Just got this new SB5001 yesterday. So far I'm very happy. It weights in at 8.8 lb. The rosewood looks nice (never been a fan of the ebony Carvin uses as standard), the color is really nice, I got the 5-piece all maple neck option (for added stability), single-coil pickups, and the preamp has the volume/balance/passive tone/stacked bass/treble configuration. I'm very familiar with Carvin pickups, and I knew the single coils are noisy (at least in my environment) but they sound great, so I ordered the passive tone to be able to cut some treble off in extremely noisy venues. The frets are very nicely dressed, although I had to unscrew the neck and put a shim under it at the heel in order to get the action where I wanted it. The setup from the factory had all the saddles sitting at the bottom of the bridge and the action wasn't as low as I like it, but the shim did the trick. Now it plays just as I like my basses to play. The Carvin stock strings are horrible IMHO (really harsh-feeling) so I installed Elixirs, which I use in all my basses. The sound it's just like everybody has described: a modern Jazz. My Lakland 55-94 (Bartolini electronics) sounds much meatier and punchier, and with more mids - the SB has a more scooped sound and it's a bit tamer, but still sounds fantastic, and a lot more like true Jazz bass. The 34" scale definitely aids to comfort, especially coming from the 35"-scale Lakland. The B-string is perfectly usable. Lastly, the neck is REALLY nice, with a nice shallow C shape that feels 100% comfortable in my hand. Price paid with shipping and case, around $1450. 10-week wait. General quality I would say is definitely higher than Fender, but not as high as say, EB/MM or other $1500-$2000 basses. I can't put my finger on it, but it does not feel like a super expensive bass. . . (well, it's not) Maybe the hardware (bridge, knobs and tuners) feel cheap to the touch? But still feels like quite a bargain for what you get, especially taking in consideration that you get to pick from so many options. Not to knock down Mike Lull basses, but I recently paid $2700 for a V4, and although quality was amazing, I had a hard time seeing where those $2700 where.
I was very close to buying Rod (Renegade) NAMM 5-string P-Bass, but I had ordered this already, and then I was out of money.
In other news, the other basses in the picture are my Lakland 55-94, obviously, and my recently-acquired Warwick Corvette fretless with a custom painted finish by the renown artist Joehanson Shellingdon.
Okay, I've talked enough. Here are the pics.
