Play them all, and take your time. One should jump out at you and say "pick me!"
True that! And that's how I usually go about choosing the basses I own (but I don't mind opening up my pocket book and going deep if I find a bass I really like).
For me, this is just as much a way to have some fun as it is anything, and I doubt that it will lead to anything in front of a paying audience, though I can't rule it out. So, this is just like dipping my big toe in the water. I'm not a beginner, and I'd lose my mind on an instrument that played like crap, wouldn't stay in tune, and had lousy sounding pickups. But knowing the quality of guitars that are available these days, I understand that I don't need to spend crazy $$$ on anything at the moment.
I'm a rock/metal guy at heart...all kinds, but not a big fan of cookie-monster vocals or djent or the like. I enjoy all of the "classic" guitar tones as well as a fair share of the more modern metal stuff that is Drop tuned , such as TOOL, SOD, Disturbed, et al. This is why I'm looking for a guitar that has flexibility in its pickup configuration (humbuckers with coil splitting or a H-S-S configuration), so I can be somewhat appropriate to the style that I'm messing with, from Skynyrd to Slayer. LOL.
Being a bassist, I'd also prefer a neck that is on the beefy side, and if not thick, then wide rather than the really narrow, thin necks that seem to be desirable for speed playing. I'm no metal shredder, and I'm going to concentrate on just basic rhythm playing and some lead noodling of simple stuff.
One other thing worth mentioning is that I do a lot of acoustic duo work, supporting as a bassist. Sometimes I get the feeling that it would add more value if I had the ability to double on guitar, even if only adding rudimentary rhythm pars and lead lines. To that end, the AxeFx will be a key tool to allow me to switch things up. This aspect alone makes the low-end Parker guitars with the piezo pickup a little more desirable since I could also jangle away with the other acoustic player in the duo.
So, there it is. Thanks again everyone for the suggestions.