Bought this on a lark recently -- I play some guitar and piano, haven't played bass in years.
That said -- at $200, I was expecting major defects, but it plays pretty well. I pulled off the factory strings and put some D'Addario medium-light flats on it, and the sound is really pretty decent. A couple of issues on the E string -- 1) output is significantly lower than other strings (due to the cheap pups, I'm assuming), which can be more or less corrected with EQ; 2) the intonation on the E is still tiny bit off even with the bridge saddle pulled all the way back to the silk windings on the string. I'll try lowering the action on this string a bit to see if that gets it on, but I think I'll get a buzz with it any lower. That said, the intonation is very close, and is fine on all of the other strings. I'm thinking of replacing the bridge anyway, so I can just set the new bridge a little further back and this won't be an issue any more.
I get a fair amount of buzzing in response to being parallel with the face of my cheap, cheap Behringer amp, but I'm not sure that's the bass's fault. All the cavities do appear to be shielded with a conductive paint, but the paint job is incomplete, so a touch up might bring the noise down a bit as well.
The finish is ugly -- I got the "mahogany," and my wifef calls it wall-board, but that's not surprising at the price and I really don't care. Tuners stay in tune. Strap buttons are tiny, and I replaced with with locking buttons without even trying them out.
Can't really speak to durability yet -- have only had the thing for about three weeks and only dick around with it at the house -- but the wood is very soft when I work with it (taking the bridge off to inspect the ground wire, I was worried I might strip the screw holes putting the screws back in) and will probably be very prone to scratches and dings.
The balance of the thing is poor, but I tend to rest my right forearm on the body of the guitar when I play, which makes up for it. That said, you're probably going to run into some strain and/or frustration with the neck trying to fall toward the floor with the balance as it is. I can imagine a few very ugly modifications to correct the balance and will probably do so at some point down the line.
So -- if you're looking for a deal on a short scale to practice with, this might be a good choice for you. I can't imagine you'd want to gig with it without major modifications, and even then only if you don't care about what it looks like and can live with or fix the balance issue.
