Advice on bass-related purchase

Not many bass-related posts on this forum, but wanted to see if you guys had any thoughts or advice.

I want to get a gift for my best friend who is learning to play the bass and is really getting into it.

He lots of DAW experience and is heavily into plugins for recording and jamming on bass and guitar (mainly the Neural stuff).

Initially I wanted to stay away from the digital stuff if possible. My bias coming from guitar is that analog devices feel and sounds great and I wanted him to experience the difference. However that may not translate to the bass world and admittedly I have no clue.

Was curious if people on this forum had any ideas. Is there any must-have product or pedal? Maybe some pedal/gear you would have liked to have when you were learning to play the bass?

What would you guys get? Budget is $400 max.

I was thinking of getting him this guy: Analog Alien Bass Station

Thank you!
 
I personally feel bass is a lot more DI/direct-recording-friendly than guitar IMO; if he's already using Neural stuff he can just plug a bass into his interface, load up the Darkglass plugin and get some banging tone with minimal tweaking

If he's wanting to play live then it's a bit of a different story; Tech 21 DUG pedal is a great option for this
 
Tech 21 Sansamp bass Di, I will say that I recently recorded a couple bass parts for a friend and the engineer had a Sansamp Bass DI plugin, It was inexpensive and sounded good.
 
Damn guys, I knew it would pay off to ask here!

I went with the Tech 21 Sansamp BDDI! Cheaper than what I had in mind, has great reviews, and I think it will really complement my buddy's setup and expand his ear a bit.

@DanTravis62, only reason I didn't go with the Darkglass is that it seems to be more focused on grittier sounds and my buddy seems to be really into clean tones. Would make a great second gift.

Thanks all for the suggestions!
 
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