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Flawed but usable occasional 5 String
Initial thoughts, after one week of ownership.
The good: looks well put together and the lacquer is impressively shiny, although it is quite soft. The machine heads are up to the job and the tuning is stable enough. Intonation out of the box was not too shabby, although it did benefit from a bit of adjustment during full set up. The individual bridge pieces are perfectly aligned. The neck profile is slim and very comfortable in use.
Sounds: quite a limited range of tones, particularly lacking in brights. This can be tweaked through the amp though, to give a reasonable snap to the tone. Replacing the strings may help with this, but the supplied strings sound bright enough acoustically. The bass tones are deep and rounded.
The bad: Quite a long list I am afraid. Firstly the supplied battery lasted precisely 24 hours with the bass unplugged,essential with non switchable active circuits, as insertion of the jack plug switches them on. Only it later became apparent that the circuit was constantly live and no battery lasted more than two days. I ordered and installed a micro toggle switch from eBay to disconnect the active circuit so that I don't have to take the battery out all of the time. The ends of the fret wires are poorly finished all the way down the neck, with your hand slightly catching on every single one - this will wear off and is not noticeable when playing. The truss rod cover was not properly secured, with two of the screws not turned home, and one of the screw holes bodged with two attempts to fasten it. The neck itself was set with insufficient back bow, but the truss rod did its job and I have been able to correct that. The action out of the box was horrific, all the bridge saddles set at the same height even though the fretboard is curved, so work was needed to correct that. Lastly, for now, the neck has 24 frets, but the lower body cutaway only allows full access to 20, or 22 if you move your hand right around the neck. This is not such a big deal as this is the 'dusty end' of the bass, but an oversight that could be easily corrected. The slight overhang of the fretboard beyond the end of the neck at the body joint is just weird; I have no idea why this isn't cut off after the 24th fret.
Conclusion: Despite the little annoyances with quality and design this is a reasonable instrument at this price point. After a few hours work it is quite playable and will fulfil the role I have planned for it of occasional recording use - for performance I will stick with my more expensive 4 string basses. It is, despite the niggles, usable and fair value. I am not sure that it would suit a beginner as so much set up (and in my case some rewiring) is required, but you could always learn on the job.
The good: looks well put together and the lacquer is impressively shiny, although it is quite soft. The machine heads are up to the job and the tuning is stable enough. Intonation out of the box was not too shabby, although it did benefit from a bit of adjustment during full set up. The individual bridge pieces are perfectly aligned. The neck profile is slim and very comfortable in use.
Sounds: quite a limited range of tones, particularly lacking in brights. This can be tweaked through the amp though, to give a reasonable snap to the tone. Replacing the strings may help with this, but the supplied strings sound bright enough acoustically. The bass tones are deep and rounded.
The bad: Quite a long list I am afraid. Firstly the supplied battery lasted precisely 24 hours with the bass unplugged,essential with non switchable active circuits, as insertion of the jack plug switches them on. Only it later became apparent that the circuit was constantly live and no battery lasted more than two days. I ordered and installed a micro toggle switch from eBay to disconnect the active circuit so that I don't have to take the battery out all of the time. The ends of the fret wires are poorly finished all the way down the neck, with your hand slightly catching on every single one - this will wear off and is not noticeable when playing. The truss rod cover was not properly secured, with two of the screws not turned home, and one of the screw holes bodged with two attempts to fasten it. The neck itself was set with insufficient back bow, but the truss rod did its job and I have been able to correct that. The action out of the box was horrific, all the bridge saddles set at the same height even though the fretboard is curved, so work was needed to correct that. Lastly, for now, the neck has 24 frets, but the lower body cutaway only allows full access to 20, or 22 if you move your hand right around the neck. This is not such a big deal as this is the 'dusty end' of the bass, but an oversight that could be easily corrected. The slight overhang of the fretboard beyond the end of the neck at the body joint is just weird; I have no idea why this isn't cut off after the 24th fret.
Conclusion: Despite the little annoyances with quality and design this is a reasonable instrument at this price point. After a few hours work it is quite playable and will fulfil the role I have planned for it of occasional recording use - for performance I will stick with my more expensive 4 string basses. It is, despite the niggles, usable and fair value. I am not sure that it would suit a beginner as so much set up (and in my case some rewiring) is required, but you could always learn on the job.
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This bass might represent good value for money if you are confident setting up and maintaining your instrument. At this price, no one should expect perfection, and there are many issues. I will try to list them as objectively as possible so you can weigh up your options.
The pickup screws were poorly seated, slanted at dramatically incorrect angles and in some cases protruding several mm, in one case by about 6mm. This is a fairly easy fix, although reflects very poorly on whoever assembled or oversaw it.
The ball ends weren't properly seated in the bridge, leaving tuning stability compromised and potentially damaging the bridge.
I would suggest it needs a heavier set of strings, or more accurately, a heavier low B, due to very flappy tension, but that will depend on one's own preference.
The preamp is, as expected, poor quality and doesn't have much of an impact on output or tonal variety, it's generally not even worth the price of the battery.
The frets are functional and all sufficiently seated. The fret ends feel a little rough, but thankfully no overly protuberant ends, overly sharp edges or sprout as of yet. They have received minimal to no levelling, dressing, crowning, polishing or the like, but that's probably to be expected. Some tweaking with fret rubbers will allow one to vastly improve the feel of these frets if properly applied.
The pickups themselves are fairly weak and anaemic, although that is not surprising for cheap stock pickups. They can at least produce some passable tones. It's unfortunate they made them Bartolini P4 sized, making a pickup upgrade much more expensive and effectively prohibitive relative to the cost of bass itself. A more common sized route such as the EMG 40 would have made more sense to me, which would open up both access to much cheaper replacement pickup options in general and also a much healthier second hand market.
The fretboard feels dry, rough and grainy, if you are used to something like rosewood or ebony. Black walnut has something of a reputation for not holding onto frets very well long term, but so far I haven't had any issues with this.
The inlays are a mixed bag. They have surprisingly little filler, having seemingly been cut and seated accurately, although they are made of what appears to be very cheap, tacky faux pearl plastic, no big surprise. Their position/rotation relative to each other and the frets is all over the place, off centre and at disjointed angles. It appears nothing short of comedic up close, but not particularly noticeable at distance. Honestly, I'd prefer no inlays to this.
The electronics appear to be soldered passably, although the pots are cheap, poorly seated and have a lot of give and wobble in their rotation. These will likely need an overhaul before long due to solder joints potentially breaking due to all the movement or likely pot failure.
The acoustic properties of the bass itself are a pleasant surprise. It sounds significantly better acoustically than I had expected, so no real complaints there, and this is undoubtedly one of the most important things.
The neck is straight, so far at least. I had to make initial truss rod tweaks to correct neck relief, although this is the case with pretty much every bass and guitar I've ever bought, so nothing unusual.
The bridge is functional, although I'd be very careful not to strip out the heigh adjustment screws on the saddles, as I have doubts as to the hardness/quality of the metal used; the same goes for the saddles themselves. The tuners seem adequate and are firmly seated, with no excess wobble or movement.
All in all this may seem hyper critical, but I think it's important to understand these guitars are not sold at such prices due to anything miraculous. They can likely be priced this way because the QC they go through is close to non-existent and they are rapidly mass produced without much scope for care or detail, at least if the one I received is anything to go by. There are a plethora of potential issues you may have to deal with. If you are confident, or at least willing to try, to learn how to maintain your instrument yourself, this may represent a good deal, since the same or worse can be said for basses which cost significantly more than this.
Despite all the issues, I'd say the price I paid for this is fair. If properly maintained and corrected, this bass does it's job, being quite sufficient for bedroom noodling, recording rough bass parts and the like.
The pickup screws were poorly seated, slanted at dramatically incorrect angles and in some cases protruding several mm, in one case by about 6mm. This is a fairly easy fix, although reflects very poorly on whoever assembled or oversaw it.
The ball ends weren't properly seated in the bridge, leaving tuning stability compromised and potentially damaging the bridge.
I would suggest it needs a heavier set of strings, or more accurately, a heavier low B, due to very flappy tension, but that will depend on one's own preference.
The preamp is, as expected, poor quality and doesn't have much of an impact on output or tonal variety, it's generally not even worth the price of the battery.
The frets are functional and all sufficiently seated. The fret ends feel a little rough, but thankfully no overly protuberant ends, overly sharp edges or sprout as of yet. They have received minimal to no levelling, dressing, crowning, polishing or the like, but that's probably to be expected. Some tweaking with fret rubbers will allow one to vastly improve the feel of these frets if properly applied.
The pickups themselves are fairly weak and anaemic, although that is not surprising for cheap stock pickups. They can at least produce some passable tones. It's unfortunate they made them Bartolini P4 sized, making a pickup upgrade much more expensive and effectively prohibitive relative to the cost of bass itself. A more common sized route such as the EMG 40 would have made more sense to me, which would open up both access to much cheaper replacement pickup options in general and also a much healthier second hand market.
The fretboard feels dry, rough and grainy, if you are used to something like rosewood or ebony. Black walnut has something of a reputation for not holding onto frets very well long term, but so far I haven't had any issues with this.
The inlays are a mixed bag. They have surprisingly little filler, having seemingly been cut and seated accurately, although they are made of what appears to be very cheap, tacky faux pearl plastic, no big surprise. Their position/rotation relative to each other and the frets is all over the place, off centre and at disjointed angles. It appears nothing short of comedic up close, but not particularly noticeable at distance. Honestly, I'd prefer no inlays to this.
The electronics appear to be soldered passably, although the pots are cheap, poorly seated and have a lot of give and wobble in their rotation. These will likely need an overhaul before long due to solder joints potentially breaking due to all the movement or likely pot failure.
The acoustic properties of the bass itself are a pleasant surprise. It sounds significantly better acoustically than I had expected, so no real complaints there, and this is undoubtedly one of the most important things.
The neck is straight, so far at least. I had to make initial truss rod tweaks to correct neck relief, although this is the case with pretty much every bass and guitar I've ever bought, so nothing unusual.
The bridge is functional, although I'd be very careful not to strip out the heigh adjustment screws on the saddles, as I have doubts as to the hardness/quality of the metal used; the same goes for the saddles themselves. The tuners seem adequate and are firmly seated, with no excess wobble or movement.
All in all this may seem hyper critical, but I think it's important to understand these guitars are not sold at such prices due to anything miraculous. They can likely be priced this way because the QC they go through is close to non-existent and they are rapidly mass produced without much scope for care or detail, at least if the one I received is anything to go by. There are a plethora of potential issues you may have to deal with. If you are confident, or at least willing to try, to learn how to maintain your instrument yourself, this may represent a good deal, since the same or worse can be said for basses which cost significantly more than this.
Despite all the issues, I'd say the price I paid for this is fair. If properly maintained and corrected, this bass does it's job, being quite sufficient for bedroom noodling, recording rough bass parts and the like.
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