I just got my first SX a little over a week ago. It has a few little "problems". Certainly nothing that would stop me from buying another one though.
I got the vintage green jazz bass, with the covers on it and everything. The cover over the bridge and bridge pickup looked crooked. So I simply made a new hole in it slightly up from the old one on one side and now it's on straight. The screw holding in the string retainer was way too small or something and was stripped out from the tension. While trying to fix it, I was tuning my strings back up and it flew off. I found a screw that was slightly larger and longer and put it in. No problems since. There are a couple fret ends that you can barely feel sticking out. Not a big deal to me though. I've felt worse on popular brands.
The next couple are the more "serious" things I found with it...
I took the pickguard off and found that the neck was a bit away from the body on the rear of the neck. I didn't measure it but I'd say it's not even a quarter of an inch. The neck seems firmly connected to all other sides though and the pickguard covers the gap up. It doesn't bother me at all.
The bridge is pretty cheap. The plate is real thin and the saddles seem to rattle (springs) and move a little easier than other bridges. So far that's the only thing I'm considering replacing.
I'm not good at describing tone but I love the sound I get from it. The stock pickups are loud and I can get a good variety of tones with the controls. The pots seem to pretty much be on/off, not a whole lot of in between but I usually have all controls turned up all the time so it's no big deal to me. The wiring is good, a little bit more wire than necessary but the soldering is good, no giant messy blobs or anything like that. The screws on the pickups seem pretty cruddy, the couple that I had to adjust started stripping right away.
The finish is real nice. There is a smudge on the headstock, that almost look like someone touched the clear with their finger while it was wet. It's only noticeable when the light hits it right. The green is lighter than what is shown online. Not quite surf green and certainly not hunter green either. Depends on lighting I suppose.
Tuners are nice, no complaints. They get a little stuck up or whatever here and there but I've read that a little oil can fix that right up. I like the nut just fine no breaks or anything like that.
The bass feels great to me. It's a little heavy though (10 1/2). The neck is a little wider than a Fender neck but overall it has the jazz bass feel to it. The bass was packed great and was set up very well, intonation was right as was the relief in the neck and everything. I had to adjust action, relief and all that stuff when I put larger strings on it. Not much though. Stock strings are garbage, they're very small and just sort of dull sounding. Some powerslinky's (110-55) fixed that up and the bass sounded amazing. I had to file out the e-hole in the bridge for the 110. The pickup height was just right for the stock strings. When I put larger strings on I had that terrible sound in my attack just like a dull thud that overwhelmed the rest of the attack. Lowering the bass side of the neck pickup just a little fixed that though. Now it's nice and punchy.
That's about it I suppose. I'd definitely buy another one. The "problems" I mentioned would bother some people but others like me wouldn't mind them at all. I bought mine because of all the good things I read all over TB. I'm glad I took the risk. For the money they are great instruments and I think they could very easily sell for 300 -350 dollars. I'd say take the risk and buy one. If you don't like it you can always return it. Just search Essex on here and you'll find a lot more info and input about them.
