Lakland Skyline Series 55-01 5-Strings Bass Guitar, Natural

First off, I purchased my 55-01 used. The previous owner replaced the stock preamp with a Bartolini NTMB. That was the only mod on this bass. The NTMB is a great preamp, but those made-in-Korea (MK1) Bartolini pickups are just way too trebly for my taste. If all you play is Return To Forever covers in your career, then you may really dig their sound, but I'm always having to roll off the treble on gigs. I plan to replace the pickups in favor of US Barts or Seymour Duncans. You can bypass the preamp if your battery dies.The previous post mentioned issues with the frets. While the "money" frets are well seated and crowned, the bass side fret ends above the 10th fret were not. Granted, those frets don't see much flesh, but it was like they weren't filed at all. Ditto on the treble side, just slightly better.That being said, this bass PLAYS very well. It's got a 35" scale, and coupled with the wide string spacing, this feels like a big instrument. It is, however; VERY comfortable to play. It balances really well and it's very light for it's size. The construction is rock-solid, mine has a 3-piece ash body with a rosewood 'board. The neck profile is comfortable, kind of flat, yet Fender-y. The bridge has brass saddles, which I dig, and you can run the strings through the body or the top. It probably doesn't make much difference, but the through-body ferrules are actually staggered, short to long, from G string to B string, which I think is a real "boutique" thing to do. The tuners are Hipshot licensed and work fine, but are not nearly as smooth as the real deal. The finish is clear and very well done.Overall, I don't think you'll find many better basses for the money. I paid $680 used for mine and feel like I got a great deal. It won't replace my Stingray, but it's definitely well worth the money.

First and foremost, this has to be one of the best instruments I have ever owned as far as intonation... Bang on all up and down the fret board.Having said that, the frets were not properly finished... Sharp overhangs made initial jams painful. I was able to carefully file down the neglected frets.Setup right out of the box wasn't terrible. I prefer a less buzzy sound, so I raised the action a bit. Again, the intonation is amazing.Disappointed that a lakland gig bag wasn't included... Kind of a slap in the face, after selling a bass with such a poor fret job. Luckily I had an extra. They did include a very crappy little 6 foot patch cable... So nice of them.Once I got over how cheap Lakland is, I fell in love with the bass. Took some work to get there, but all in all great bass.INCREDIBLY annoyed by their business ethics.