Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar bass

I bought my Squier Jazz about 3 years ago from a friends recommendation. I tried the American Fender Jazz, and chose the Squier over it. Being the curious person I am, I ordered a pair of EMG JVX's online from the States (I'm in Oz). Installed them have never turned back. I also own a Ibanez Soundgear 1205 which is a beautiful bass also that Ive owned for 20 years, but my main worker is the Squier! I play in a Chicago influenced blues/funk band here in Australia, and I do an average of 2 slap/funk solos a gig. I highly recommend the Squier Classic vibe and EMG's for the budget minded muso...I run through a Genz Shuttle 6.2 and an Ozzie made Celestion loaded 2 X12" 600 into 4Ohm

I had a 15 minute opportunity to test this excellent bass, and my findings are quite positive.
Though I personally preferred their passive "Squier Vintage modified" basses, their Jaguar line still comes very close to a real Fender sound, with the drawback of them being active basses (thus requiring a 9V battery to operate).

The pickup sound quality can be categorized between the Squier Affinity basses, and the Vintage modified basses.
Squier has kept this bass sounding with that Fender-like grunt, but in a way less bright than their Vintage modified PJ basses, but still very bright sounding.
That's why I say it's somewhere between their affinity series (which sounds rather blunt), and their Vintage modified series (which sounds very bright).
The active circuit is a bit different than the passive, not only tonal wise, but also their volume dynamics more closely mimic a real Fender.
Less obnoxious peaks, more controlled volume, but still not there yet in nice slap thuds, like on a real Fender.

Tonal wise, the P-pickup sounds like one, though less obvious than on a Vintage modified bass.
The bridge J-pickup, sounds like one, though also, less obvious you're playing the bridge pickup, due to the tone being less agressive as on the VM passive basses.
Combine pickups give an adequate slap tone, though not as good as a real Fender, or even the Vintage Modified ones.
It sounds more...neutral...?

Don't get me wrong, it's in every respect a very good bass, great sounding; but a bit of a disappointment to me after hearing their Vintage Modified basses (which were without active circuit).
That, and the fact that the active circuit really doesn't do a lot.
At 100% bass and treble knobs, the bass sounds like it should sound. The active circuit only detracts from the perfect tone (like less bass, less treble); and I wonder who would really need this?
If the active circuit only subtracts from the perfect tone (close to the VM passive basses) of this active Jaguar bass, they very easily could have created a passive version instead, with a capacitor tone knob

The instrument, being a 5 stringer wasn't overly heavy, but still heavier than a regular 4 stringer.
The neck was wider than a 4 string, but string spacing was tighter, making it harder to slap.

It's supposed to be a short scale neck, though I hardly notice.

The factory setup couldn't have been done better.
After the string tuning, the neck got into a perfect position where the strings were at their perfect heights above the frets (any closer to the neck, and fret buzz would occur).

The neck had a bit of a cheapish Maple wooden look, and the rosewood fretboard came with plain rosewood (almost no wood patterns visible).

The pickups had allan hex bolts sticking out too close to the middle strings, often in the way of my fingers. I did needed to dial those down. I think it's been overlooked by quality control.

The colors were kind of a disappointment. Choosing between Red, Black, or Sunburst are the most boring colors.
They could have offered a bit more color variety.

Overall I'd say:
Go for this bass if you like great sound, for a very low price.
It's Squier's only good sounding 5 string bass at the moment of writing, since they didn't make a Passive PJ 5 stringer yet.
Or, if you're going for a 4 stringer, and absolutely NEED to have a Jaguar style bass.

If you are just looking for a good sounding 4 stringer, get the Vintage modified basses (non jaguar), with passive circuit, which tonal wise might sound more appealing than this one, and doesn't run out of battery at some point!