Most amps have preamps built in, or you may have a preamp pedal like I do. Or you can record the pure sound into a DAW and adjust the tone with plugins.
I thought the lack of a tone knob was an impediment when I first looked at this bass a while back, now I’m not so sure.
It’s a fine looking instrument you’d think adding some finish options they already have would be an ez win.
I find onboard tone control to be (in most cases) fairly useless for me.
I totally get someone wanting to be a minimalist and control tone from the bass but in almost every case I leave it flat (active) or full open (passive) and EQ from there on whatever preamp I am using. The exceptions would be my EBMM and the Fender HMT with Piezo and P - the two band EQ is actually a big help here in taming the piezo. But both are special cases.
Agreed, except for the Peavey Patriot withe the super ferrite pup (which I have to tame a bit) I play all my basses with the taps fully open. I sometimes turn down the neck on the JJ by 20% or so, but elsewise it’s always dialed all the way open.
I’m not a minimalist by any means, but I’m making every effort to not make all my basses sound the same as you spend enough time dialing in you can make one sound similar to another or make one sound like everything else. It was a great idea when I have a couple of basses not 50. Now I want to look at each of my bass and know what kind of personalities. My thinking and preference shifted once I start having more basses.
That led me to the no tone knob on basses. The SB2 is truly unique, and very quirky yet produce great classic tone, as it uses the jazz volume as a tone adjustment, more volume-more brightness.
My goal is to own all 3 of Joe Dart signature basses. The newest one is the same idea as the SB2, his original only has volume knob and the short scale has no knobs at all. Don’t forget most of us make adjustments through the next attachment preamp, amp, or DAW.
Makes sense.
I finally got my bass dialed in with my latest set up and I’ve been playing around more and more with my practice amp to find the sweet spot for this bass.
I’m beginning to realize that nowadays there are a lot of options to dial in the sound one is after.
Still, as a beginner, having that tone knob ready to go is a good first step to dialing things in with minimal gear or digital tech experience.
Since I don’t plan to play live again, or at least any time soon, I’m happy with no EQ and maybe no tone control on the bass. I do so much EQ and effects in the DAW that recording anything besides the dry, flat bass tone is not helpful, and in fact would be detrimental for re-takes.
If I were playing live, I’d want active EQ on the bass. Or tone control, though EQ is more convenient there on the bass. No need to tweak the preamp pedal live then 
