PB-50 SB Vintage Series : Great sounding vintage bass but don't expect perfection

I was impressed with the overall spec and Sunburst colouring of the wood. Seriously, the stock images don't do it justice. The strings are very twangy / metallic when playing un-Amped. One YouTube reviewer from the UK had received his PB-50 with flatwound strings and immediately changed them. When plugged in they provide the classic beefy growl of the late 70s - the string action and tension is just right and not too tight. Personally I would have preferred flatwounds as i don't do the whole slap 'n' pop vibe. Flats would be better to add more depth and flavour to the sound. The headstock had a few small dints but nothing serious. The patina on the neck is outstanding and when playing the neck, it is thick as expected but also provides fast navigation. Surprisingly it is smooth to play, especially as i always have difficulty on the bottom four frets of the E-string with my spindly fingers. One review on here says that the bridge was slightly misaligned. I checked mine out of interest and it was but not noticeable from a distance. The control pots are reversed but they still function correctly albeit slight delay.

One more thing spotted later on was that the edge of the basswood body was splintered off where the neck sits in the cavity. More care should have been taken when attaching the neck and not slamming it in! When it comes to the weight, the PB-50 is significantly lighter than my bog-standard split-pickup precision. That one is just under 4kg and this has got to be around 3.7/3.8 so nicely comfortable and no neck dive (happy face). Please be aware that the packaging does fall apart and the polystyrene neck support had broken off on delivery. The large container could do with more padding to protect the guitar.