I would add in after all the pickups strings pedals etc, you play in a mix with a band how noticeable will the tone difference be? Negligible is my guess.
If having a neck through gives you more confidence, then by all means get one. If it makes you feel better about your bass, go for it.
I do think if you’re shredding up by 20-24 frets they’re better for access b/c they don’t need to be as chunky for the mechanical joint.
On the other hand, Boh, who plays the entire fretboard on his massive six string, shreds to the top frets, and can afford anything he wants as a sponsored Atelier Z artist, prefers a bolt on. Gigging on the road, if a neck gets damaged he can swap it out he says.
What works for you. No right or wrong answers which is why the debate rages on.
I think half this debate is people talking past each other. I haven’t done a neck swap, but I’m 99.999% sure I don’t care. If I could get the guitar to sound the way I wanted with the first neck I’m 99.999% sure I could get the second guitar to sound the way I want.
Contrast that with something like an acoustic violin where I can move it a little brighter sounding or a little darker sounding with string swaps, but fundamentally the instrument sounds how it sounds and I care a whole lot about the wood of the specific instrument I’m playing. If you want to cut through as a soloist and you already have evah pirazzi strings on it, you’re stuck. You can’t stick a boss GE-7 in there and boost the upper mids.
The hardest thing for making basses or guitar out of wood, is to make an identical pair in every way especially the tone they produce. They sound a bit different I’d imagine on the graph as well. Sadly most people won’t even know because when testing out the bass before the first tone on the first not even register we move to dialing in “our tone” it’s muscle memory. That’s part of the reason why it took me 12 months instead of 12 seconds to break the habit and play center detent.
I’m fortunate enough to have stocked pile the sterling ray4 and a few squiers jazz and precision of the same exact model trims. I’ve plugged the up and test them back to back and it sounds a tad different one would be a bit nasally than the other. Certainly, some weight as much as 7-8oz more.
I think a lot of people miss (or in many cases purposely distort) the guy’s ultimate conclusion: He doesn’t flat out say “lol tone wewd is BS”, his conclusion was that the difference tone wood would theoretically make is negligible compared to the difference that electronics, strings and individual player makes.
Hey now, we’re talking P-basses not P-values! 
That’s an apt analogy!
(The Legendary Study That Embarrassed Wine Experts Across the Globe | RealClearScience)
In 2001, researcher Frédéric Brochet invited 54 wine experts to give their opinions on what were ostensibly two glasses of different wine: one red, and one white. In actuality, the two wines were identical, with one exception: the “red” wine had been dyed with food coloring.
The experts described the “red” wine in language typically reserved for characterizing reds. They called it “jammy,” for example, and noted the flavors imparted by its “crushed red fruit.” Not one of the 54 experts surveyed noticed that it was, in fact a white wine.
Possibly because color affects taste. Gummi bears don’t have different flavors, they have different colors which affects how we taste them. Candy manufacturers have been exploiting this bizarre fact for ages.
You’re thinking M&Ms. Gummi bears actually do have different flavors. Granted, the colors of said gummies are confusing (green for strawberry?).
Happy to talk both
The statistical probability of me shredding up there are is zero, with a standard deviation of 6σ 
My bad
I really like how when Josh wants to really get an opinion on a thing, he puts has to blindfold the contestants.
It would have been cool in the wine experiment if they had another group do the same thing with blindfolds.
Our eyes - we taste with them, we hear with them too.
I wasn’t being facetious, I really do think that was a perfect analogy, for many reasons.
There’s almost certainly a non-zero difference in sound of the different woods. How large a difference and how perceptible it is to listeners with variable levels of experience are separate matters.
Other factors concurrently contribute to the end result. Pickup height, food coloring, etc.
Studies have shown that the same food is perceived to taste better when served in a fancy expensive restaurant. Might the same be true of paying more for exotic tonewoods?
and perhaps most importantly…
Next do tube amps
ducks
I’ve also seen things where the quality of the vessel the wine is drunk from (lead crystal glass vs a coffee mug) affects perception of taste. The same for food: a stainless steel fork vs plastic vs silver. These also a great marketing trick; change nothing, just increase the price and some people will conclude that the product is more exclusive and the quality superior. I’m not saying this is true for everything, but great marketeers know how to pull the right emotions! I went to a Roger Waters gig recently with a mate (cost me nothing, long story). We had VIP tickets. For double the price, we skipped the queue and got to sit and drink cheap zero alcohol beer (neither of us drink alcohol) and eat crisps before the show. The seats were the same seats as everyone else. Great marketing? Yes. Value for money? No…. 
The best answer is probably “it is if it’s worth it to you”. Seriously. Since you can take two identical basses in all respects and they may still sound different from one another it’s likely you’d hear a difference between these as well. But which one sounds better to you is all that matters. You’re its owner/player.
Personally I would opt for a bolt on every time. Why? If there’s ever an issue with the neck I can easily replace a bolt on neck whereas I can’t at all with a neck through. If the neck can’t be repaired the entire bass is toast. I have owned one neck through bass and I can’t honestly say it was any better than all of the bolt on neck basses I’ve owned and still own now. So you choose.
@Rob150 well your question has generated quite a lot of content for such a simple question…
I have 14 basses and only three are bolt on (and I mean bolt-on not screw-on) but I make my basses, so I choose the fixings.
Personally, I prefer the additional rigidity that neck-through provides, though my preferred design is to make a through neck and set it into a body.
If you like fretting at the end of the neck then a neck-through design usually provides better access, and a laminate neck is just more attractive.
Read the thread on GAS, then buy both.
This isn’t simply marketing. I worked for a retail grocer in networking, we had 2500 stores and 40 warehouses across the country. Say Frosted Flakes cost $5 a box. We had our in store brand, which we could sell for about $1.75 and make a normal margin. Put it on the shelf next to the FF and it wouldn’t sell, mark it up to $4.50 and it flew off the shelves. Something that is cheap is perceived as shoddy whether it is or not.
I am going to completely avoid the tonewood debate and just say I dislike neck-throughs and will always preferentially choose bolt-on or set necks simply because neck-throughs are always heavier due to the extra maple mass due to its density.
(I am also the same guy whose main bass has a maple tone layer added in its body )