First of all, this bass has great wood, design, and components. The fretwork, was "terrible" however to quote one prominent guitar tech. It needed nearly $600 to make it play in tune. Now, however, it is utterly awesome. The bass is crystal clear in tone. I love the neck. It is a damn club. Very percussive, rock solid. It will NEVER break, let alone twist or bend. Conklin necks are incredible. The mass of the upper body horn that connects to the neck at the 15th fret or so also adds incredible depth AND clarity to the notes, up and down the neck. I love purpleheart too! It has a bell like ringing sound. The action is very low, but I still like a 35" scale B string, even though this is the best sounding one I have heard on a 34" scale bass. Plus, weird chordal fingerings are easier on a 35" scale simply because there are more room to fit your fingers! ( see MTD 635 review...) The EQ system is really, really great. There are SO many tones in this bass. It can be made into a tapping monster with a little bass, mid, and treble boost, and the 5.7 k switch kicked in. I can play piano-like arrangements of standards with ease on this bass. The 3.7 kHz switch is a little more audible, while the 4.7 k boost is like a nasal honk. (Listen to Bill Dickens' fast, fast slapping passages.) Seven strings, by the way, are MUCH better than six, if you're interested in chording. I have played six string bass almost from when I started, but NOW I see the light. This makes so much more sense. There is no limit to the chordal possibilities of the 7-string bass. The higher pitch and timbre of the high F string allows infinite color tone possibilities not otherwise accessible on even a six-string bass. You can visualize the high F string as just an octave position from the familiar G string territory. Endless fun, and woodshedding. (listen to what Victor Wooten does with 4 strings...) Did I mention it has a great slap sound?

The nut string spacing was horribly off, and didn't utilize the full width of the neck at the nut! It was terrible. Yikes. I shudder at the thought of what it was like. I had a zero fret installed, and correct, even spacing utilizing the full width of the neck at the zero fret. Which brings me to... The bridge string spacing is 16mm, a little tight for slapping (double thumbing etc). I ordered an ABM bridge from Conklin with 17mm spacing that fits perfectly with the neck of this bass. Alas, it hasn't been installed yet--I'll post an update. Supposedly it will make the tone even FATTER. This bass is just begging for wider string spacing. Stock, there is like 1/4" on either side of the outer strings at the 24th fret! The neck has all this extra room on either side of the outer strings, just begging to be utilized. So, now this production bass has become a custom project (mostly to get it to play in tune with no buzzes, and to widen the string spacing). There were terrible buzzes at the 11th fret that were only remedied with a fret mill job ($175) Ugh. I had to put a lot of money into this bass but now it is REALLY worth it!

If you get too animated playing it (especially sitting down) you may "conk" your chin on the enormous upper strap horn...quite painful. Sonically, though, it is worth the occasional harsh mellow. For the price, this bass is awesome. You may need some fretwork, though. Maybe I was just unlucky.

The output jack is noisy! If you turn the cord it will static. Damn production bass... This thing is to hold me over until I get my MTD 7 string... For what I've put into it, it's still cheaper than a custom Conklin, and I love it more every day. Most importantly, it sounds GREAT and is the best damn production 7-string out there (top of the line Groove Tools)

Construction	85%
(Built like a tank. Noisy output jack, terrible fretwork.)
Playability	95%
(NOW it plays great...didn't used to..Watch that upper strap horn!)
Appearance	94%
(Very nice! natural finish. BTW Conklin 6 strings look horrible in my opinion
(body too wide))
Sound	99%
(Great, and versatile)
Value	95%
(Needed work to make it awesome..but still...)
Cust. Service	110%
(Returns e-mails within hours.)
Overall	96%
(Awesome bass for the price--fix it up the way you like it for cheaper than a
custom "conk"-lin)