I have owned this bass for a couple of years now, and it is a good, solid, bass. As the similar review for the 4 string Maniac mentions, it is very light, only about 7 pounds, which is great for my ailing back and easy on the shoulder. The construction and finish are very good. The neck is a bolt-on, with no obvious gaps. The body is a nice piece of swamp ash, shaped like a modernized P bass, with an extended upper horn and a stub lower horn. The bass fits against your body well and is quite comfortable. A telling sign: When played without an amp, the tone rings through the bass, with good sustain and tone. The bass is slightly neck heavy, but you don't notice it unless you take your hands completely off the bass. This bass feels a bit like a lightweight Carvin LB75, yet it still retains all of the tone.

The neck is fairly slim, without feeling wimpy. There is just enough thickness to the neck to be comfortable. The string spacing would be considered narrow, as the strings are closer than a P Bass, but I have not found that to be a problem. In fact, I prefer it, as I have small hands. I have the neck set up with less than an 1/8" string height at the 24th fret without any fret buzzing problems. I have not found any dead spots in the neck. Access to all the frets is excellent, right up to the top, and the heel is smooth and well blended. The tuners look like Gotahs, and work well. The nut is brass, about 1 7/8" wide. With the right strings, the low B holds up well. If you let the B string get too old, it does get a bit flabby. I tend to change my strings about every 3 months.

The pickups work well. When combined with the brass nut and the swamp ash body, they produce a full, bright sound. When strung with .130, .105, .85, .65, .45 GHS Nickel Roundwounds, this bass gives a great, modern piano like sound. When strung with similar gauge La Bella flatwounds, it does the early '70's thump pretty well. I tried several other brands of strings, but many of them were too bright for my style of playing. I tend to use the bass with the bass control adding just a hint to the bottom end and the tone controls on my amp flat.

The internal preamp is very quite, and the amp cavity is well shielded. I do not get any hiss or hum over the entire range of the tone controls in either my Carvin R1000 or when connected directly to the console and listened to with headphones. The tone controls have a good range, approximately +/-15 db. The frequencies are well centered and effective. The internal dip switches can be used to adjust the mid-range, but I found messing with them does not improve the tone. There is a pot on the preamp to adjust the output level. I use a lithium battery, have gotten more than a year of life with about 6 hours a week of playing time. I don't know the real battery life, because I change it every year.

I replaced the strap buttons with Dunlap Straplocks and have not had problems with pullout.

Most of my playing is to back up the choir at church. I do not do any slapping, but have had others slap on this bass with good results. The tone is excellent when the treble is cranked a bit. Played fingerstyle, with tone controls flat and it has a very beautiful, almost bell-like tone. Crank the bass a bit and it is reggae time. I tend to use both pickups at once for a fuller sound. I sometimes wish it had a little bit more low midrange, but it might be that I haven't found the perfect switch setting yet.

I do have minor problems with temperature affecting the tuning, but we are talking less than 2 cents of variation. After the bass has reached room temperature (about 15 minutes), it is very stable, and holds its tune well. I have learned to take the bass out of its case and put it in the stand while I set my amp up. By then, it is ready to go.

This is a good bass in its price range and I would recommend it, especially if you need a lightweight bass.

Construction	95%
Playability	100%
Appearance	95%
Sound	95%
Value	100%
Overall	95%