I bought this one last Fall (
hell, I actually stole it; a mint demo, with warranty cards, and the nice Fender gig bag behind it from Chicago Musical Exchange, for just a little over $400) and have definitely enjoyed it way more than what I paid for it.
It is a bass for a full-grown man. Size-wise, it's a bit bigger than their passive Jazz Fives. Beneath that flawless piano-black paint is a real Ash body, and with that big all-maple neck, mine also nudges a bit over 10 lbs. Not annoyingly heavy, but I know it's there. If you've ever handled a Roscoe Beck Five, it's just like that, the way if feels strapped on.
The 'smoked' hardware (along the lines of that 'Cosmo Black' chrome that Ibanez uses) is just fine, the usual open-gear tuners, a nice bridge. So far, I can provoke no noise from the pickups and electronics. Very easy to live with. It took a slight tweak to nail the action for me, and I've not yet had to revisit it again. Frets and nut just fine. Satin-finish neck and fingerboard, flatter fingerboard radius.
I was quite ready that a 'Squier with active electronics?!?' might be a bit wonky sounding, but as Dr. C has found out, it's full of nothing but great tones. Front pickup gets beefier, back pickup can get that bubble-up dancing tuba tone, it's all good. The add-only bass and treble is handy to thicken up or thin out the tone as it changes when you pan here or there between the two pickups. Single 9v. I'd say the tone(s) are better than average and it's hard to dial up something stupid, and it's quick to find a happy spot without much work.
I'd have to say this is the biggest surprise in a five-string I ever bought. My top five basses over my days were all three versions of the Yamaha BB5000 and two Alembic fives. If they were still around, this would be a very worthy little brother to those beasts, it's that good. I also owned several Peavey Fives and a few others, and this thing would have ate them alive, mercilessly.
I've become convinced over my time with fives (since the late 80's) that a harder, stiffer bass is the way to go to coax those big notes off the big strings, and the ash body and big maple neck kick in big time on this one.
To me, for someone looking for a five with a 'modern' tone folder and the slightly bigger and heavier dimensions are not an issue, this is simply the biggest sleeper out there. Period. It is simply quite an exceptional value and a wonderful bass.
Obviously, I agree with the remarkable Dr. Cheese, once again proof that great minds DO think alike !
