JB-75MN NA Vintage Series : Excellent for beginners & intermediates. Looks, feels & sounds great.

As a beginner I needed a bass that felt good and had a good action (as I'm still developing my technique and would not be able to adapt to a 'difficult' bass very easily). I also wanted it to sound good even though I'm not gigging (yet!).

Pros

This bass looks fantastic - my bass tutor was VERY impressed when he saw it and played it for a while. Build quality is superb and the machine heads & strings hold their tune well.

It has a lovely sound. There a good depth on the neck pickup for a deep rumbling bass and brightness on the bridge pickup for a great jazz sound. The tone control is very effective and tames the brightness perfectly when needed.

I can confirm this bass ticked the boxes for feel and sound, but I did have to adjust the bridge height to get a lower action. This is quite straight forward and worth experimenting with and the tools for truss rod and bridge adjustment are supplied.

Cons

Shielding is not very good on the internal wiring so there can be a slight buzz in some conditions, but this disappears when the strings are touched, and isn't at all bad.

I feel the nut height does require a minor adjustment (slightly lower on 2 strings), but it's minor and isn't causing a problem. It would have been good to have a better setup out of the factory (hence the 4 stars on quality).

Overall, for the price this is an excellent bass. I've played it through both a modelling amp and PA speakers and have practiced for hours - I enjoy it that much!