The low impedance pickup means a lot of low end. The way Jack plays it, halfway from the pickup to the fretboard, makes a huge upright-ish sound, but with tons more low end. With the treble pot open you can get plenty of sparkle. It has a very P-bass response but is very sensitive to playing style. Play light to get fat dub tones, play heavy to get driving rock tones. Pluck the strings a different way with your right hand and get a different sound. If you can play lightly, this bass will reward you. I don't care for the switch, adding impedance makes it either slightly louder and slightly less low end, or much louder and crappy sounding. On Low though, it really sounds good and cuts through very well. A lot of people like TI Jazz Flats on this bass. I used them for a year on mine, they make the bass an even more interesting animal. I went to Ernie Ball Cobalts and the thing sounds ridiculous now. Super punchy, super fat and clear low end, sounds awesome in a band setting. I use mine in a alt rock band, sort of Weezer-esque, and it sounds great. It can be used for country, rock, pop, funk.
This bass balances well, but not great, so get a high-friction strap. A longer strap is necessary as the distance from the end pin to the neck pin is quite long, and an average size strap might not give you enough length. Make sure to use a 4mm Hex key, I repeat, do not use anything but a good (more expensive, made of good metal to tight tolerances with sharp corners) 4mm hex key for truss rod adjustments. The stock truss nuts are super soft metal and strip quickly. The rod is very stable, though. Once I set the neck for string tension, it does not move. The tuners are good, they work well. Some of the screws on the pickup have come loose and do not function, and remain in their holes, rattling and distracting me while I am playing. I can probably fix this, but why are they loose? ALso, the bridge has a tendancy to pull it's bushings out of the bass. They are press-fit, and are not glued in, so they will pull out with the tension of the strings. A good fix is to take the bridge off, pull them out, and super glue them back in flat. They won't budge after that. I wonder why Epiphone has not addressed this for 15 years.. or used reverse threaded or locking screws instead of straight ridged smooth metal bushings.
Inlays look great, the gold finish has a sort of greenish hue in some lights, but still looks really good. I have found no faults with the binding or the black finish on the back. The neck is a set-neck, and is painted black with a gloss finish. It isn't the best feeling finish in the world.
Overall, though, I love it. Totally worth the price. It turns heads and raises questions, and then it sounds good. My bandmates like it, and the drummer digs the tone.
The case, which is proprietary, is 135$ or something like that. It will not fit in anything but some acoustic guitar cases, or it's own case. The case looks great, and seems well built, I have found no issues.
