I was fortunate enough to play a couple of these the other day at a local shop.
Holy crap. They are amazing basses. Then you look at the price tag. Holy crap.
I played an active 5 and a passive 4. I spent a little more time with the 5 because it was more my thing, but both were excellent.
Construction was unbeatable in this price range. Rock solid. Better than any Fender in the store. The neck joint was so tight it looked like a set neck from the front. Just a really solid bass.
The 4 stringer was full of nothing but traditional bass tones. No more, no less. The neck pickup was all P. The bridge pickup was beefier sounding than the average J. This posed a slight problem when blended together because the P seemed to have a lower output. Regardless, this thing beats any bass in this price range.
The active 5 stringer was all business. Great neck, very comfortable. Feels like a slightly thinner SR5 neck, which is to say, awesome. When I first sat down with the bass and played it a little unplugged I thought to myself "Whoa. Sounds good." Then I plugged it in. The B string on this bass is easily the best under a grand, maybe more, and is absolutely fantastic for a 34" scale wood necked bass (I am a Modulus guy after all). The preamp was surprisingly good as well. The neck pickup sounded very P to my ears, and with a slight boost of the mids it really got me grooving on some old Motown tunes. Definitely impressed. The bridge pickup was punchy as all he**, in a good way. Fantastic J tones all over the place. I don't know what else to say about it, really. When blended together the P definitely loses some ov its voice, but not as much as the passive four did. I really loved the sound of the P with just a little J and the mids boosted. And did I mention the B string was totally killin?
What great basses. I see these as being total gig machines. Tough functional affordable machines that sound great in a variety of contexts. I plan on picking up both a passive and an active 5 in the near future.
And no Mike, they don't come in white. How lame is that?
Holy crap. They are amazing basses. Then you look at the price tag. Holy crap.
I played an active 5 and a passive 4. I spent a little more time with the 5 because it was more my thing, but both were excellent.
Construction was unbeatable in this price range. Rock solid. Better than any Fender in the store. The neck joint was so tight it looked like a set neck from the front. Just a really solid bass.
The 4 stringer was full of nothing but traditional bass tones. No more, no less. The neck pickup was all P. The bridge pickup was beefier sounding than the average J. This posed a slight problem when blended together because the P seemed to have a lower output. Regardless, this thing beats any bass in this price range.
The active 5 stringer was all business. Great neck, very comfortable. Feels like a slightly thinner SR5 neck, which is to say, awesome. When I first sat down with the bass and played it a little unplugged I thought to myself "Whoa. Sounds good." Then I plugged it in. The B string on this bass is easily the best under a grand, maybe more, and is absolutely fantastic for a 34" scale wood necked bass (I am a Modulus guy after all). The preamp was surprisingly good as well. The neck pickup sounded very P to my ears, and with a slight boost of the mids it really got me grooving on some old Motown tunes. Definitely impressed. The bridge pickup was punchy as all he**, in a good way. Fantastic J tones all over the place. I don't know what else to say about it, really. When blended together the P definitely loses some ov its voice, but not as much as the passive four did. I really loved the sound of the P with just a little J and the mids boosted. And did I mention the B string was totally killin?
What great basses. I see these as being total gig machines. Tough functional affordable machines that sound great in a variety of contexts. I plan on picking up both a passive and an active 5 in the near future.
And no Mike, they don't come in white. How lame is that?
I'm seriously gonna' start bringin' my allen keys to stores when I go shopping! Jeez, it takes no time to tweak a decent bass, and it can make the diff in whether it sells or not most times. What kind of idiot doesn't get this... 
