So I picked up a LTD Surveyor 5 a little while ago, from TB'er "cheezewiz", and was I surprised at the build quality of this thing. There's maybe a hint of a tiny gap on the bass-side of the neck pocket, but I can't tell sonically...the bass frequency booms. The strings are a little more over to the bass side from the way the nut's cut, but due to the EMG pickups' design, there's no degradation of volume from bending notes, etc. What's actually nicer on here, as opposed to the Japanese-made standard ESP verison, is that the trussrod is adjustable much more easily from an adjustment wheel. Every bass should have this, as does my Peavey GV. The neck is also dead-on flat. Nice. There's buzzing when you get to a pretty low action like I have, but it's an inexpensive axe, so no biggie. She's a really pretty one, too...lots of compliments...a first for my basses.
The tone from my bass is limited, don't get me wrong, as it can't do a Jazz tone, and has decent/acceptable fingerstyle tone, the latter due to the scooped "eq" from the swamp ash body. But what this bass does REALLY well, is produce a monster/on-steroids picked P-bass or Stingray tone. I'm in a cover band, we play anything and everything, and I tried my LTD out on a Green Day tune (Longview). Wow was all I could say. This thing is damned close with Mike Dirnt's growl and aggression, and it's perhaps even more hi-fi in the clarity section. It's sooo in-your-face that it put a smile on mine!
There's not much opinion, or anything for that matter, on the Surveyor 5's, so I figured I'd throw this one out here for anyone considering the instrument. Plus, I got mine at a total steal (around half the selling price for a new one), so I'd say it was a good find, and I might be scoring my second shortly.
Cheers!
The tone from my bass is limited, don't get me wrong, as it can't do a Jazz tone, and has decent/acceptable fingerstyle tone, the latter due to the scooped "eq" from the swamp ash body. But what this bass does REALLY well, is produce a monster/on-steroids picked P-bass or Stingray tone. I'm in a cover band, we play anything and everything, and I tried my LTD out on a Green Day tune (Longview). Wow was all I could say. This thing is damned close with Mike Dirnt's growl and aggression, and it's perhaps even more hi-fi in the clarity section. It's sooo in-your-face that it put a smile on mine!
There's not much opinion, or anything for that matter, on the Surveyor 5's, so I figured I'd throw this one out here for anyone considering the instrument. Plus, I got mine at a total steal (around half the selling price for a new one), so I'd say it was a good find, and I might be scoring my second shortly.
Cheers!
