We report on new techniques for the investigation of the radial and the axial homogeneity of top seeded melt-textured RE–Ba–Cu–O (REBCO) monoliths. Whereas the traditional Hall probe scanning technique of trapped fields at the surface of the superconductor provides only global information on the patterns of supercurrent flow, a modified scanning technique employing sequentially increasing activation fields leads to more detailed information on the flux penetration process and, therefore, on possible radial inhomogeneities of the defect structure for flux pinning. Particularly valuable information on this subject can be deduced from a new technique, the magnetoscan, that allows the flow of the local supercurrent in large bulk monoliths on the scale of less than 1mm to be investigated. Combination of the magnetoscan with optical or electron beam imaging of the sample surface results in full characterization of the bulk microstructure, developed during the growth process, and its effective flux pinning capability. We show that these techniques can also be used to investigate axial inhomogeneities, i.e. those developing along the c-axis (growth direction), by removing layers of the monolith step by step and by observing the microstructure and the local supercurrent flow in sequential layers. It turns out that the c-growth sector is always characterized by a lower current carrying capability and that characteristic features of the growth morphology appear at the a-growth sector boundaries. Finally, initial results on the current flow in multi-seeded bulks will be presented.