Man I have wanted one of these basses for a bit and my first gig with my newly acquired XOTIC was not a let down at all. It is such a great sounding J5. The active pre does not sound harsh or fake...it just accentuates the passive J sound. I ran it through a GK MB800 into two Aguilar GS112 cabs and the sound was great. I need to restring it with some DR's but even with the half dead D'Addarios it sounded great. Had a great P type tone fro the neck pup... great barky Jaco bridge tone and the slap tone was purely delightful. Great great bass. Look forward to my next gig tomorrow night.