No news from Ned so far.
Mine has the (neck-heavy) condom gig bag too.
Re strings: Yes, that bass wasn't made with flatwounds in mind, but who says flatwounds don't sound with an active bass? Actually it's quite a good combo, because you get presence snap and bass ooomph, but the sound is not as hysterically "there" as with rounds. I currently have Elixier micro-coated rounds on mine which aren't the world's most aggressive strings, but even they still have plenty zing. Look for strings that have an emphasis on mids perhaps as that part of the frequency spectrum is underfed with the 20/20.
