Well, I tried some Ernie Ball Cobalt Slinkies on my Stiletto Extreme 4.
Pity that I now like $35 strings 
(for the 4-string set lol… and I am looking to rid myself of 4-string basses). 5-string are $40 lol… ow.
I also just found Newtone Strings who will make you strings made however you like 
You pick nickel-plated steel, stainless steel, or phosphor-bronze. Round core or hex core. Pick your gauges, and they make them. For 28 Queen’s Dollars British Pounds.
Yeah. As much as I love EXL’s, I’m getting addicted to NYXL’s.
And of course, in 5-string Cobalts they only sell:
.045
.065
.080
.100
.130 (shocker… because usally they do .125 with those gauges above)
Aaaand I like:
.045
.065
.085
.105
.130
Why is life like this? 
I am now very salty lol
Go to Stringjoy, build your own set, $28, same quality as NYXLs. I really like them.
You can literally choose your gauges. I put together a 6 string set so I could tune E-E, like a Bass 6 without having to get a Bass 6 and see if I like it.
I’m aware of Stringjoy and have a set on my SRC6 (and I like them; it’s almost exclusively played with a pick, though). I have a folder of screenshots of various sets I’ve built on the tension calculator for all kinds of instruments and tunings XD I didn’t like their description on the bass strings, mostly regarding the top end:
“They have a full, resonant low end and a medium top end—not too bright, not too mellow — giving these strings a balanced sonic profile with optimum output.”
Cobalts are a bit mid-scooped so-to-speak, with a bright top and big low, though I suppose I can just EQ things and be happy enough.
I still might give the Stringjoys a shot anyway. Mids aren’t mentioned at all.
Edit In the end, though, it isn’t a huge thing because I only have one bass I can use the 5-string Cobalts on anyway XD The Stiletto isn’t a string-thru body so they should barely fit. The C-5 can do either through the body or bridge (in which case they would fit) but I prefer through body. Though I have no idea how it changes anything with certainty, either.
Related:
"There’s a slight difference, but I think the bigger argument is that if you have a well-built instrument with a solid neck pocket (for good contact), it will have a greater effect. " GHS
FWIW I preferred string thru on 4 of 5 of the tests. Also the Lakland has a pretty hefty bridge to start, I wonder how this same test would go on my B204. I have changed out the angle iron bridge on a few of my Fenders with a Kickass bridge, and it has a definite change in tone. Not better, different.
I kinda of think this is moot. Would the difference be noticed in a mix? Doubtful. Does it make you more confident as a player? That’s where the benefit would be IMHO.
I look at this kind of like neck-through. Does neck-through provide different tone? Maybe. Is it worth the added weight? Not to me.
With this one, instead of weight it would be expense. Do I like through-body? Yes. Would I pay more for it? No.
I ended up liking the string-thru on 4/5 of them, too. On slap I apparently preferred the top load, but neither was super-different and I would really take either one. The main difference was on the lower notes to me.
I was mainly looking for something I had read about sustain to see if people were talking out their ass or not about that, too XD But I came across that instead.
Slap was the one I preferred top load.
I love sustain too, but It’s kind of academic to me. I don’t think I have owned a bass where I said “wow, I don’t have enough sustain” to play what I want to
Most of the music I play is 160bpm eighth notes, so sustain isn’t really an issue for me 
Actually that’s making me wonder. What kind of incredibly downtempo music would it be where sustain on any modern bass was an issue at all?
After thinking about it a little bit this might be the least important of all of the commonly winesnobbed factors you hear people discussing online.
I could see it being more of an issue on a guitar than a bass, but it really seems edge casey.
Sustain - yet another point to “differentiate” for the marketeers.
People talk themselves into features they never will need or use all the time.
“String-thru construction allows more contact between the string and the body tonewood of your instrument, allowing the string to resonate fully with the wood, while the high-mass bridge with brass saddles allows for optimum sustain, letting you achieve your signature tone.”
Because Marketing knows the near-obsession with guitarists and the ever-elusive “signature tone”
Pharaoh Sanders, now in his 80s, is still searching for the “perfect mouthpiece” to perfect his tone.
The minute you question your “tone” is the minute it isn’t good to you any longer.
I’m kind of glad I don’t have that burden. Sure, I have things I like to try out and see if they sound “good” as much as the next person (or, god-forbid, “better than what I have”), but I am not chasing something as ephemeral as a “signature tone” at all. I have a few types of sounds that I like and know how to make them on just about anything.
A friend and I used to play a game. He’d play a song and I had to guess the band. I was really good at it, even on songs I had never heard from the band, and I’d usually get it before the singer started. Sometimes it was indeed the overall sound of the guitars, but was usually how the guitars themselves were played (a lot of times bands change sound across albums).
For sure, some guitars have special sustain(iac) pickups. I do like a bit of sustain and iirc it’s more about how the neck is attached to the body. I get decent sustain with a 5 screws neck bolt-on.
Neck-trough would even be better. But yeah I reckon that for bass it’s not that important.
The Cobalts barely fit on my 35" 5-strings, as long as I don’t use the string-thru body on the C-5 GT. Tightening to pitch just barely pulls the taper through the nut. One thing I didn’t notice on the 4-string set that I think is related to tension, I kept “catching” strings at first, especially my middle finger, which lessened after a time playing them.
The jury is still out, however. It sounds quieter for some reason. I think I finally need to give the truss rod a little love. It was already really low action, and now it has 10lbs less tension on the neck at least.
In unrelated news, sprouting frets are cracking the fretboard binding So yay…
Meh that sucks. 
I’ve had it a month. I’ve had fret ends bulge binding out. But this is cracking around where the ends have emerged. it’ll probably look better once I can arrange to get them dressed or something…
More shit I can’t take care of because the supply chain shortage means my car has sat at the repair shop for over two months…