I wish I had a more exciting story for you, but this is what I can tell you:
I'm not sure when the bass was signed. Dave was still in the band at the time, so it was sometime during his tenure.
NOS part were not necessarily used. The neck is probably current, as well as the pickup and electronics. The body, being an older style, used a bridge that worked with the old routing. The serial numbers are not done in any specific order, so there is no special reason why you have that one. We don't have a bunch of old bridges lying around, and have no plans to produce NOS instruments.
I hope that helps.
Greg