Buy a worn RD Standard, stick your Thunderlulls in and have it refinned in one of your garish colors and you'll be all set. To an avid TBird player, the active sound of the RD Artist is indeed hard to swallow, play too hard and the thing distorts with just that 9 volt circuit, play too soft and you have that curious dead compression (and I'm not talking about the switch-on on-board compression). The bass just doesn't react like a passive TBird. The Standards are much better in that way. Perhaps the Artists are good studio basses (hence John's very good results with his), but in a live/rehearsal room situation I find them lacking.
But the RDs are beautiful basses alright. Worthy of a - passive - reissue.