Ibanez EHB1005-BKF

Overall great, but there's a "but"

Sound is pretty great, and being able to switch from active to passive is a cool feature to avoid draining the battery when practicing. It's also incredibly light, the neck is very comfortable, and the shape of the bass makes it comfy whether you play with your fingers or a pick. If you're a fat musician like me you've probably noticed that instruments tend to put uncomfortable pressure on your belly and that's not the case here, regardless of strap length. So you can actually adjust the strap for a better hand position without having to worry about your belly. It's the most comfortable instrument I've ever played, including guitars, and if you have to play for several hours for rehearsals or gigs it really does matter.

I said there's a "but" though: changing strings has been a massive pain for me. You have to do it just right, it doesn't handle heavier gauges very well, and a lot of shops aren't familiar enough with it to be really of any help. I had to go through 3 different string packs before settling on a mix and match (everything is .55 except for the D string which is from a .45 pack). I don't know if you'll encounter the same issue but it's been extremely frustrating to the point where I've decided to go to a luthier next time I need the strings changed (which hopefully won't be before a few months)

Great sounds, TERRIBLE QC

I know this is extremely unlikely to happen, and you as a buyer will most likely have a better experience than me. The upsides are the fret dressing is excellent, no flaws in the painting and the pickup system sound amazing. However, I still gotta be completely honest about what has happened.

1. When the bass arrived, there is a massive scratch on the neck pickup.

2. After some playing, I found out that the 15th fret is VISIBLY lifted, and I can almost fit a fingernail between the fret wire and the neck, and the one that is following it is too low. The frets literally look like a mixing desk under a light when I checked its leveling. Tons of buzzing and dead notes around the 12-20 fret area.

3. Because of what happened above, I sent the bass to my luthier for a fret leveling, except there is way more issue than the frets. The front half of the neck has a back bow, and the second half has an up bow, causing the neck to be completely unadjustable with already short frets. The only way to fix it is a complete re-fret and complete neck re-radius. The neck wood seemly has moved so much due to the change in the climate of shipping to New Zealand with warm and humid weather. However, it's not only a roasted neck but also 5 pieces with reinforcement. It is designed to withstand the change in outside climate, but it failed the very thing that it's designed to do.