…
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Regardless of how much I can’t live without satin finish I’m not touching these babies with anything other than micro fiber towel, lol. Nor would I gloss the satin finish on my roasted maple or Joe Dart, lol. Actually, I’d strongly advise against the idea,
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That’s why God offer 2 types of necks, 
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