Secrets for Big-Sounding Electric Bass?

No one mentioned chorus?! In addition to eq and compressor, I always add a little chorus with a low cut around 200Hz. The key here is "little", slow rate and not too deep. Then you will have a bigger sound without noticeable chorus effect.

Yeah, it's really noticeable on classic Patsy Cline hits. Tic-Tac bass was interesting and used quite a bit outside Nashville in the old days. Acker Bilk and some other European pop instrumental acts used it to good effect in their hits. Normally it was double-bass and baritone electric guitar. I was considering doing my version with treated Ashbory bass and Danelectro shortscale bass, the latter using uniquely light-gauge strings made specifically for it, the LaBella 760FD set, which pretty closely duplicates baritone guitar. BUT...I digress. ;) This really isn't what I'm talking about here, but rather the meaty bass in well-produced pop of today that comes through even on 1" laptop speakers -- how do they create THAT illusion?!? Splitting the tracks all makes sense, but I think what I'm mystified by is the ability to convey the presence of a fundamental note that is in fact below the capability of reproduction by the listener's playback equipment. I can see EQing lower into 18" subwoofers, there's no trick there, but how do they make thick bass magically appear on crappy car radios and earbuds? :confused:

Did not read the thread, but there is a plug already in reaper called Bass something, which is a kind of a bass compressor with drive and boost option. Try it it is a very strong tool.

Yep,don't overthink it. Rbass, hugebooty and Thrillseeker XTC (low band only) all do exactly this.

This , for starters :

nobody mentioned the wonderful wonderful EDIT: bassprofessor JS plugin???

This one has a GUI and is totally self-explanatory. Just try it (have to look it up on the forum here, since it's not part of the included JS suite)...

Yup, that thing! It's nothing less than great IMO.

Well, I wasted a great deal of time online chasing around sites that gave me nothing useful. I know how to record bass. Few things could be simpler. Most people overcomplicate this. I don't know how to mix bass for a professionally-produced sound treatment. Few things seem to be more mysterious. Perhaps what I need to do is find recorded examples of the various sorts of bass tracks I wish to produce. This is not easy in that so much of what's available for linking in posts is on Youtube which is just death on music (never mind that I'm usually doinking around with laptop speakers). In the meantime, I would appreciate any instructive examples of finished music with what in your informed views are excellent bass instrumental tracks, along with thoughts on how they were achieved in the mix. Without such examples most of this is meaningless anyway, as most articles I've read seem to be describing the very sorts of tracks I wish to avoid. Actually hearing examples would speed this process up considerably. More clarity, more education. ;)