I already had a five string so I was looking for a light 4 string to haul around to practices, and a bass "kit" so I could learn everything about assembling (or taking apart) a bass.

The B4 Bolt On Kit is a "Bass Kit" whereby one must assemble the entire guitar. The neck and body are separate, as well as all the hardware like tuning keys, pickups, control knobs are shipped in little plastic bags.

I ordered the basic kit at $330, then added options as follows:

- Swamp Ash body (recommended, as its very light and very toneful) as a $40 option

- String thru body (lots of sustain, but perhaps too much?, you can always change the stringing over to anchored at bridge) $20.

- Gold hardware $40 (very cool, feels and looks nice)

- Humbucker pickup $30(tone option, useful)

The directions said to sand the neck and body. Mine really didn't need it. It was ready to go. I gave the body and neck a tung oil finish. This was fairly labor intensive. I used Minwax. By following the directions, you get a reasonable finish. As a final step, scrub the finish HARD with the recommended steel wool to remove various imperfections like slight runs, dimples, etc.

Then I started assembling. The main pieces, like the pickups, tuning keys, etc. were fairly straight forward to affix to the guitar.

The active electronics unit with Humbucker soldering turned into a minor science project for me as I had only a little previous experience soldering. If your not so inclined, go for the passive bass. Or find an electronics oriented friend to help you with that step.

When I first plugged the bass in, I didn't get any sound. Turns out some of the foil in the cavity was rubbing up against the jack plug. Like Carvin tells you, cut away excess foil with a knife.

Then, I went back to my amp, and on my first tentative strum of the low E, low and behold, a major bass sound kind of blew my mind. The active electronics and pickups are pretty good, so you've got a "hot ticket" on your hands.

I backed off "gain adjustment" on the active elecronics (you can adjust your gain up +6db) down to about notch 1 out of 10 to keep the bass from being way too punchy. I also had to lower the pickups off from the recommend 5/32 of an inch away from the strings to remove some of the punchiness.

There's something about the combination of the swamp ash body, the tung oil stain, and the light lemon polish I used after, and perhaps the overall lightness of this bass, that gives it a sound/feel like a white sponge cake with white icing and white coconut on top. This is a very sweet, kick butt, light rig with both punchiness and crystalline top end.

The action on the neck is very good. The fretwork and ebony keyboard are so slick you almost think your playing a fretless.

My only concern was the string height at the nut was so high it was ridiculous. I took it into my local guitar store to have my friend/tech lower the grooves on the graphite nut to make the guitar playable. Then I set up the action to my liking.

My only major criticism of this guitar is the neck is kind of light and twangy like a Made in Mexico Fender. Perhaps they should have gone with a two or three piece neck to give it a more solid feel. The neck is apparently graphite re-inforced. Maybe one day I will replace the neck with something more solid, but probably will never get to it until the frets wear out.

Another minor beef is when the pan is in the center position, the volume is quite low. It doesnt bother me that much because I usually pan totally to the top or bottom pickup separately.

The neck pickup is really great. Its very phat sounding. The humbucker is very rock, and a little rougher. The active module is pretty good, giving Bass, Mid and Treble control.

All in all, it was a good experience. I have a very interesting guitar with many tonal possibilities. This guitar is the dessert after my 5 string Warwick main course.

I also feel I could take apart and put this guitar back together at a moment's notice. Which is cool.

I will warn that ordering the active module with humbucker and coil split toggle switch is a soldering project not for the faint at heart. I got thru it, but just by a hair.

Construction	80%
(neck should be 2 or 3 piece for solid feel)
Playability	80%
(ebony board and frets are good)
Appearance	90%
(you finish it)
Sound	80%
(pretty good sound, pan control could be better)
Value	80%
(my guitar cost me $530, which is not cheap)
Cust. Service	80%
(sent me wrong strings, told to send them back)
Overall	90%
(hey, its a kit, so rate yourself on your result!!)