Hi. I apologise in advance for the long review,
I purchased this bass almost 2 years ago, as a budget-friendly choice and an introduction to the 5-string world. It is still my only bass guitar. It arrived with a bump on its head and the dual pot knobs were stuck together and they were spinning as one, but that's not the main problem because i asked a luthier to fix it and he did. The main problems with this bass are its electronics, its pickups and ,therefore, its sound. Here are a few ways I found to make it work better, in my 2 years of playing with it:
1. The tone knob was not working, so i asked a technician to make it work. It appears it needed a few more capacitors (3 actually) and it turns out it is not even a tone knob, it's more of a mid booster.
2. The pickups are made almost exclusively for Marcus Miller-style slapping. They don't sound that good in other styles. I had to get an EQ to practically mute the 1kHz frequencies, so now it doesn't sound THAT bad, but it is still bad. I also have the lower frequencies fully compressed the whole time.
3. Even more about the pickups, their circuit was TOTALLY WRONG. Maybe it was a mistake from the factory, i don't know. The wiring of the humbuckers was parallel, when it actually needed to be in series. The technician couldn't believe his eyes! Changing the wiring made the bass sound bigger, rounder and more powerful than before, but still...you know, pretty bad.
Conclusion:
If you slap like Marcus Miller, then by all means go for it. Me, personally, I don't do that. I needed an "all-around" 5-string bass with a pretty descent sound for performances and recording, as many other basses in this price category have. This bass simply can't offer that. I was really close in selling it, but I kept it because I love its beautiful appearance and I got used to playing it. Finally, I put new pickups and now it's all good, but I'm sure you don't want to spend extra 300 euros just to fix your new bass. Maybe something else will suit you better.
Oh and good luck finding strings for this one, it might take you a while.
