ESP LTD B205SM FL Natural Satin

Premetto di essere prevalentemente un chitarrista e a tempo perso mi diverto a strimpellare col basso (possiedo uno Yamaha BB-514 e un Harley Benton BZ-7000).
Non avendo mai suonato un fretless e affascinandomi il suono dello strumento, ho voluto tentare l'avventura con un 5 corde. La scelta è caduta su questo ESP-LTD, sia per le caratteristiche generali che per l'estetica veramente piacevole.
Seguendo il consiglio di altri bassisti mi aspettavo di dover impiegare più tempo per riuscire a imparare a suonarlo ma, dal momento in cui l'ho ricevuto, l'ho trovato molto più semplice di quanto pensassi, tant'è che da un mese a questa parte non sto suonando quasi altro. ;-)
Passiamo a caratteristiche e impressioni: pesantuccio, ma non ai livelli del BZ-7000, ben bilanciato e si suona ottimamente sia da seduti che in piedi.
Dopo aver dato una regolatina alle sellette (il diapason non era regolato molto bene) ho iniziato a suonarlo ed è bastato poggiare le dita sui segni dei tasti e non in mezzo agli stessi come si fa con un basso tradizionale, per riuscire a fare i suoni tipici del fretless, miagolio compreso. :-)
Molto, molto facile da suonare e curva di apprendimento minima.
Le corde di serie suonano ottimamente, ma ho preferito cambiarle con un set di corde lisce (GHS) sia per non rovinare la tastiera che per evitare il "rumore di trascinamento" che, per come va suonato un fretless, diventa praticamente la norma. Ne ho guadagnato in praticità ma il suono è meno brillante delle corde di serie.
Uniche note negative riguardo il setup di fabbrica: il ponte non era regolato molto bene (come detto sopra) e le meccaniche erano state lasciate molto lente, tanto che ho dovuto munirmi di chiave inglese e stringerle per benino.
In conclusione: ottimo prodotto, ben costruito e ben suonante, soddisfazione assoluta e assolutamente consigliato.

I won't lie, I went for this bass mostly because of the looks: I much prefer the "coffee table" look to a Fender-style bass. The appearance of each individual instrument will vary, but I don't have any complaints about mine; the spalting isn't quite as distinctive as the picture, but it looks nice. Only the front is spalted, and the main part of the body is made of several pieces of wood with distinctive seams on the side and back where they join, but I don't notice that when I'm playing it (or looking at it :-). The varnishing is well done and I didn't notice any blemishes.

The hardware seems to be decent quality for the price. The bridge feels solid and allows either through-body or straight stringing, and the knobs are smooth and quiet. The tuners aren't the best I've seen - they're maybe a bit flimsy, so I don't know how long they'll last - but at least for now they work fine and turn smoothly.

The fingerboard looks and feels nice. The fret lines are easily visible when playing (at least in good light - maybe not so much on a dark stage) and extend over the edge of the fingerboard so you can see them from above, but they look subtle from a distance, which is of course important so people do not think you are playing a fretted bass :-). As with most lined fretless basses, the dots are in the same place as a fretted bass, i.e. in the middle of each fret. The neck has a nice shape and feels comfortable to play. It's not as razor-thin as Ibanez necks, but it's not a huge Fender P-style neck either.

This is the first and only fretless bass I've played, so I can't say too much about the sound compared to other instruments. To my ear it has a nice tone, it responds well to slides and vibrato, it will "mwah" if you set it up to do that, and the onboard eq seems to work well. I don't have any complaints about the sound.

Now, the things I didn't like so much:

- It's very heavy. If you're used to Ibanez basses (like I was), that might take some adjustment, and I don't know if I'd want to stand up for several hours holding it.

- The pickup output is very quiet, especially for an active bass. Even after adjusting the pickup height, I have to add a significant amount of makeup gain on my compressor to bring it up to a reasonable level. I haven't noticed any noise or hum from the pickups from doing that though, so it's not a huge problem.

- Replacing the battery requires unscrewing the back plate. A tool-less battery compartment would be a little nicer and surely not too much to ask for at this price.

- Most importantly, I couldn't adjust the action low enough for my preference, and I ended up having to shim the neck a bit to raise it up a couple of mm towards the strings. I wonder if they use the same setup here as for the fretted version, and didn't raise the fingerboard to compensate for the lack of frets. This is of course a personal preference, and other people might find the factory setup is fine.

Despite those complaints, I'm happy with my purchase. It's a good bass, it does what I want it to do, and I enjoy playing it, which is what matters in the end. If I wasn't so fond of its looks, though, I might consider other basses in the same price range.