On a previous thread I discussed my desire for an upgrade. I've been playing bass for about 5 years and have outgrown my modified Ibanez bass. I decided on a G&L Tribute L2000 and the bass just arrived 2 days ago from Adirondack guitars (
http://adirondackguitar.com/). Here are my first impressions.
Price paid: $559 for brand new bass with free shipping. By far the cheapest I could find; everyone else was easily $100 more. I was slightly dissatisfied with the email communications I had with them - they never seemed to answer my questions completely. My last online guitar purchase from Guitar Adoptions (
http://www.guitaradoptions.com/) was a much better experience.
Bass was packed extremely well. It shipped directly from G&L in California. The bass was wrapped in styrofoam, then placed in the gig bag, then the bag was surrounded in packing peanuts in a nice box. Gig bag is very nice - lots of padding and lots of storage for various accessories and accoutrements.
First impression is that this bass is built like a tank. I don't find it heavier than my Ibanez, but this thing is rock-solid. I bought the blonde bass with a clear finish. The pictures on the web don't do this bass justice .... the wood grains show nicely and the chrome hardware contrasts well.
Action is a little high for me, but I can adjust that. Also, bass comes with round wound strings and I'm a dedicated jazz flat guy. That will change too after I play around a bit more. There are 3 switches (bridge pup/both pups/neck pup, series/parallel, passive/active/active with treble boost) and 3 pots (volume, treble, bass). The sounds that can come from this bass are many and varied. For example, I can get a nice P-bass punch by going to active, series and neck pickup. I'm leaning towards gigging with active/both pups/parallel, but I have a feeling that it may be a while before I find 'my' sound.
First impression is that I'm very glad I picked this bass. It fits me well and I love how many sounds can come from this instrument. If anyone else owns one, I'd love to hear what your favorite setting is on this.