I'm not in Louisiana and I've only a 4 string Heir, but I can tell you that the neck is fabulous. Satin finish with an asymmetrical neck makes it smooth and easy. I can also tell you I wasn't crazy about the stock guts. I'm not a fan of that "woody" sound so I swapped out the insides for a Bart set up and now it sounds excellent. If you like the "woody" sound as many others on the board do, I don't see how you can lose, especially for the price. My bass is well built and came perfectly set up and intonated. The neck pocket is tight and there were no finish flaws. Remember, Mike puts his name on these basses. It comes with the MTD strings, which I didn't like until they were well broken in but now they're fine. For the money I think they're hard to beat.
EDIT: Just as an aside, you cannot get the USA MTD pups/preamp, those are proprietary to the USA basses, but if you wanted to swap the electronics there are many very good options for that bass.
