The bass felt quite solid with a good degree of heft when pulled from the box. The body is very well contoured allowing comfortable playing from both sitting and standing position (with a strap). The balance is superb in both positions. In fact, it may be the best balanced guitar or bass I've played.

The 5-piece wenge/maple laminated neck is topped with a rosewood fretboard that sports 24 frets. Starting at the top end, the Tobias logo is a well done 5-piece "T" inlay. Looking at the back of the headstock reveals a silver silkscreen "Made in Korea" under the serial number. The tuners appear to be Gotohs and are fully enclosed. The contrasting wenge and maple woods on the back of the neck look very classy. The heel, or what little there is, melts unobstrusively into the body. Going back to the front side, the fingerboard wood is dark and even with no apparent grain. Most of the frets are well crowned and the ones that aren't have a flat surface left over from the fret leveling. The fret edges are smooth and evenly filed. This is the softest fret wire I've seen or played. The very first light vibrato left string winding marks on the 11th fret. Pearl(?) dots on the front and side stand out well against the dark wood of the fretboard.

The body features maple wings on each side of the thru-the-body neck. The flame pattern is even and quite noticable - on the back of the instrument. The front has a subtle flame in places. This is clearly a disapointment to see most of the figured wood on the back of the bass. The hardware is all black. The bridge is a simple, yet very adjustable design for intonation and string height. String-to-string spacing is not adjustable but the spacing is very even from the nut to the bridge and requires no adjustment.

As noted before, the bass is finished in gloss transparent red. The finish is adequate in places and good in others. Portions of the top exhibit mild orange peel finish artifacts that can be seen by reflected light. The finish on the neck is smooth and even. The finish on the front of the peghead appears to have been stabbed lightly with a ball point pen sized implement between the D and E string tuning posts. The finish is not broken, but the shallow divets are visible in the light. There is polishing compound residue on the pickup side of the neck to body join. This hardened powder is clearly visible against the dark woods of the neck and body.

The action was very low, though strings were detuned by 2 to 2.5 semitones on each string. Bringing them up to pitch revealed an across the neck buzzing on every string at nearly every fret. The neck developed a very slight relief as the neck took the tension of concert pitch. The fret buzz was diminished but the bass still required saddle and truss rod adjustments. The nut is cut a about as low as possible, just avoiding open string fret buzz. The strings are very close together for a full scale bass.

Playing the bass unamplified results in an even and very present tone across the neck with no apparent dead spots. The high E string has a throaty growl reminiscent of a fretless when playing single string runs. The low E and A strings sound solid and meaty. The B string is more felt than heard. The amplified sound is, well, less of everthing than I expected. The tone is very flat, even with the bass and treble controls in various positions. The pickup panning control allows all front pickup, all back pickup and any combination in between. The soapbar shaped pickups give distinct sounds, with one being deep and full while the other is midrangey. Though named and shaped as soapbar pickups, a piece of magnetized steel proved them to be precision-type split coils underneath. The overall output is very very low, even at full volume with both pickups active and both boost controls at max. My 4 string bass with passive run-of-the-mill pickups is much louder. This Toby will not cut through any mix and doesn't come close to activiting the limiter on the amp. In this condition, pop and slap sounds are dull and lifeless. Overall, the amplified sound reminds me more of a "pad" sound from a synth - it kind of fills the background in a polite and unobtrusive way. Trouble is, I need a lot more tone and output. I also expect a lot more tone and output from a bass with active electronics.

I think that I got a great deal on this instrument even with the finish and amplified sound issues. I can live with the divets and orange peel and have removed the excess polishing compound. I can't live with the lackluster amplified sound. I plan to outfit this bass with a set of Bartloni pickups to capture the great unamplified sounds and insert them into the signal path. For $449, I received more than my money's worth in construction, feel, and balance. With a little additional investment, I hope to capture everything else the bass should be capable of - great sounds to the amp or mixing board.

Construction	95%
Appearance	75%
Playability	90%
Sound	50%
Value	90%
Overall	90%