Converting to a piccolo bass

After seeing a few youtube videos of Zander Zon (http://www.youtube.com/user/Zander4724?blend=2&ob=video-mustangbase#p/a), Brian Bromberg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-_DZFfukvg), and to a lesser extent...MUCH lesser extent Michael Manring. I have been kicking around the idea of swapping the strings on one of my Spector basses with D'Addario EXL280 XL's, thus converting it to a piccolo bass.

http://i.imgur.com/OPHvT.jpg

My first question is, has anyone else on tdpri done this?

Also, would it then be safe to play this bass though my Fender hot rod deluxe?

Yes! I did this years ago with my aluminum neck Kramer bass. It was a blast to play.
I played it through my bass amp and not a guitar amp, but since it is up an octave I would think it should be ok to do so. I had a buddy of mine who worked at Ernie Ball special order me the strings - but now I see you can actually buy a set right off the rack - Very Cool!

I use a D'addario thinner gauge set on my jazz bass and play it through a guitar amp all the time. Won't hurt the amp unless you get crazy with the volume. Stanley Clark uses a Fender guitar amp in his rig, alot of bass player use guitar amps for different sounds. Just be careful with the volume, not an expert by any means, but guitars produce low frequencies as well...