ESP LTD B205SM FL Natural Satin

I bought this bass as a back up for a UK tour of RENT that i was on. Essentially it ended up becoming my main bass i liked it that much. First thing i noticed when i took it out of the box was how sturdy and well built it was. It felt quite weighty but the weight was in the right place and it balanced perfectly. I had to have it set up to my liking but once i did it played like a dream. It has a great tone and with the 3 band eq preamp and pick up selector you can dial in any tone you want in a matter of seconds from a standard tone that doesn't sound that fretles and sounds good with a pick, to a classic fretless sound with fingers and the Jaco tone is easy to get. The price is incredible and this bass definitely punches above its weight. I've played bass over twice its value that aren't as good. Definitely recommend. Oh yeah, it fell off in its stand on the first gig and escaped with a chip on the back of the neck and i was fearing much more damage. Very well made.

I've wanted a fretless bass for a while and this one fit my budget. The build is quite good and it's surprisingly light in my opinion. I did have to get it setup and one of the fret markers needed to be removed, filed down, and relayed. The eq is good but it's lacking a bit in the variety and power of tones I get from other similarly priced basses; it's lacking a bit of oomph.

Taking the advice of previous reviewer I got a pack of the D'Addario Chromes (flatwounds) and it made it sound much more like it should.

For the price it's very good and I'm happy with my purchase.

Absolutely stunning value for the price. The workmanship is very high and the bass looks really nice. Tone is great and balanced.

The only negative points I have are minor ones. The high band on the eq has a very minor effect and the two lower band frequencies are too close to each other. Sound-wise it's still very usable but the amount of physical controls would allow more tonal variety. Second minor negative point is the fret markers. They look like frets which ruins the cool look of the fretless board.

Don't use the original strings, they will eat the fretboard. Get D'addario Chromes. The standard length Chromes fit this bass! The low B isn't long enough to go through the body but the winding on the string is too thick to fit the hole anyway so even with the longer string you still have to remove the metal fitting and most likely you would run into issues with the string unwinding because of the sharp angle. I installed the low B on the bridge and the rest of the strings through body. I don't see any point in paying extra for the longer strings.

I got this bass yesterday and I'm really enjoying playing it. After reading the postive reviews I was expecting something good and I wasn't disappointed. Great looking instrument, great build quality and great sound. Very good value for money.

I got d'addario chromes based on Jani3383's review. As he mentioned the B string won't fit through the hole, but I carefully drilled out the hole to 5mm and the B string now fits perfectly through the back of the body and is long enough for the neck. (I tested it first by drilling a hole in a piece to scrap metal first just to check that it was the right size).